Get off my LAWN! "Grumpy Old Farts"

[SoulReflection]

OooOoo! I bet that really was a winner, for it's time. You could probably re-record your 8-tracks to reel-to-reel, at least for backup? Or, [gasp!] could you record 8-tracks from reel-to-reel?!?!?

It was after High School that the lead guitarist of my 4th, or 5th, band came home from college with a little 8-track recorder deck!!! It kinda looked like below, but with no radio, and no speaker. Had to plug it into my stereo for playback. And, for lack of a microphone at the time, we plugged our guitars into it and got some very psychedelic distorted tones. Then he recorded some of my albums onto a couple cartridges and left never to be seen again.

View attachment 3551934
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Yes, IIRC, it would record from reel-to-reel to 8-track only. It would auto dub from R to R to 8-track but would skip as it switched from one track to the other. Then there was the "feature" where it would happily eat up the 8-track tapes ...we were still a few years away from "smart" electronics...

 

[beans-on-toast]

These days a rebuilt 1” MCI 8-track sells for about $8000, a 2” 8-track goes for $16000.

 

[SoulReflection]

These days a rebuilt 1” MCI 8-track sells for about $8000, a 2” 8-track goes for $16000.

Those are horses (8-tracks) of a different color .

 

[mikeoso]

And a reel-to-reel to compliment their record changer. Speakers?

View attachment 3551798​

ummm. both Hendrix and T Rex posters? Cognitive dissonance for me.

 

[Jeff Scott]

And a reel-to-reel to compliment their record changer. Speakers?

View attachment 3551798​

Here's mine from away back when...speakers in the sides with flaps to direct the sound forward and, an Eight Track Recorder/Player. I really know how to pick the winners !

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My first recorder was one of these, that I got in the fifth grade:

In high school my brother provided the stereo for our parties, I don't recall what the preamp was, but here is the rest of the system:

It was adequate for the job at hand.

 

[GwenOnBass]

ummm. both Hendrix and T Rex posters? Cognitive dissonance for me.

It is suitably 70s orange, though. The nerds may have had a Lord of the Rings poster.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Lo-Fi equipment at home.

 

[beans-on-toast]

I still have my Marantz. The JBL speakers gave up the ghost long ago.

 

[spiritbass]

I was pretty far back on the car stereo tech curve until I got a new JVC installed in my car yesterday. I was amazed at all of the on-board DSP. 13-band equalizer, time correction, completely adjustable two or three-way crossovers, adjustable HPF's. I won't be using but a fraction of it's connectivity abilities, but it will be nice to be able to plug in my MP3 player and to play files from a flash drive.

 

[beans-on-toast]

I was pretty far back on the car stereo tech curve until I got a new JVC installed in my car yesterday. I was amazed at all of the on-board DSP. 13-band equalizer, time correction, completely adjustable two or three-way crossovers, adjustable HPF's. I won't be using but a fraction of it's connectivity abilities, but it will be nice to be able to plug in my MP3 player and to play files from a flash drive.

It's so cool to use a large capacity SSD drive filled with a gazillion albums. Scanning in all the CD's is arduous.

 

[Jeff Scott]

I still have my Marantz. The JBL speakers gave up the ghost long ago.

View attachment 3552235

All the cool people had Marantz gear back in the day. I still have a 1030 amp, packed away these days. (I met and had a nice conversation with Saul in 1987. ) The JBLs I had (a pair of L40s) were destroyed by OOPS! (know to some as UPS) back in the mid '80s. With the loot compensation money from OOPS! I bought a pair of DCM QED speakers. In those days I was using a variety of gear with them:

Carver C2 preamp
GAS Thalia preamp (partially custom built by moi)
Sony TA-E86 preamp
APT 1 power amp
Adcom GFA-545 power amp
Aragon 24k/2004 preamp/power amp (I still have and use that setup)

Later in the '80s, I sold the QEDs when I bought my Magnepan MG-1c speakers I still listen to.

 

[spiritbass]

It's so cool to use a large capacity SSD drive filled with a gazillion albums. Scanning in all the CD's is arduous.

A new 512mb drive should arrive in my mailbox by Tuesday. I installed "Express CD" ripping software yesterday. I just got done driving around and listening to a couple of CD's. The default settings sound pretty good, but I do need to tweak the EQ a bit...

 

[Passinwind]

My first recorder was one of these, that I got in the fifth grade:

In high school my brother provided the stereo for our parties, I don't recall what the preamp was, but here is the rest of the system:

View attachment 3552215

It was adequate for the job at hand.

Love the 604s. Pat Mteheny used to have a sweet touring PA that used them.

 

[Jeff Scott]

Love the 604s. Pat Mteheny used to have a sweet touring PA that used them.

We had four of them, along with a pair of the 12" version, too. Can never have too much of a good thing, ya' know!

 

[G-Dog]

.
My 60s-something Sony HP-480 Sound System was heaven sent, at the time. There didn't appear to be tuners in recording studios back then! Or, if there was, nobody used them. But my Sony has (that's right, still does) a pitch control on the turntable. SO much easier than retuning my guitar for different songs!

.​

 

[GwenOnBass]

Did some turntables have a stobe function? Some neuron got tickled there.

Well how about some Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Willie Dixon, Little Walter and Koko Taylor here on Blues Monday?

​

 

[beans-on-toast]

All the cool people had Marantz gear back in the day. I still have a 1030 amp, packed away these days. (I met and had a nice conversation with Saul in 1987. ) The JBLs I had (a pair of L40s) were destroyed by OOPS! (know to some as UPS) back in the mid '80s. With the loot compensation money from OOPS! I bought a pair of DCM QED speakers. In those days I was using a variety of gear with them:

Carver C2 preamp
GAS Thalia preamp (partially custom built by moi)
Sony TA-E86 preamp
APT 1 power amp
Adcom GFA-545 power amp
Aragon 24k/2004 preamp/power amp (I still have and use that setup)

Later in the '80s, I sold the QEDs when I bought my Magnepan MG-1c speakers I still listen to.

I sold my vinyl when CD’s came out. Thankfully I didn’t dump my Riga Planar 3 turntable. I’ve since reacquired some vinyl and still have the record player. It plugs into the Marantz, out through some EV cabs. It makes a good enough sound.

 

[GwenOnBass]

My turntable circa 77 was a B&O. Reasonably certain that was a Yamaha amp/preamp and gosh I can't recall the speaker make but they were held to be very good. The joke I heard since is BOSE stand for Buy Other Stereo Equipment.

 

[G-Dog]

Did some turntables have a stobe function? Some neuron got tickled there. ... ...

Believe strobe markings on the rim of the turntable were for getting very accurate RPMs at the standard 78, 45 and 33⅓ speeds, thus the "hi-fi". Nothing to do with A440, or whatever. And it was "whatever" that I needed to play along with my Beatles records.
.

 

[beans-on-toast]

My turntable circa 77 was a B&O. Reasonably certain that was a Yamaha amp/preamp and gosh I can't recall the speaker make but they were held to be very good. The joke I heard since is BOSE stand for Buy Other Stereo Equipment.

B&O was always the cat’s meow of visual design.

Today they have levitating turntables [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]