have and use 8-track players in their vehicles?

How many of you still have and use a rotary phone?

How many have and use old reel to reel tapes?

How many still have and use BETA VCR's?

Hey.....random thought.....wanna punish your kids when they get in trouble.....take away their X-box or Playstations and make them play Pong for two hours! HA


Anyway....what other types of archaic technologies do you have that you refuse to give up and why?

I still use my reel to reel, but not often.
There's just something REEL cool about seeing them turn.

We have 2 rotary dial phones hard-wired in our house. I use the one in the bar/basement whenever I'm down there...the desk phone upstairs is used when I can't find either remote phone fast enough. Or if the power's out.

Heres a question, How many people DON't have a DVD player, and still play Video tapes on the VCR only??????
Show of hands.

hey Beano, here is an even better question.

How many people are guilty of buying a Laser Disc player????
Remember those clunky things that came out in the late 80s/early 90's. My father bought one, I remember the laser discs were HUGE and weighed a TON. They looked like a record, and the crappy part is you had to manually turn them over. Right in the middle of the movie, the laser disc stoped and you had to take the huge Record out and flip it over.

I use BOTH my VCR and DVD, but do I get extra credit for starting to transfer the vids???

I have an old Sony Betamax machine that I have out in the garage. I just recorded an episode of Jericho on it a couple weeks ago. Can't find any blank tapes unless I want to venture onto Ebay.

I loved my laser disc player! I don't know about the earlier models, but the one I got in '95 switched sides for you, not sure if it had two lasers or if one went from topside to bottomside (sounds like a night at ringlers...) Anyway, for 2 short years, I used it all the time, even belonged to the Columbia House club. Thank god for Djangos, back when DVD's came out, I was able to sell all my laser discs to them, I still miss that store!

Reel-to-reel decks: check
Vacuum tube TVs: check
Vacuum tube radios: check
AM Stereo: check
Vinyl records: check

I am also still abstaining from the purchase of mobile phones, GPS units, satellite radio, cable/satellite television, and (for the moment) portable MP3 players. On that last item, there is a $15 player at Fry's, memory card not included, that I might consider buying soon.

My cell phone, satellite radio, and cable TV abstinence is motivated in large part by the fact that all of these are services that require a monthly subscription fee. These fees could really start to add up quickly. What is cool about the archaic technologies, on the other hand, is that those are products, not services; i.e. I don't have to pay a monthly subscription fee to listen to reel-to-reels and records.

I don't have a cell phone either. Having just finished Stephen Kings book: Cell, I don't plan on getting one any time soon!

I have a 1922 Victrola. I do play records on it, but I need to get more - I only own about 6-7 78's.

I just sold my Reel to Reel. But look what I bought with the money for 100 bucks?

http://pocketcalculatorshow.com/boombox/graphics/sharp-vz2000-4.jpg

Bought it from the owner of Ranch Records. Came with an original KGON sticker.

CAN'T SEE IT!!!!
Check your thread.....

Works fine Trix.....check your Rabbit....I mean mouse!

This is what I'm getting.....

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /boombox/graphics/sharp-vz2000-4.jpg on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apache/1.3.33 Server at pocketcalculatorshow.com Port 80

I'm getting the forbidden thing as well, which only makes me want to see it more!!!! This better be worth it! not like the time my mom told me we were going to look at puppies, but we went to the dentist instead:-(

Chickenjuggler, great score! You could have paid $260 shipped for this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/HUGE-SHARP-VZ-2000-AM-FM-CASSETTE-AND-RECORD-PLAYER_W0QQitem Z330136327607QQihZ014QQcategoryZ48626QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://pocketcalculatorshow.com/boombox/g raphics/sharp-vz2000-4.jpg&imgrefurl=http://pocketcalculatorshow.com/boombox/gol den2.html&h=360&w=480&sz=14&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=VL-4hhSNyF8z6M:&tbnh=97&tbn w=129&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsharp%2Bvz%2B2000%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz %3D1T4GGIH_enUS228US228%26sa%3DN

2nd boombox down.

CJ, this is the same page and it loads nicely --

http://pocketcalculatorshow.com/boombox/golden2.html

The KGON sticker makes yours infinitely cooler.

Well now that it's been completely over-hyped...ahem...

I like it and I will like it more when I get it refurbished. Another 150 should do it.

Reel to reel? Yes! Currently, I have a practically new Uher, a rebuilt Scully and a low hours Metrotech.

Contrary to popular perception, analog tape is alive and well:

http://www.aes.org/events/123/workshops/session.cfm?code=W5

http://www.rmgi.nl/

8-track in the truck-Yup.

Rotary phone-not so much any more. DTMF is a godsend but like any electronic device it's not 100% reliable, so I keep my old rotary dial phone as a spare in case I may need it someday!

Reel to reel-definately. The Akai 1720 is really one hella sweet machine.

Beta VCR-I did until mine broke about three years ago.........

