May 2018 Club Meeting
For our May club meeting… we’ll be having a long overdue Vintage/Classic meeting. We had a lot of great vintage gear in our last vintage/classic meeting back in July 2015, but this upcoming one is looking bigger and better! For our meeting, we are considering anything pre-2000 to be vintage/classic equipment. Some of the gear will be on static display, but most of it is functional and will be used on the day. We plan to have two maybe three main systems this year.
All the gear will be brought in by club members. The gear shown below is grouped by the owner. The systems on the day will be comprised of gear from different owners. (And some gear will be display only.) The following list is not exhaustive but will give you an idea of some of the gear that will be on hand…
Technics SL-7 turntable with linear tracking arm & direct drive, with original cartridge, new Jico SAS stylus, 1981-1983
Technics SL-1200 turntable (original not MK2) but with MK2 arm. V15lll with Jico SAS stylus, 1973
Pioneer A-400X integrated amp with MC/MM phono input, 1995, 50W/ch
Microscope 40X with DIY mounting to view LP’s & stylus (will show specimens of various stylus types & LP)
NAD 3020 Integrated amp, circa 1980, 20W/ch in 8Ω
B&W DM 601 speakers, circa 1995
Bottlehead Stereomour 2A3 – DIY Integrated amp, circa 70’s design, 2W/ch
Bottlehead Smash (DHT valve preamp) – DIY, circa 60’s design
Philips AH360 power amp, mid 70’s, 50W/ch
Sansui T-60 tuner, mid 70’s
Wharfdale W2 (3-way) speakers, 1965
Rogers Cadet amp/tuner, 1965 (for display)
Williamson KT66 valve mono value amplifier, 1952, 12W/ch on 16Ω
Acoustical Quad QC II mono valve preamp (restored to original condition in 2017), 1953
Bakers 12 inch driver in large bass reflex cabinet, 1953, 16Ω
Dual turntable, 1985
Original documentation for the Williamson amplifier and Bakers speaker driver, 1952
Marantz CD85 player, circa 1989
NAD 7255 receiver, 1980s
Boston Acoustic A400s speakers, circa 1980
Nakamichi 700 ZXE cassette deck, early 80’s
ReVox A-77 with built-in Dolby R2R, 1970’s
Rogers E40A valve amp, 1990, 40W/ch
Paradigm Monitor 7 speakers, 1995
Thorens TD126 turntable, 1980
Rotel 9658X CD player, 1995
Studer B67 R2R tape machine, 1980
AKG C414 BULS (Capsule from a studio condenser microphone), 1990’s
12” LP record (acetate on an aluminium base), unknown name & make, 1960’s
Magnetic pick-up coil, unknown name & make, 1960’s (this was used to record phone calls by placing it near the hybrid transformer in older style telephones)
Revox A77 tape recorder ( ¼” tape, ½ track stereo), 1974, first broadcast quality solid state recorder
Leak Stereo 30 Plus integrated amp
AUDIOLAB 8000 T - FM/AM/LW tuner in great condition and working, c. 1994
Meridian 556 Power Amp, 100 watts/ch/8Ω, in very good condition, c. 1998
Densen DM 20 Preamplifier, excellent condition and working, circa 1999
Audio Research LS2 Hybrid preamplifier, great condition and working, c. 1995
Normally the second half of our meeting is our popular BYO. For this meeting, the entire meeting will be basically BYO. Members that have brought in gear will be asked to talk a bit about the gear and play a track or two. However, everyone will have the chance to play a track. So bring along your favourite music on vinyl, CD, R2R or cassette. All we ask is that the music and recordings be interesting. We'll ask you to tell us a little about the artist/recording before it is played. Tracks over 6 minutes will be faded out, to give everyone a fair go.
Whether you are a novice or a seasoned veteran, you will have the opportunity to listen, learn and share your experiences with others. Feel free to come and hear the capabilities of the systems, or to just share the experience with like-minded music lovers in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere.
Guests are welcome – we are a very friendly club so you don't need to know anyone to join us for an afternoon of fine music and sound.
Follow-Up Report
Our vintage/classic meeting proved to be very popular again. We had nearly 50 people for the first half-session. And we had heaps of gear. George asked each exhibitor to talk briefly about their gear and ensured that everything got a bit of air time. The best system on the day was a toss-up between Joseph’s EAR amps and Klipsch Forte II speakers and Graham’s A400 Boston Acoustic speakers – both were worthy winners of the title.
The second half-session proved successful as well. And to boot, we had a raffle where the 4 prizes were an older Connoisseur BD2 turntable, 2 gift vouchers for JB HiFi and the choice of 10 vintage Stereophile and/or Absolute Sound magazines (pre-2000).
Here are some comments from the feedback forms…
Thanks to all the members for their mammoth effort! There was a huge amount of gear brought in and organized. Kudos to George for keeping on top of it all!
