Steve Whitlatch 

This is my old hobby that made me fat. Bless my wife she lets me have a big old 18 inch JBL subwoofer that came out of a movie theater in our family room. My system is run by my JBL Synthesis processor ( made by Lexicon it is a re-badged DC2) powered by three two channel JBL Synthesis Power Amplifiers. Main Speakers are JBL Ht with a JBL Synthesis System 2 center speaker. The Sub is run by a QSC power amplifier. The sub puts out clean base reaching 105 db at 20 htz with no distortion. Knocks the can lights out of the sealing in the basement. My system has a very good full range sound. A bit dusty right now,

crank_addict

Indeed. Not to be confused with BIC pens France but Bee-Eye-Cee. Had made in W. Germany on the label, castings too. Clear plastic see-thru bottom. Also, quite sure they also made them in Michigan but maybe this was an imported model. BTW: Was there a connection with Dual in W. Germany? Fuzzy memory but somehow thinking in the 1970's of certain Dual models identical to a BIC (both making belt drives). Maybe this was a Dual made for BIC or parts of, model??

thinktubes 

Doing a little tube rolling....

arex

Looking at these old pieces of stereo equipment, and C&V bikes, and older cars...makes me really realize that there's no love or artistry in anything any more. Sure, car quality and performance is better than it's ever been, bikes are now really light and amazing and perfect, and electronics are cheap with amazing sound and picture quality, but it's all quite disposable. I can't imagine that anyone's going to be waxing nostalgic or poetic about the stuff we have today in 30 or 40 years.

And that kind of makes me sad.

cb400bill

Their speaker boxes used to have written on them, Don't say BIC, say B-I-C.

crank_addict

^^indeed B -- I -- C ('bee-eye-cee')

My guess there were some trademark or name confusion by the public and both companies were at heads about it.

crank_addict

arex - Not so sure about that but I think we all share the nostalgia. I know of a fellow trading in vintage game consoles and games... holy molly does he command the prices! Early PC stuff is gaining too.

As for bikes, 99% of the riders are not racers. I try to keep it in perspective by asking how does being that much faster really relate to one? One could have a super fun vintage bike and hang fairly decent with others on modern. Maybe not with all in group events or riding with hardcore roadies but still one can lavish in nostalgia (and have a reason for being the slow dude or dudette ).

Yet, like having collectable stuff, to me the fun is in the hunt and bargain. Its easy to get carried away, pay premium for a classic bike, or old high end HI-FI or car or.....

BTW: I'm glad space is at a premium or I'd probably end being like one of those hoard's! LOL

The Golden Boy 

I spent a few hours rearranging and re-situating things.

I now have the Rectilinear III highboys and the Marantz Imperial 6 speakers in the front, with the Recs on milk crates and the I6 on top of the Recs. They are being powered by the Sansui 9090DB.

I moved the work bench-y thing towards the front of the room about a foot and moved the right speaker column forward about a foot. On the other side of the room, the bass rig and the speaker column swapped positions. Before, the speakers on the left were around 6 feet forward from the "back" of the room where the right speakers were- so the left always appeared louder. Now they're a much more even in distance and sound balance.

After a lot of thought and a little experimenting, the Bose 501s are on the floor, the Bose 301s are on top of those; the non-functioning Advent OLAs are on top of that and the Rectilinear III Mini are at the top. It does look a little goofy, but it seems to put the sound in the right spot. The 501s are pretty bass heavy, so they work well on the bottom. When I had the 301s and the Rec III Minis on top, it was a little too overpowering at ear level, so that's why I set the 301s lower. The Bose speakers are being powered by the Marantz 2325. The Marantz is being slaved from the Preamp Out of the Sansui, then the Pioneer is going from the Tape Out of the Marantz to the Aux In of the Pioneer SX-838; and that is pushing the Rec III Minis.

It's all set up so that the volume and the main EQ of everything is being controlled from the Sansui, but each receiver has it's own EQ and volume- it's just relative to the Sansui.

It's a large, enveloping sound.

Pix to follow.

rekmeyata

^^ What the heck are you doing Golden Boy? why all the speakers just for stereo sound? I would think that the Rectlinear III's (assuming these are the ones with the tweeter and midrange controls) would be all that you would need, either those or the Marantz Imperial 6's by themselves. I would sell the Bose 501's, they were muddy and boxy sounding. The 301's were a decent bookshelf speaker and should be regulated to your smallest stereo and put somewhere else like the bedroom, or use as rear speakers in a surround sound system which you don't have, but to add them to your far better speakers will ruin the sound of the better speakers at least in the front. The Advents are another decent speaker I understand why you have them but they're blown so I would get them fixed, but again not sure why you want those going at the same time as the large Rects. The large Advents were great speakers but were more of a jazz and classical type of speaker whereas the large Rects were more for blues and rock, so if you ever get the Advents going I would get an A/B switch and depending on the music I would use one of the other.

I've actually heard most of the speakers you mentioned all except the Rect mini's and the Marantz 6's, though I did hear the 7's. I have read that the Marantz 6 had a decent sound but didn't compare to the large advents you have, they weren't as smooth as the Advents and not as hard hitting as the Rect 3's which makes sense to me because the Marantz 7's I heard I would have placed between the Rect 3 and the large Advent as well.