"Hey.....random thought.....wanna punish your kids when they get in trouble.....take away their X-box or Playstations and make them play Pong for two hours! HA"

Kids? What kids?
Naah.....I just play Pong for two hours on my Colecovision.....The closed-sourcers can keep their Xboxes and Playstations! ;o)

Saying of video (especially the Beta thing) I don't really play DVD-Video too often if at all, most of the films I like and/or want to see (mostly older flicks anyways) I have or can find on laserdisc, usually for really cheap. Two words: MOVIE MADNESS. I have been able to purchase some 5 Laserdiscs (used, naturally) for $20 there from time to time!

I never really have been too fond of using MPEG2 for movie storage because of its lossy compression. Can't say that for digital TV broadcasts (DVB or ATSC) because that's pretty much all there is. Variable bitrate DVDs are the devil's spawn itself!!

Pdxdc~
"I don't have a cell phone either. Having just finished Stephen Kings book: Cell, I don't plan on getting one any time soon!"

Echo dat...........

OK this got me reminiscing about my old Reel to Reel Decks and caused me to do some research on them.

My first reel to reel
http://daveman.a2zway.com/images/akai1730SS-5.jpg

My second reel to reel
http://daveman.a2zway.com/images/dokorder8010-2.jpg

My current (but broken) reel to reel
http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=b28e517f327f82bb5325c019 ae78b941&t=8692

It's kind of funny, the last couple radio stations I've worked at keep the unused reel to reel machines in the prod rooms. Almost as if there is a chance all this technology will someday come crashing down and the old standby is sitting there ready to go into action!

If you remember using razor blades and cotton swabs to clean the heads, you are a veteran broadcaster! If you remember sending out airchecks on reel to reel, you are veteran's veteran!

Amus--

Here are some pictures of the machine that I have~

http://www.vintagemechanism.com/gallery/akai1720/index.html

(You need Shockwave Flash installed on your machine to use this. Also I didn't take any of those myself.....I don't even have a digicam, only a Spectra System!)

In some of the pictures you see the "funky reel" installed on the take-up side (i.e. in the third shot from the left)--those were not optional when the machine came out (according to my Grampa, who had two of these machines, one of which I currently have.) We believe they are from the early '80s.

A few years ago I even put a handle on top of my machine to make it "portable" (considering it actually weighs about 50 pounds!)

The "FOUR TRACK STEREOPHONIC" below the volume/tone controls *doesn't* mean it records or plays Quad.......This means it can record in four-track mono (tracks 1&3 on side A/2&4 on side B) or in stereo mode. To play a mono tape, you would slide the switch to whatever track you want to hear and it would play a "stereo" mix of it through both speakers. Likewise in Stereo mode, it would play like you would expect.

Supposedly it can also record this way but I haven't tried it...........

I don't have a 1730 but I do want to try and find one around here. It would work really good with my Quad receiver..............

Paulwalker~
"If you remember using razor blades and cotton swabs to clean the heads, you are a veteran broadcaster!"

What if I was never in broadcasting? Would I be a veteran recordist instead? ;o)

Holy cow ...

Had an 8-track player until about three years ago, in my 1977 Buick I inherited from my grandfather. It was cool to freak out friends who had never seen an 8-track player.

Rotary phone - nope.

I have a couple reel-to-reel tapes, don't have the player ...

My pride and joy is my Atari 2600 still in my mother's basement. I have about 25 games for it, and it works like a charm. I had fun explaining THAT one to the kids!

8-track player...yep. Still have an old Realistic "Concertmate 8" AM/FM/8-Track boombox, but no tapes(got rid of those long ago)

Old "triple-decker" BE cart machines-circa 1978...yep. Two of them are keeping the front of a futon from setting on the floor up in my attic.

reel-to-reel...yep. Used to have an old Otari about 10 years ago, but sold it to a budding experimental musician for $35. It was a three head design and he liked the analogue "sound on sound" feature.

Only RtoR I have anymore is an old consumer grade "Concord" brand machine that has a built in 8-track cartridge recorder. Salvaged it from a Goodwill Surplus(You know, the place where the stuff that isn't good enough to go to the regular retail Goodwills are sent) bin in Salem for $5.

We got rid of our last rotary phone in the early 90's, I think...we couldn't even get a non-phone company phone until the late 80's 'cause we lived in the sticks and had a party line that we shared with 4 other neighbours.

What about black and white TVs? We still have three here, one 12 inch K-mart brand out in the auto shop(fed with 300-ohm twin lead!), one 4" Montgomery Ward TV/boombox/cassette combo(really good sound-don't use the TV much though), and a Sears 2" CRT "Binoc" TV (mfg. by Sanyo) that I use with an ultra low power UHF TV transmitter to adjust alignment/signal on satellite dishes, without having to schlep the whole set top box out to the dish. It is relatively small, and shaped kind of like a pair of binoculars and can run on 6 'AA' batteries. A picture of the thing can be seen here:

http://www.taschenfernseher.de/bilder-neu/binoc-gr.jpg

The home page for "Frank's Handheld TV" page is here:

http://www.taschenfernseher.de/index-e.htm

Kind of interesting.

