The 2006 energy of these photos.  "Rotel Kitteh is warmin' hiz harbls on yr tranzistors."

Guy on /r/audiophile inherited this setup from his grandfather.  He asked "Is this stuff any good?  Should I keep it?"  I managed to not blurt out "No, it's very bad and in fact dangerous.  I'll do you a favor make sure it gets disposed of properly."

Dual mono silver face with a side order of 2008 vroom.

 

On the flipside, I'd like to nominate these Dartzele Amps as the ugliest amps ever.

13 minutes ago, swt61 said:

On the flipside, I'd like to nominate these Dartzele Amps as the ugliest amps ever.

How can you say that about Trump tower's in-house amps?

Glad you cleared that up, because I was assuming they were the Ronald McDonald edition.

Porque no los dos?

Introducing the new "drumpFZeel" monoblocks.

(TBH I always though they looked like excessive computer cases aimed at the LeeT GaMeR market.  That'd explain the darTZeel name at least.  Also, I mention this every time the brand comes up: Frank Herbert modeled House Harkonnen after the Swiss.)

Nothing like beating a joke to death.  I showed the above meme to some normie friends of mine.  They more or less all thought that the darTZeels were among the ugliest pieces of electronics they'd ever seen.  One pointed out that "dartzeel" is an anagram for "zed alert."  That gave me an idea.

New DLC for KF1 just dropped!  Don't tell @MexicanDragon

14 hours ago, Knuckledragger said:

Nothing like beating a joke to death.  I showed the above meme to some normie friends of mine.  They more or less all thought that the darTZeels were among the ugliest pieces of electronics they'd ever seen.  One pointed out that "dartzeel" is an anagram for "zed alert."  That gave me an idea.

New DLC for KF1 just dropped!  Don't tell @MexicanDragon

Dammit. I came here with my pink Venmo debit card ready to drop some dosh.

Don't know if this should go into Speaker Porn, Amplifier Porn, or if we should create a new topic, Cable madness!  Holy shitballs!

 

That has to sound like shit. He is clearly under cabled.

14 hours ago, MexicanDragon said:

 ready to drop some dosh.

Is that some kind of kinky MENSA scat reference?

Inside those hawser cables is actually bell wire🤡

Although they are shrouded, the mains transformers of that amp are very close to the deck and cartridge.

Reminds me of a problem I had back quite a number of years with an Audio Research power amp I had. It was right in the bottom of the rack, as far away from the deck as possible. But when playing a record, an annoying background hum.

Then without the deck revolving, I put the stylus down - hum.

It was mechanical. The mains transformer was vibrating and shaking the whole rack.

This was Audio Research's design booboo. Designed for US 60Hz, in the UK at 50Hz the transformer takes 60/50 times more current, and starts to saturate a bit. And it therefore mechanically vibrates at 50Hz. And vibrates the whole hundredweight of amp.

Hauled it out of the rack - not easy given its weight - and put it on a separate platform - bliss - silence.

3 watts per channel of the purest Class A you'll ever hear! 🤣

Here's a bit of history, the original HeadRoom Max Balanced Headphone Amplifier prototype:

It sold for $850 apparently, which seems like a bargain to me.

As compare with Max Headroom

A guy on reddit got this stack for $1500.

Not a bad price per pound.

This famous photo of Marvin Gaye is flipped:

This shot from 1972 is even worse quality, but it's facing the right way.

 

There we go.  I have a sneaking suspicion that those meters glow blue.

thorens td125 with sme type 3 tonearm.

mcintosh c26 preamp

mcintosh 2105 power amp

teac reel to reel.

classic stuff then. classic stuff now.

Edited March 14, 20251 yr by kevin gilmore

Looks like Koss ESP/6's in the last pick

I had a pair of ESP6's in the late 70's. Glorious sound, heavy (because of the transformer and voltage multiplier in each cup) and sweaty because of the fluid filled cups. And needs to be connected to the loudspeaker output of a power amp.

I could just about survive a side of a record, and then a break to let my head recover.

Vintage Krell gear is highly regarded.  Analogue equipment ages like a fine wine.  A nice set of meters really accentuates a properly built stereo.  In the words of the late, great Bill Hicks, does anyone not know where this is going?

A panel of 4 will will run you about $2600.

Classic special effects movie, with an impossibly young looking Leslie Nielsen.

Loosely based on Shakespeare's play The Tempest.