3 ms·

> And the speakers in my iPhone are better than most stereos from the same era. Did you live in this era? I don’t think you know what you are talking about.

saltcured 4y ago
Right, I think people have no idea that home hifi speakers and amps even in the 1960s could sound essentially as good as today when fed with a good source. However that does not mean that one of those systems found in estate sale will sound ok today. The materials degrade and sound nothing today like they did when sold. I remember my dad's mid-60s KLH speakers sounding good with a mid-70s Sansui solid state receiver in the early 80s, before one of the tweeters fried and the paper woofer cones really deteriorated. I remember how beautiful his early 60s Citation tube amp sounded in the early 90s, after we rebuilt it with new electrolytic capacitors and tubes, hooked it up to mid-80s Infinity bookshelf speakers, and drove it with a Sony CD player that had a built-in volume control for its line-out. That amp was based on a video amplifier circuit design and so had decent characteristics not just past audible but nearly into MHz (if it weren't for the low-pass filtering effects of the final transformers and speakers). I remember how those same Infinity speakers, despite poly woofer cones, also degraded by the mid-90s due to the endemic fungal rot that took all the foam speaker surrounds of that era. A power spike or transport damage also killed one of the tweeter coils. I lived for a while overseas and found an affordable shop where a guy hand rebuilt these speakers for me, replacing the rotten woofer surrounds with contemporary butyl rubber and rewinding the tweeter coil. They sounded just like new again, and I was happy to confirm that my ears were not to blame. I left those behind after another move, so cannot report on their longevity. It amuses me to think that my "new" hifi setup is almost 15 years old now, with tower speakers and a class D Yamaha receiver that I use as the DAC whether driven by HDMI or TOSlink from a USB audio peripheral. Just like my earlier hifi setups, the limiting factor is room acoustics and practical matters like not upsetting nearby cohabitants or neighbors. I continue to be somewhat boggled by the atrocious sound people are willing to inflict on themselves with phone, computer, or little bluetooth speakers that don't even sound as good as an early 80s "ghetto blaster".
- javajosh 4y ago
  >class D Yamaha receiver that I use as the DAC whether driven by HDMI or TOSlink from a USB audio periphera I'm sorry to say I wimped out and, despite the low price and power efficiency, didn't try one of these, and opted for an older power hungry design. What did you get? I actually have an extra pair of the B&W speakers I got for my main system and was thinking of using them for the TV, but I don't want another clunky amp out there.
  - saltcured 4y ago
    I might have been too casual with jargon here... I used class D as a name for modern IC switching designs in place of the old class A or class AB designs that traditionally provided decent fidelity. I guess there are really quite a few classes here now and I don't really know which I have. I bought a rather mid-level Yamaha home theater receiver with Dolby and DTS decoding back in the late 2000s, It is labeled as an HTR-6140 and must be discontinued for many years by now. It has a bunch of DSP scenes/modes. Other than wanting surround decoding and HDMI + TOSlink inputs, I did not geek out on specs. I merely assume it is class D because the whole receiver is pretty light, so no big heat sinks, and it doesn't seem to produce much waste heat compared to older receivers I've used.

saltcured 4y ago

Right, I think people have no idea that home hifi speakers and amps even in the 1960s could sound essentially as good as today when fed with a good source. However that does not mean that one of those systems found in estate sale will sound ok today. The materials degrade and sound nothing today like they did when sold. I remember my dad's mid-60s KLH speakers sounding good with a mid-70s Sansui solid state receiver in the early 80s, before one of the tweeters fried and the paper woofer cones really deteriorated. I remember how beautiful his early 60s Citation tube amp sounded in the early 90s, after we rebuilt it with new electrolytic capacitors and tubes, hooked it up to mid-80s Infinity bookshelf speakers, and drove it with a Sony CD player that had a built-in volume control for its line-out. That amp was based on a video amplifier circuit design and so had decent characteristics not just past audible but nearly into MHz (if it weren't for the low-pass filtering effects of the final transformers and speakers). I remember how those same Infinity speakers, despite poly woofer cones, also degraded by the mid-90s due to the endemic fungal rot that took all the foam speaker surrounds of that era. A power spike or transport damage also killed one of the tweeter coils. I lived for a while overseas and found an affordable shop where a guy hand rebuilt these speakers for me, replacing the rotten woofer surrounds with contemporary butyl rubber and rewinding the tweeter coil. They sounded just like new again, and I was happy to confirm that my ears were not to blame. I left those behind after another move, so cannot report on their longevity. It amuses me to think that my "new" hifi setup is almost 15 years old now, with tower speakers and a class D Yamaha receiver that I use as the DAC whether driven by HDMI or TOSlink from a USB audio peripheral. Just like my earlier hifi setups, the limiting factor is room acoustics and practical matters like not upsetting nearby cohabitants or neighbors. I continue to be somewhat boggled by the atrocious sound people are willing to inflict on themselves with phone, computer, or little bluetooth speakers that don't even sound as good as an early 80s "ghetto blaster".

javajosh 4y ago
>class D Yamaha receiver that I use as the DAC whether driven by HDMI or TOSlink from a USB audio periphera I'm sorry to say I wimped out and, despite the low price and power efficiency, didn't try one of these, and opted for an older power hungry design. What did you get? I actually have an extra pair of the B&W speakers I got for my main system and was thinking of using them for the TV, but I don't want another clunky amp out there.
- saltcured 4y ago
  I might have been too casual with jargon here... I used class D as a name for modern IC switching designs in place of the old class A or class AB designs that traditionally provided decent fidelity. I guess there are really quite a few classes here now and I don't really know which I have. I bought a rather mid-level Yamaha home theater receiver with Dolby and DTS decoding back in the late 2000s, It is labeled as an HTR-6140 and must be discontinued for many years by now. It has a bunch of DSP scenes/modes. Other than wanting surround decoding and HDMI + TOSlink inputs, I did not geek out on specs. I merely assume it is class D because the whole receiver is pretty light, so no big heat sinks, and it doesn't seem to produce much waste heat compared to older receivers I've used.