I still have an Ampex AG400-C, hauled out of the KPEN-FM studios when they threw-in the towel. Don't use it much, but if I ever need a boat anchor...

Those 4-channel Reel-to-Reels look pretty neat! I wonder if the reason why so much 1970s and early 1980s punk rock was produced on 4-track was because a relatively cheap recording studio could be built around one of these machines, possibly purchased second-hand.

...(sorry, that shoulda' been an "Ampex AG440C")...

This thread has really started something for me.
As a direct result of this thread I am putting back together my vintage Stereo system.

I'm pulling my Dynaco Stereo-70 Tube Amp, and Pioneer PL-12D turntable out of storage.
I purchased on E-bay yesterday a Dynaco PAT-4 Pre-amp (for $36.00!!).
And I'm going to finally get the logic circuitry fixed on my Sony TC-654-4.

I'm still using my Klipsch Heresys downstairs so I'm not sure what I'm going to do for speakers yet.

One big difference will be that this time I'll be integrating a PC with a good sound card running Winamp Pro.

I'm so excited I can barely keep my mind on work today!

Hmmmmmm...

You inspired me. I was looking at home theatre systems the other day. Maybe I could get part of my old Pioneer system out of storage and just use that. Got and old amp and a bitchin' pair of EPI speakers. That should do the trick at $0.00! I might just hook up the tuner as well. The cassette player and turntable are of no use to me though as all of the old media I have for them has degraded and not worth the effort. Ain't got a remote or nuthin' but my feet still work though!

I'm still using my Sanyo FM-casette removable underdash stereo that I bought myself as a graduation present in 1981. I've transferred it in and out of probably a half dozen vehicles, because I usually buy older rigs that only have AM radios. The cassette deck crapped out a few years ago but the tuner still sounds really good. It's current duty is filling my '67 Dart with beautiful tunes.

Electronics are like automobiles. The new stuff may perform well, but it certainly doesn't have personality or character like the old stuff.

Pioneer made a really bichin' under dash stereo in the 70's...FM Tuner with either an 8-track or cassette deck...brushed aluminum faceplate and round tuning dial...had one in my first car, a '75 Ford Courier p/u...has to be one of the best under dash stereos I've ever had...just like this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Pioneer-Craig-Super-Tuner-8-Track-FM-Stereo-TP-900-12V_W0QQi temZ270158105441QQihZ017QQcategoryZ39762QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Oh! The old Super Tuner!
I repaired many of those back in the day.
As I recall, stringing the dial was a PITA!

Stringing a dial like that was a PITA, but once it was strung correctly, it was one of the smoothest tuning dials ever on a car radio. (A totally moot point now due to digital tuners bring the norm...)

Worst ever were 60's era GM radios with "Magic Bar" tuning.

An electro-mechnical tuner that used a servo motor & circuitry to detect stronger stations to do an early scan function.

Re-stringing those was a nightmare!

Deane~

"Electronics are like automobiles. The new stuff may perform well, but it certainly doesn't have personality or character like the old stuff."

Exactly. An Ibiquity rig tuning an IBAC channel on Mediumwave may bring decent sound quality but it certainly doesn't hold a candle to a pre-1960s wideband tube rig, I think.

Heck, I even have my digital TV receiver box connected into the Composite In of my late Uncle's 27" 1983 Zenith console TV set! (It was one of the first, I believe, to have an A/V /input. To put it in perspective it also has 75-ohm F-connector and 300-ohm twin-lead screw terminals for VHF & UHF connections!!)

And my current stereo receiver? My '78 Marantz Superscope connected to a pair of $50 Cerwin Vega PSX153's I purchased a couple of years ago from a friend of mine over in Gresham. They replaced my 30+ year old, aging (and ailing) Criterions of which the foam suspension around the speaker cones was pretty much rotten away.

I'd list all the components I have connected (and interfaced through a self-made switch box no less) but I'd probably need a seperate page..... ;o)

Amus, the "Magic Bar" thing seems intriguing.
(That kind of tech most likely had long gone by the wayside by the time I came into the world...)

Do you have any other information on it?

Motozak,

Took me a while to look it up because I got the name wrong.

It's "Wonder Bar" not Magic Bar.

Here is one in action:
http://www.delcoradiotek.com/

"Electronics are like automobiles. The new stuff may perform well, but it certainly doesn't have personality or character like the old stuff."

This is quite true, and I think that there are two important aspects about the old stuff that give it personality & character:

1) Humans had to stuff the circuit boards and do some hand soldering on stuff of '80s and older vintage. In point-to-point wired gear, all of the parts insertion and soldering was done by hand.

2) The older, simpler equipment put the user closer to its operation. With early generation equipment, the user had to understand something about its workings to get it to perform well.

Today, we have the best consumer products that have ever existed. They are convenient, they are reliable, and they don't require tinkering. However the user experience leaves me and others (like the late, great 62kgw--what ever happened to him?) unsatisfied because there is little that we can do or modify to get better performance.