All the gear will be brought in by club members. The gear shown below is grouped by the owner. The systems on the day will be comprised of gear from different owners. (And some gear will be display only.) The following list is not exhaustive but will give you an idea of some of the gear that will be on hand…
Technics SL-7 turntable with linear tracking arm & direct drive, with original cartridge, new Jico SAS stylus, 1981-1983
Technics SL-1200 turntable (original not MK2) but with MK2 arm. V15lll with Jico SAS stylus, 1973
Pioneer A-400X integrated amp with MC/MM phono input, 1995, 50W/ch
Microscope 40X with DIY mounting to view LP’s & stylus (will show specimens of various stylus types & LP)
NAD 3020 Integrated amp, circa 1980, 20W/ch in 8Ω
B&W DM 601 speakers, circa 1995
Bottlehead Stereomour 2A3 – DIY Integrated amp, circa 70’s design, 2W/ch
Bottlehead Smash (DHT valve preamp) – DIY, circa 60’s design
Philips AH360 power amp, mid 70’s, 50W/ch
Sansui T-60 tuner, mid 70’s
Wharfdale W2 (3-way) speakers, 1965
Rogers Cadet amp/tuner, 1965 (for display)
Williamson KT66 valve mono value amplifier, 1952, 12W/ch on 16Ω
Acoustical Quad QC II mono valve preamp (restored to original condition in 2017), 1953
Bakers 12 inch driver in large bass reflex cabinet, 1953, 16Ω
Dual turntable, 1985
Original documentation for the Williamson amplifier and Bakers speaker driver, 1952
Marantz CD85 player, circa 1989
NAD 7255 receiver, 1980s
Boston Acoustic A400s speakers, circa 1980
Nakamichi 700 ZXE cassette deck, early 80’s
ReVox A-77 with built-in Dolby R2R, 1970’s
Rogers E40A valve amp, 1990, 40W/ch
Paradigm Monitor 7 speakers, 1995
Thorens TD126 turntable, 1980
Rotel 9658X CD player, 1995
Studer B67 R2R tape machine, 1980
AKG C414 BULS (Capsule from a studio condenser microphone), 1990’s
12” LP record (acetate on an aluminium base), unknown name & make, 1960’s
Magnetic pick-up coil, unknown name & make, 1960’s (this was used to record phone calls by placing it near the hybrid transformer in older style telephones)
Revox A77 tape recorder ( ¼” tape, ½ track stereo), 1974, first broadcast quality solid state recorder
Leak Stereo 30 Plus integrated amp
AUDIOLAB 8000 T - FM/AM/LW tuner in great condition and working, c. 1994
Meridian 556 Power Amp, 100 watts/ch/8Ω, in very good condition, c. 1998
Densen DM 20 Preamplifier, excellent condition and working, circa 1999
Audio Research LS2 Hybrid preamplifier, great condition and working, c. 1995
Normally the second half of our meeting is our popular BYO. For this meeting, the entire meeting will be basically BYO. Members that have brought in gear will be asked to talk a bit about the gear and play a track or two. However, everyone will have the chance to play a track. So bring along your favourite music on vinyl, CD, R2R or cassette. All we ask is that the music and recordings be interesting. We'll ask you to tell us a little about the artist/recording before it is played. Tracks over 6 minutes will be faded out, to give everyone a fair go.
Whether you are a novice or a seasoned veteran, you will have the opportunity to listen, learn and share your experiences with others. Feel free to come and hear the capabilities of the systems, or to just share the experience with like-minded music lovers in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere.
Guests are welcome – we are a very friendly club so you don't need to know anyone to join us for an afternoon of fine music and sound.
Follow-Up Report
Our vintage/classic meeting proved to be very popular again. We had nearly 50 people for the first half-session. And we had heaps of gear. George asked each exhibitor to talk briefly about their gear and ensured that everything got a bit of air time. The best system on the day was a toss-up between Joseph’s EAR amps and Klipsch Forte II speakers and Graham’s A400 Boston Acoustic speakers – both were worthy winners of the title.
The second half-session proved successful as well. And to boot, we had a raffle where the 4 prizes were an older Connoisseur BD2 turntable, 2 gift vouchers for JB HiFi and the choice of 10 vintage Stereophile and/or Absolute Sound magazines (pre-2000).
Here are some comments from the feedback forms…
- "Very interesting equipment. Good selection of vintage speakers."
- "Turntable was very good. Excellent power amps (Esoteric)"
- "Great variety of equipment. The Technics turntable sounded terrific!"
- "Vintage shows today's new gear isn't necessarily better. 15 ips open reel tape the best!"
- "Good all round selection of kit and music. 15 ips tape - can we have more of it!?"
- "My first meeting, very impressed with sound quality and friendly members. Especially liked the Klipsch Forte II speakers."
- "First time at vintage meeting. Enjoyed variety and most comparisons."
- "A great meeting. Highlights how little progress has taken place over 50 years. Awesome, thanks to all exhibitors especially Joseph, Graham and Robert."
- "A nice change from time to time. The turntables were remarkably good, as were the Boston speakers - an interesting comparison to digital."
- "Thanks to all involved for their efforts."
- "First time at vintage meeting. Good to see classics like A400. Liked the SL1200."
- "Friendly club! Look forward to more variety of equipment."
Thanks to all the members for their mammoth effort! There was a huge amount of gear brought in and organized. Kudos to George for keeping on top of it all!
