Are These Finds Good Deals?

[Eppie]

Way back in the day had a Quad Marantz receiver and a quad 8 track to go with it . Had 4 jbl L-26’s to go with it it was the total experience back then lol !

The Who - Quadrophenia in quad!

I never understood the 8-track thing. Any album with long songs would change tracks in the middle of the song. Blah! The only 8-track I liked was Cheech and Chong's Wedding Album.

 

[Mark E. Long]

The Who - Quadrophenia in quad!

I never understood the 8-track thing. Any album with long songs would change tracks in the middle of the song. Blah! The only 8-track I liked was Cheech and Chong's Wedding Album.

I pretty sure I had that and a couple Eagles albums actually for a format 8 track was quite good sounding but I liked the reel to reel better lol finding the quad media was hard to get too . Long gone system from my youth I would like to have the reel unit back tho had a dbx noise reduction unit for it lots of party mixes on the thing lol !

 

[Eppie]

I pretty sure I had that and a couple Eagles albums actually for a format 8 track was quite good sounding but I liked the reel to reel better lol finding the quad media was hard to get too . Long gone system from my youth I would like to have the reel unit back tho had a dbx noise reduction unit for it lots of party mixes on the thing lol !

Yes, I don't remember seeing too many quad LPs. I liked the sound of reel to reel as well. The Scott tube amp system and Electrovoice speakers we inherited had a reel to reel but the owner took it with him. Not sure what happened to it when he passed away but I bet it's with a collector now. They make nice show pieces these days but the good ones are quite large and getting quite difficult to find. This Akai for $800 has a nice matching black finish for my system but no room for it.

 

[Mark E. Long]

Yes, I don't remember seeing too many quad LPs. I liked the sound of reel to reel as well. The Scott tube amp system and Electrovoice speakers we inherited had a reel to reel but the owner took it with him. Not sure what happened to it when he passed away but I bet it's with a collector now. They make nice show pieces these days but the good ones are quite large and getting quite difficult to find. This Akai for $800 has a nice matching black finish for my system but no room for it.
View attachment 48284

I had a An Akai too was a good reel it was a 4 track then I migrated to cassettes which for its time was quite good with quality tape lord when I think of all the gear I’ve had and speakers threw the years I have to shake my head . I’ve had SAE amps, Soundcraftsmen amps three different models of carvers lol and the list is much bigger smh again !!

 

[Eppie]

I had a An Akai too was a good reel it was a 4 track then I migrated to cassettes which for its time was quite good with quality tape lord when I think of all the gear I’ve had and speakers threw the years I have to shake my head . I’ve had SAE amps, Soundcraftsmen amps three different models of carvers lol and the list is much bigger smh again !!

Ah, I'm jealous. Wish I could have afforded Carvers in the day, or a Harmon Kardon Citation. When Dolby came out with Dolby C and DBX cassette music became very good. I have the top of line Nikko with 3 heads and if I switched while recording between tape and a CD my friends could not hear the difference. Maybe not true for the golden ears here but pretty darn good at the time.

 

[Pogre]

I have admit that while I've always had 1 toe in the waters it's just in the last 5 or 6 years that I really got serious about home audio. I had a pretty nice system in my truck, but never really went all in on home audio until relatively recently. Growing up tho, my step dad was in a band and we had pro gear hooked up in the game room with a cassette player, cd player and tuner. Huge outdoor stage speakers and a crap load of amplification. It was capable of some extreme spl, especially indoors. Yeah, I started punishing my hearing at an early age... I've always liked it loud.

 

[Mark E. Long]

Ah, I'm jealous. Wish I could have afforded Carvers in the day, or a Harmon Kardon Citation. When Dolby came out with Dolby C and DBX cassette music became very good. I have the top of line Nikko with 3 heads and if I switched while recording between tape and a CD my friends could not hear the difference. Maybe not true for the golden ears here but pretty darn good at the time.

Actually it’s a tossup to me on the sound quality between the old Soundcraftsmen amps and the carvers . The Soundcraftsmens had built in fans and they needed them my carvers just run so cool it’s unreal and they sound so effortless even at crazy volume levels . But I’ve got a couple Soundcraftsmens held back for a rainy day sub project someday . Oh I agree on the sound quality on them good deck I always wanted a Nikko Dragon deck that’s as good as any company ever got Iam envious . I’ve got a decent deck stored an onkyo meter tape deck it’s nice but I just have no room for it in my current setup . I’ve always been interested in the ATI amps because a couple of the guys that had either SAE or Soundcraftsmen started the ATI company and they would have to be fantastic sounding amps something to explore mabey ! it would take a lot for me to bench the carvers tho .

 

[Mark E. Long]

I have admit that while I've always had 1 toe in the waters it's just in the last 5 or 6 years that I really got serious about home audio. I had a pretty nice system in my truck, but never really went all in on home audio until relatively recently. Growing up tho, my step dad was in a band and we had pro gear hooked up in the game room with a cassette player, cd player and tuner. Huge outdoor stage speakers and a crap load of amplification. It was capable of some extreme spl, especially indoors. Yeah, I started punishing my hearing at an early age... I've always liked it loud.

I had a rig setup with pro amps one time lol it was nuts the power it could put out it wasn’t indoor friendly!
My buddy had a dj service and had 3 decent rigs setup a lot of amps and speakers went threw our testing process with cold beer and weed lol ! He had one setup that had this huge Soundcraftsmen amp hooked to good lord this thing had massive power and these big jbl monitors with horns and like dual 15 inch subs with another amp driving them this rig was nuts indoors. Eventually he lost the interest in it all an sold it all off but I did score a couple of the amps . My son had a decent rig in his car for awhile it was nuts too it make your hair stand up lol !