Older gear had a life, almost, it had a feel and sound. Older equipment had a warmth, literally, there was something about seeing the glow of the tubes. usually if it didnt work, it didnt glow.
Nowadays, something doesnt work, and you look at inside, theres nothing to see. Old days, an engineer, knew what to look for when he looked inside, how bright sould the tubes be, etc.

Amus, that's really cool.

Nwokie, that's spot on many levels.

I don't currently have anything that runs on tubes, but I wish I did. IMHO, tubes are a tech that we just need to continue to keep around. It's not about the lowest cost, compact, etc... It's just about having something solid that works really well.

Yes, what did happen to 62? Maybe he's traveling or something good.

I don't know that we have the best gear that ever existed today. At least not across the board.

Some things are really great. Many of our computers, portable media players, cell phones, etc... are just excellent. The only issues there boil down to legal squabbles more than they do any technical shortcoming.

Other things are not so good.

It's difficult to find a really great quality house phone. Many common appliances can be found, that are of good quality, but the market is flooded with planned obsolescent crap.

Radios are a mixed bag. There are good ones, but not a lot of them. Digital inputs are a net loss for the most part. Makes the gear harder to use and less capable of highly tuned sounds.

Display tech is looking great, but we are in-between real jumps. The CRT is heavy, but still rules overall. The other stuff is evolving nicely however. Won't be long before we just have stellar displays across the board.

Bundling is a problem --as is over selling. Quite often overall solid design is short changed, for useless value adds, or some balances are denied to the market. Laptops are a great example of this.

One should be able to get a moderate machine, performance wise, that runs all day on high-performance batteries, without hacking, for example.

Our favorite table radio is some SONY from the 70's. It's got wonderful, room filling, but not in your face harsh sound. That's very difficult to find these days. Nobody puts wood in anything, which changes all the resonances.

That's where the warm Nwokie sound has gone, IMHO. Well, that and changes in how amplifiers and stage coupling happens.

Anyway, fun thread.

>>Nobody puts wood in anything.....That's where the warm Nwokie sound has gone

A clear A/B comparison can be found in a store display of Henry Kloss "Tivoli" radios. They are available in both plastic and wood, same dimensions, same electronics, but the wood is a clear winner.

Metal and composites can approach the quality of wood, but it's still just not the same.

I've a set of Cambridge Soundworks computer speakers that are just excellent. The smaller high frequency satellite units are very good. The bass speaker, has a fairly high cross over, largely because of it's smaller size.

Plastic case though. It's very decent and has significant weighting. Comes close to what a small wood cabinet would do. It's on my list to move that speaker, and it's circuits to a hardwood cabinet, about twice it's size, with the felt standoffs on the bottom.

Should bring back the lower end warmth, missing from an otherwise excellent, small speaker system.

For anything above 500Hz or so, high-travel speakers, combined with a well calculated, sealed cabinet, can deliver some nice warm sound. But it takes more materials to achieve this.

Nice sizes are possible though!

Below that range, maybe with some overlap, wood cabinets just rule. Plastics either must be reinforced with too many other materials to make sense, or the have way too many harmonic resonances that color the sound poorly.

Of course, wood does this too, but seems to do it differently. Should do a spectral analysis one of these days.

Will this generation, largely missing the wood cabinet sound, find it as odd as we do the plastics today?

For any who may care;

The PAT-4 Pre Amp arrived today!
http://home.indy.net/~gregdunn/dynaco/components/PAT4/index.html
In good shape. Controls & swithes will need to be cleaned, but otherwise good working order.

I pulled the Stereo 70 out of storage and after 20 years of dormancy it fired right up.
http://home.indy.net/~gregdunn/dynaco/components/ST70/index.html

Fed the setup with an iPod shuffle for testing.
Sounds good!

Step 1 is complete!

Turntable hooked up.
(Pioneer PL-12D cost me $100.00 in 1977 http://www.arcticcorsair.f9.co.uk/audio/kit/pioneer-pl12d.html )

First LP played (pretty much at random) "Court and Spark".

Ahhh the sweet sounds of rumble, surface noise, and the occasional static pop.

Today, I visited a friend who had bought a restored 1964 vintage Wurlitzer jukebox! That thing is pretty cool. I think that it was a 2800 series model. It came with a reprint of the service manual.

There is a machine that is just cool! The audio amplifier and its built-in ALC circuit use tubes. The logic is all relay and solenoid based! On top of that, the 45s sit vertically while they play!!! I was trying to figure out how they get the tone arm to track the grooves in this position. I assume that it accomplished through very careful balancing.

Regarding your Wednesday morning post, Missing, you are actually thinking about what I was thinking. I should have been a bit more detailed: the consumer stuff is great in terms of its features to the average consumer (like cell phones having built in caller ID and the ability to remember phone numbers, etc.) Most of the new stuff either works or it doesn't; no futzing or adjustment is required. However, the build quality is often poor because these things are engineered to be cheap to build.

I still use a windup Stopwatch I bought in 1976 for broadcasting. It's a "Northstar, 7 Jewels, shockresistant". The back is all worn off but it still works just fine. Do they even make windup watch's anymore?

@Alfredo Yep. I think we are thinking the same thing for sure.