It sounds like you like to collect 70's gear, which is cool actually, but combining all those speakers to run at once has never worked out from people I knew that tried it. I guess you could put those Bose 301's at the rear of the room with the Rect 3's in the front thus the 301's would be filler not surround but envelope you more in the sound like car audio when the fade is adjusted correctly. Right now you're mixing speaker sound that doesn't compliment each other, there is a reason why surround sound systems sound the best if all the speakers match, and the same is true for stereo sound. You wouldn't mix a KMC chain, Shimano chain, and a SRAM chain all into one chain and use it on a bike just to get the "best" of all of them on one chain would you?

All of what I said is just a bunch of loose thoughts

The Golden Boy 

Here's the room pix- still working on stuff

Front of the room:





Right side, rear speaker stack:







Left side rear speaker stack:

rekmeyata

Man you got a lot of nice vintage gear.

thinktubes 

Broke my rule against buying cassette decks. 3-head, 3-motor Akai 760D. It works and was $35. Clean!

rekmeyata

Dang I haven't seen one of those in a long time (the akai deck that is, not a cassette deck, I have a cassette deck myself!). Those Akai's were built like tanks but they are 35 years old now and as the years go on the internal adjustments slowly go out of whack so you need to find, unless you are one, a qualified electronics guru who knows all about older cassette decks so they can replace belts, pinch roller, clean and reoil the mechanicals and adjust all the components. All tape machines ever made came from the factory with an internal bias setting that the factory set to whatever tape brand they liked and would mention the brand of tape in the instruction manual, if that brand is say for example TDK SA but you don't have any of that tape but instead have a stockpile of Maxell UD XLII, when you take it to the repair guru give him one of your blank tapes and he can set the internal bias to make the deck perform at it's best with that particular tape.

Akai in my opinion were very well made machines as you can tell from the heft of it, but recorded a bit bright for my taste, but a lot people like a brighter sound, so it depends on your taste and what kind of music you'll be recording and what the music will be played through. Also it is older technology with only the first generation of Dolby called NR (actually it was Dolby A) which worked good but not as great as the later B though some thought A was better than B but it depended upon what was being recorded, then C then finally HX PRO that some people, including me, didn't like as much as C. There were some other Dolby's too like S, SR, and HX without the Pro but those didn't find their way into many cassette decks at all that I can recall.

Congrats on finding a difficult to find well built machine.

due ruote 

Time to kick this thread down the road again. Found this today at an estate sale. Hopefully will replace my 5050. Fingers crossed.

rekmeyata

I hope you get it, it wasn't a power house at around 30 watts per channel, but it was a strong 30 watts probably equal to about 100 in today's Best Buy type of gear, but the Sansui had and has way better quality components than any thing at Best buy under 1200 watts! If that was in my area I would get it and put it in my bedroom. I almost forgot, the frequency response on that unit is far wider than units you'll find today for under $1,200! Fantastic fine, make sure you get some speakers that can handle that wide range so you can enjoy the fullness of the sound that unit has to offer.

due ruote 

Actually, the 5050 I was using was listed at about 30wpc. This one, from what I've read, is more like 60 wpc.

Anyway, I wiped it down, blew out the dust (hardly any) and hooked it up. Sounds great driving my Boston Acoutic A150's. I consider it $75 well spent.

USAZorro

Trying to finish my first speaker re-foaming today. Never understood why those BOSE 501 Series III's sounded like crap until a couple months ago. I was so close to just pitching them.

due ruote 

As long as you didn't drive them too hard that way, you'll be amazed at the improvement, for such a simple process.

USAZorro

one down... Sounds like I got it right.

My components are very modest/pedestrian in comparison to what I see here, but they're standing the test of time.

Grand Bois

You really should wait a day before playing them. I've always managed to find a bowl or something around the house to put pressure on the edge while the glue dries.

I used a free downloaded test tone to center the cone on the last pair I did. It worked very well.

tricky 

Just picked this up a couple months ago. Phillips SX990 and also some Mission speakers that were part of a Denon "Executive" bookshelf system in the 90s. So much better then anything I had before. It needs a new tuner bulb and could use a round of DeOxit but I am really enjoying it.

USAZorro

The first one had been drying about 4 days. Gluing up the second this afternoon. Centering these seems to be quite simple (thank goodness).

rekmeyata

I should have been more clearer, I didn't think I had too, but I was referring to WPC in both my examples.

I don't remember much about those BA A150's, I did listen to them and the 200's years ago but I can't recall anything specific. I have read that most people liked them but for some reason I didn't buy them. But I think those would pair up nicely to the Sansui.

due ruote 

I understood you meant wpc, but you seemed to be saying the 5000x is 30, when in fact it's 60.

Anyway, I'm not really an audiophile like others seem to be. I just like to listen to music. The BA speakers were an absolute bargain on CL so I grabbed them. They are definitely the nicest speakers I've owned, plenty of bass and nice separation. I also have a pair of their little brothers, the A60's that are in the kitchen. Those are quite nice little speakers for a small room.

Grand Bois

You are correct about the power. The 5000 and 5000A have 55 wpc and the 5000x has 60 wpc. The 5000x retailed for around $400 in 1971. They are all great sounding receivers, but there is a big problem with them. There was a recall on them because the 5000, 5000A and early 5000x's tended to overheat and catch fire! If you open it up and see driver boards marked F6013 it has the safe boards. The F1040's are the ones that overheat. The replacement F6013 replacement boards are no longer available, but there are instructions online for reworking the F1040's to make them safe.

I love my 5000. I have it in a bedroom driving ARB18's.

The BA A150's are nice. I have a pair in the living room. I got them for $20, but the woofers had been changed. I managed to find a pair of original woofers for them, though.