 

[Eppie]

I worked in a car audio shop during uni so I was able to buy at wholesale. Had the top of line Audia (by Clarion) system in my Plymouth Horizon... it was worth more than the car. No crazy bass shakers. Just 4x25W for the 4 2-ways and 2 8" woofers on a modest 2x50W amp. Plenty of power for a space that small and played more than loud enough. That system got moved into my Ford Probe (first model year and the only new car I ever owned). Still the best sounding vehicle I ever had.

That's also when I got my Electrovoice speakers, which served me well for many years. They only do commercial audio now including big stadium systems but had decent home speakers in the 90's. The store also carried Nikko so I grabbed their best cassette deck. Not the Nakamichi Mark is thinking of. Those Nakamichi Dragons were real nice but out of my price league. Used a Toshiba pre-amp and home made amp for a while until I moved in with friends who had a big Sansui and B&W speakers. Added my 2 for a 4 speaker setup in a large living. It was a country property and was a the party hangout for our friends for years.

 

[NINaudio]

I have admit that while I've always had 1 toe in the waters it's just in the last 5 or 6 years that I really got serious about home audio. I had a pretty nice system in my truck, but never really went all in on home audio until relatively recently. Growing up tho, my step dad was in a band and we had pro gear hooked up in the game room with a cassette player, cd player and tuner. Huge outdoor stage speakers and a crap load of amplification. It was capable of some extreme spl, especially indoors. Yeah, I started punishing my hearing at an early age... I've always liked it loud.

I was huge into car audio in my younger days too. I had an all BA speakers and sub system in a '96 Dodge Intrepid. BA pro 6.5^3's up front and two 10" BA competitor subs in the back. Trunk looked like a UFO or something. All mirrored boxes lit with blue neon. Had some nice Xtant amps and a Sony CDX-910 ES head unit. Man, that thing was fun. Went to an IASCA competition just for the hell of it and came home with a 3rd place trophy for SQ in the 301-600W class. Would have placed second if I actually had pictures of the install. Hit 127 dB in that car with no distortion. I remember I left it running one time when I ran into a store super quick, came out and some slipknot was playing, the whole roof was moving to the beat of those drums. My next car I kept the 3-ways but moved to a single 12" IDMax sub. That was fun too.

When I told the shop (they only did car audio) I frequented that I was looking for home theater stuff the manager offered to get me Boston Acoustic speakers for cost, which is how I wound up with my first real home speakers.

 

[afterlife2]

Neo music surround is basically the new Quad. I have a couple of Quad albums. I need to try it.

 

[NINaudio]

@panteragstk you don't like car audio?

 

[panteragstk]

@panteragstk you don't like car audio?

Stupid phone...

Yes, I do. Would be an odd person to love home audio and not like car audio, but people are strange.

I actually am planning to put a 5ch amp and a sub in my truck. Just gotta figure out if I want to build or buy a box.

Decisions decisions

 

[Eppie]

Was Clarion ever popular in the U.S.? We were a local dealer and I really liked their car audio. You can judge good engineering by how easy or hard it is to repair equipment and the Clarion car stereos were by far the easiest units to work on. Designed with ease of service in mind. Didn't hurt that the units and speakers sounded very good too even in the lower price range. Pioneers were not too bad to work on. Pretty easy access to the tape mechanisms until you got to the really high end models. Fujitsu made some nice stuff too but not popular. Didn't see too many Bluepunkt units but typical German engineering and very well made.

Kenwoods were a real challenge, but Alpines were a nightmare! Alpine might have had a reputation for high end car audio but any unit that came for repair had an estimate that was at least double. Too many separate circuit boards and ribbon connectors that made testing difficult and access to the tape mechanism far harder than it should have been.

I should snap some pics of my old Audia unit. Made by Clarion and was their attempt at breaking into the high end car audio segment. Great gear but never really took off.

 

[John Parks]

I thought this was Clarion's attempt at high end car audio:

Granted, this was not very successful either... (though I did want one!)

 

[Eppie]

I thought this was Clarion's attempt at high end car audio:
View attachment 48349
Granted, this was not very successful either... (though I did want one!)

That must have been after I graduated. Never saw one of those but I didn't get to work on too many CD units.

 

[John Parks]

That must have been after I graduated. Never saw one of those but I didn't get to work on too many CD units.

IIRC, these came out in '96 or so... At that time, I had one of your dreaded Alpine head units (never had a problem with it though).

 

[Eppie]

IIRC, these came out in '96 or so... At that time, I had one of your dreaded Alpine head units (never had a problem with it though).

Interesting. Wiki says that Clarion of Japan bought McIntosh in 1990. That's when McIntosh expanded into car audio and home theatre. Sold to D&M Holdings of Japan in 2003. Wasn't until 2014 that McIntosh returned to the U.S. through Fine Sounds Group, since renamed to McIntosh Group. The division has remained fairly independent so the various owners knew enough to leave a good thing well alone.

 

[KenM10759]

I had a Clarion 8-track tape deck/AM-FM radio in my car that I drove to high school the last two years, 1976-77.

I may have been good at the time, but I had no idea then how good true high fidelity music can be, as I do now.

 

[Pogre]

I found a 2 x 100 watt Mcintosh car amp at a pawn shop in the 90's and got it for a couple hundred bucks. Looked brand new and man did it kick ass. I can't remember the model but it looked just like this one.

I traded my truck in on a hot, hungover summer day and let it go with the truck... that one still hurts. I still kick myself. It was a rare, powerful, wonderful amplifier. I shoulda nutted up and pulled everything out of there and kept it. I had Boston acoustic pro series speakers and an old school Zapco mono amp for my sub in there too, damnit.