I find the feature bundles not quite such a value add a growing percentage of the time also. Cheap to build also goes in line with cheap to engineer.

Often the ID aspect is poor, combined with very bad interfaces. If this happens, the goodies get in the way. IMHO, happens a lot more these days than it used to.

All this has got me about ready to go out into my shed, and try and fix the shortwave receiver i got from my dad, its about an 1940 model.

I know whats wrong, a transformer that broke loose when I made mylast move.

Saying of SW receivers I have a DX-302 that is in need of a bit of TLC.

I used to listen to 910 on it at work before they flipped to political talk!

When I was moving to a different office someone carrying it dropped it on the concrete floor and it has had very mediocre performance since then. Not to mention, broke the back of the chassis!

(That, and it generally needs a bit of cleaning. I found it at Goodwill in 2000, for $50. Even then it looked like it had been kicking around the block for quite a while, not to mention the dried-up old battery acid that was all over in the battery compartment...........)

In re Alfredo, concerning jukeboxes~
A number of older Seeburg 45RPM jukeboxes also used vertical record players. The user would select the record he wanted to hear by pressing a button, then the phonograph would slide along a track to the proper slot where the record would be extracted from the magazine. (To my knowledge Seeburgs didn't use circular magazines like some of the Wurlys I have seen.......)

There was a restaurant at Van Mall years ago, "Max's Diner" upstairs near Meyer & Frank, that used to have an old, restored 1950s Seeburg Selectomatic box. (Incidentally, the area where Max's was is currently the shoe-store area of Champ's Sports!! ;o) This was in the late 1980s, obviously before the food court was installed (and in a way, helped force a number of incredibly good stand-alone restaurants at the mall to go out of business!)

Even at 4 years, watching the jukebox in operation I used to stare at it with a wide-eyed stare of fascination...............

And now, even these almost 20 years later it even still baffles me how those machines tracked the record peoperly in the vertical position!!

Check this out~
http://www.jukebox-guide.com/Seeburg/Collection.htm

Optical illusion....it was a mirror image of a flat and level turntable!

Just checked my old Silver Series Pioneer system (I Purchased New at Stereo Super Stores Jantzen Beach in early eighties if I remember right)
PL-S30 Turntable (W/Sonus Stylus)
A-5 Amplifier
CT-5 Cassette Player
F-5 AM/FM Tuner
1 Pair EPI (Epicure) tower speakers that are truly a fantastic speaker.

Wanted......silver series Pre-Amp graphic equilizer. Anyone know what model would work with this system?

Would love to get a P-D70 CD player and an SR-303 reverb amp to go with my system. CD player made in early 80's so as you can imagine they are pretty rare as CD's were fairly new tech back then. Just seems like when there is a budget there is no units on Ebay and when there is stuff there then no moola! Oh well, one o these days!

I have an SR-101 that I absolutely love. Very similar in tone to the Fisher Space Expander, but much less expensive and a bit less noisy. I like old Pioneer gear. My PL-12D and Grado would make a hubcap sound decent.

That old P-D70 CD player weighs in at a trim 18 pounds. Very sturdy piece of equipment. They don't build em like that no more!

Great vintage piece BTW.

Eighteen pounds? Wow. I had an old Studer CD player that was a beastie like that too.

Speaking of 18 pound babies:

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9404E2D81039E333A2575AC2A 9679D946297D6CF&oref=slogin

Finding that Pioneer sounds like a real challenge.

BTW, Your system is cool too! I will keep my eyes out for the holy grails. :0)

@amus - I am too jealous for words.

This is a great thread. It is rare to hang out with SWLs these days. I like to listen to the railroad too.

Craig, they still make wind-up stopwatches! I found a few for you to choose from:

http://www.ambientweather.com/mamiasw30.html

http://www.kasper-richter.de/english/stopwatches/avus-60-765120_en.html

http://www.bodytronics.com/page/bodytronics/PROD/Stopwatches/TWO

Or get a wind-up watch with the stopwatch built in -- just like a Cosmonaut:

http://www.poljot.com/

So need some help. What is the difference between a dynamic processer and a reverb amp? Are they not both the same? Specifically a Pioneer RG-9 versus SR-303. I got the RG-9 Dynamic Processer on EBay with the parts needed to fix it for $25. The two controls on the unit are Dynamic Expansion and Input Level.

OH ya, found a great sight you guys might like:
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/index.php
They have old manual scan's for free if you are registered.

Darktemper, AK is a great site. A good humble crowd full of friendly geeks who do not mind questions. A lot like here, but people are sometimes nicer to one another. ;0)

The RG-9 is an expander. In other words, it helps fix the compression inherent in most broadcasts and some recordings and "expands" the dynamic range to something more natural. They can still be found at a bargain, so you might pass on a fixer-upper.

From what I have gathered, the "RG" of this series comes from RG Dynamics of Skokie, Illinois. Pioneer originally obtained this expander technology from them. The "RG" of RG Dynamics stands for their president's name, Robert Grodinsky.

The SR-303 is a "bucket brigade" delay. Unlike the SR-101 (tube circuit) and SR-202 (solid state) units, it does not use reverb springs. The ICs do all the work and it has a fantastic signal to noise ratio compared to the earlier designs. Like all of the SR line, the lights are pretty groovy!

Together, these two units were an integral part of a "Pioneer Silver" system -- no wonder you want 'em. They actually compliment one another very well in the signal chain. Of course, we are talking about "high technology" from around the time the Phillies won the World Series against the Royals.

Now, they are becoming "sought after" bits of "vintage" gear. I guess that makes us "sought after" "vintage" people. :0)

Thanks man, I knew you'd know. The fix will be easy. The processor switch won't catch and I have the new one and just have to solder it in. Still on the hunt for the SR-303 reverb & P-D70 CD player.

L8R

BTW......Cats rule and are #1.

Aw heck, you are spot on -- soldering a switch makes it a total bargain!

I'll keep my eyes peeled for an SR-303.

I guess my system is not part of the silver series. It is what they called the champagne series. Early 80's stuff. The speaker's are the crown jewels though, a pair of mint condition Epicure EPI A120. Absolutely great sounding speaker's.

Update on my "Vintage System":

I spent the better part of a Saturday a couple of months ago troubleshooting the electromechanical "logic" circuits on my Sony Reel-to-Reel Deck with a schematic & voltmeter.

It was kind of fun for a while, but there were so many breaks on the double sided circuit board, that after several hours, I got it to play, but not FF or Rewind.

Then I got to looking at the cracked sockets that the audio boards were plugged into....

I decided it was a lost cause.

Well, thanks to E-bay, I am now, once again the proud owner of an Akai 1730-DSS Genuine Quadraphonic deck, or as they called it "Surround Stereo". (I'm listening to it right now)

I also spent several hours cleaning my Teac model 2A 6x4 mixer, and integrated it into the system.

Tying all this to my PC was a Creative USB Soundblaster.

I say WAS because while rerouting the myriad of cables involved, I accidentally
connected a 12VDC power supply to my 5VDC USB hub.

Fortunately the Sound Blaster was the only thing plugged into the Hub or it would have been really ugly.

I replaced that with a E-MU 0404.
What a HUGE step up!

The only things I think I want to add is a Dynaco FM-5 tuner, and a pair of Dynaco A-25 speakers.

Have a Teac 4300 Reel to Reel in the main production room...It hasn't been used in several years...mainly a "shelf" for the mini disc player! Also kind of an art piece...lots of clients ask about it...!

Hey Amus--I have a 1720W......what a hell of a tape deck. Used to be my Grampa's but then he gave it to me.

I want to get a 1730 someday but I really don't know where I could find one locally, here in the Coove right off hand.......Normally I would try R-- D--'s place over by Hollywood Video on 164th and 1st, he sells vintage audio gear occasionally but business relations between us recently have been, well let's just say, very strange. (I'm not getting into it much further than that, because I've known R-- for some time and it could come back to haunt me should he ever read this.........)

Amus--is the 1730 all solid-state like the 1720 or does it have tubes?

The 1730 is all solid state...

I got it because, having had one before, I knew it really well.
It has a very simple, solid transport system.
And I have a few tapes that were recorded in 4 tracks (all the same direction).

There is almost always one on E-bay.
They go for about $150.00 - $200.00.
I got mine for less due to some cosmetic damage.

http://cgi.ebay.com/AKAI-1730-SS-SURROUND-STEREO-REEL-TO-REEL-TAPE-DECK_W0QQitem Z260178949009QQihZ016QQcategoryZ67810QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

BTW..

Going through my old tapes I've come across some great old recordings from the Radio (late 70's early '80's)

Anybody suggest a good place to post these to share?

DivShare perhaps?

There is a goodwill on Mill Plain, between 2005 and i5, that has a room in the back, with a lot of stuff they sell by the pound, I have seen a lot of reel to reels there.

I go to the G'will on 4th Plain quite a bit (it is located very close to where Kyocera used to be, also about a mile east of the old KKEY studio/towers) and I used to go to the outlet there occasionally as well.

(Last I saw--about a month ago, more or less--the outlet store at the 4th Plain Goodwill has closed; apparently they moved it to the store on 117th. I still haven't made it out to that one yet.)

Some seven or eight years ago I snagged an old "portable" vintage-1982 Sony U-matic deck at that particular outlet for $20 and with a tape still in it even. It still works to this day as far as I know. I used to tape BMX events off ESPN with it using another old cable-ready VCR as a source, because by that time we didn't have an actual cable box anymore and that particular Umatic, being a professional machine, doesn't have a built-in tuner! (I haven't used the Umatic in a while tho. I may try to sell it sometime, once I can find it in my folks' basement amongst all my other junk.......)

I am on the prowl for components to finish off my system. Looking to get a SR-9 reverb, SG-9 equilizer, and the crown jewel a P-D70 CD player. Was looking at the SR-303 but the SR-9 is the same unit only in the Champagne series which I have. Anyone know of any vintage stereo stores that may have some of these? There are a few on EBay from time to time and am watching that as well.

Ever wondered what your gear does when you aren't looking?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKz4qVmUz84

I love Pierre Henry. The music is from 1964, and sold over 150,000 copies as a single. I believe the animation was done around the same time. The song was re-released by Philips on an album, "Messe Pour le Temps Présent" in 1967.

(Of course, it has since been appropriated by contemporary artists like Fatboy Slim, and like much of his work, essentially rewritten by Stereolab. You may also recognize the blatant similarities in the theme to Matt Groening's Futurama. Timeless stuff.)

Add: I know this is all a bit off topic, but this is in the spirit of gear love. Musique concrète is one of the deepest forms. :0)

SCORE. Picked up the sr-9 reverb amp in the same series as the rest of my system for $24.99. Basically the same as the SR-303 only in the champagne finish instead of the silver.

"Champagne" finish?

Is that Andre' Pink or Cold Duck color scheme?

Mmmm, bubbles...

It's sort of a "Ripple" texture.

Maybe you should adjust that knob on the far right to MD 20/20.

Or 11.

MD 20/20 does not work in 100 proof setting.

I was originally going to post this as part of my most recent reply on the thread about reel to reel machines (the one about how my Grampa introduced me to R2R when I was five), but it seemed a little out of place there. So I cut and pasted it here instead. Makes a bit more sense, I think.
==========================================================

And then there's records.....but having been born in the early 1980s I would know about those anyways, even though they were already "on the way out" by the time I came into the world in 1984..........

True story: I was at a friend's house a couple of summers ago (he had barely graduated from EHS, class of 2005; I had graduated three years before him) and I was rummaging through his dad's record collection when I came across the 1976(?) CBS recording of Philip Glass' Einstein On The Beach". As I am examining one of the discs in the set, friend comes in and asks me what it is I was looking at.

Me: This is "Einstein On The Beach". It's one of Philip Glass' finest operatic compositions.
Friend: No, I mean what's *that*? That big black thing with the coloured circle in the middle? (referring to the label stamped into the centre of the LP.)
Me: Oh my God, I think I just felt myself age thirty years.........

Even more shocking is he's only three years younger than me!

I had him over at my apartment recently and he needed to make a telephone call. I was cracking up when he lifted the receiver, saw the rotary dialler and didn't know what to do at that point.............

And then I sat him down at my computer, dialled my modem into a particular Atari User's BBS I happen to like, and introduced him to another long-forgotten about form of data communication: Telnet. Needless to say, being a product of the whole "Myspace revolution" he didn't believe me at all when I told him that at one time (wasn't even that long ago) that was what practically the entire Internet was like. ;o) He still doesn't.

I use telnet every day, I stil manage my servers the old fashioned way, through command line prompts.

Drives my assistant crazy, hes got all the fancy GUI programs.

It's really the only way, I think. ;o)

For the record, Friend was introduced to Telnet on my Mandrake/Win98 machine using the rather obscure MINIBEAN client running in a DOS box in Windows.

Wanna see something cool? Open up Hyperterminal (or whatever client you use) and go to towel.blinkenlights.nl port 23. For the full effect view it (and pretty much any Telnet, for that matter) in a DOS-based client, preferrably in full-screen mode.

I used to use telnet://columbia.fvrl.org regularly to check out books from the Fort Vancouver Regional Library over the computer (yes, you could actually do that!) and they would be mailled to my house, but I can't do that any more since their PAC (Publically Accessible Catalogue) is now completely web-based. Apparently they converted to an HTTP-only system a few years ago. They also seem to have taken their direct dial-up number down as well (695-9166, if I remember right; I haven't had to call it in several years so that number may have been different.)

Basically you'd dial up the number, then when you were greeted by the nice "FORT VANCOUVER" spelled out on the screen in big letters made of number signs, you'd use the log-in screen name 'WOW" and enter your library card number as your password. There was a small Guest login as well but it was pretty skimpy, as it really only allowed access to the card catalogues. (That was the system they would usually use at the library branches themselves.) It was then that I realised why the full log-in was called "WOW". ;o)

One really, really cool function of FVRL's PAC system was its PAL (Periodical Articles on-Line) system. Basically this was a big database stored on their main server downtown (Mill Plain, next to the Clark County PUD offices) in which was stored several hundred if not close to a few thousand magazine articles, a searchable national telephone directory, an electronic edition of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, and a few other things.

I remember hearing a series of ad spots for it on KVAN in the early 1990s just right after PAL was fully deployed (advertising it as "Your PAL", and being a "friendly on-line public research system".)

There were a couple of ways you could access it--either at a bank of terminals downtown (I think they have their Internet terminals in that area now) or via the Internet using a TCPIP-configured copy of Hyperterminal at home, or even via direct dial-up. Myself and many of us who were/are really hardcore or tech-savvy would usually use the last method. ;o)

Sometimes if you were at the library and you were really lucky, you'd come across a card catalogue terminal (old green or amber-screen WYSE systems) logged into the PAL, but the library staff didn't really like it when people did that. But sometimes you couldn't help it, because when the PAL terminals were all taken (as was sometimes the case) that would be your only option!

My Mum used to get really pissed off at me for tying up the phone line for so many hours down in the basement, flopped on the couch with my Commodore 64 in front of the TV, just exploring the vast amounts of stuff available on the library's PAL system.

Oh yeah, I was accessing the thing on a C-64 as recently as 2002 with my old Vicmodem and a programme another friend of mine wrote, running as a nice, steady 9600 baud. But then again, for those kind of text transfers and considering how much (or little, depending on your viewpoint) access PAL/PAC used to get by that time, that kind of speed was plenty fast!

...the whole Internet was like that.

Yeah, those were the days! (now we are getting to be old farts, I suppose.)

My favorite time was just pre-web. There were places one could telnet too, right over the Internet, gopher, never used archie, ftp.

Just went ahead and ftp'd to ftp.funet.fi It's all still there, just like the last time I accessed it. Been a long while, but I can still remember hoping I spelled anonymous right. They've gotten rid of the "transactions on this server are logged, please provide your e-mail address as password." bit. Now it just says, "any password will work."

Suppose that's a nod to the now diminished status such things have. If you know where the archive is, you likely know what it contains and it's all no big deal now.

A nice copy of Commander Keen can still be had in the apogee directory! The Atari archives have grown some too! That's all good, from where I stand. Heck, I might be able to get that old 400 online and use the archive. (C64 was better for this as it has multi-color text out of the box.)

I didn't BBS very long. A few years tops. Got lucky and ended up on the Internet fairly early with a friends university account. Got my own in 91. Spent way too much time on USENET.

Logging onto the old techbooks.com was a treat! One could dial up directly and just run a session on their UNIX machines. That was my preferred way to Internet. A who or a what command issued to the machine would tell me who is on the box, maybe we could chat.

Is the server getting kind of full? Can I make a large transfer to pick up next week on disk? A quick finger to Joey's account would tell me what the current plan is for that, was he online? Maybe we could just chat for a moment and sort it out.

I remember the directory permission policy. By default everybody had read access to the user directories. It was so cool to read how to chmod your really private stuff, while at the same time being encouraged to think that over first.

Lots of learning to be done when things are open, so keep it open and respect others where it makes sense. It's hard to even fathom such an environment today!

Almost everybody wouldn't even think of abuse. Doing that would likely blow the whole thing up and it was just too important for that to even be an option. Look at things now! We've got baddies making dollars from the raw exploitation of others 24/7!

Going graphical on things brought the masses to computers and Internet in general. Looking back, the only thing I miss is the culture. When just anybody can jump on the net, it's not really possible to mentor them and instill the norms necessary for it to be a happy and powerful place.

Was thinking about neural interfaces the other day. Scientists are making really great progress adapting computers for use by those missing limbs, or where disease has hobbled their ability to move, speak, see, hear, etc...

A graphical world makes all that stuff really hard. Back when Shyguy had to get his eye fixed, I tried out a screen reader, thinking it might help him. Text interfaces to the Internet are just sweet with one of those things. The more graphical it is, the harder it is to use in a serial fashion.

I'll bet good command line interfaces are the first neural interfaces that actually become productive for people. The relationship between words, sounds and plain old text is a solid one --easy to grasp, and most importantly: one where a person can be very specific about what it is they want from the computer!

Ever try renaming a bunch of files in windows? On the graphics, it's horrible. But on the command line, it's a simple "ren some*.* to bozo*.*" --or similar command.

Newer is not always better. It's healthy to go back in time, every so often, and dig through how we used to do things. Sometimes, an old technique, means or method, ends up being very useful for a new situation!

OK, now i'm tempted to put together a machine with DOS 6.22 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11 then load up Dragon's Lair, Wing Commander, Doom, and a few other DOS games I have kept just for S & G.

I use telnet regularly to connect to my home Linux systems. To non-technical people, the UNIX command line that I have come to know and love over the years looks like "computer code." To one friend, who is a professional system administrator, my use of telnet seems careless because this is not a secure protocol.

In the early 1990s, when I discovered e-mail, FTP, gopher, and USENET, I could not have imagined that one day web based message boards and e-mail interfaces, both making heavy use of graphics, would one day become the de-facto standard. The reason for that is that text is the main component of e-mails and of discussion board postings; the text-only interface, as displayed on Telix or a DEC video terminal, seemed like it did the job well enough. However, now I can appreciate that there is a pretty large group of people to whom a computer without a GUI would be totally useless and as such, a lot of the "excesses" of today's Internet sites were necessary to give the Internet mainstream appeal.

Just for fun, in what year or years would you say that the Internet stopped being associated with hobbyists, techies, and nerds? I would pin that year as 1999. Will the Internet have a "Golden Age" in the same way that radio and television did? When might that be, and what will characterize it?

You really should use ssh ;)

For me, that day was when they let the AOL'ers on. The feel changed, though it was still a pretty geek thing.

The big transition was '98 & 99. Everything went mainstream fairly quickly right about then.

Alfredo--

By chance do you still have your Gopher site up? (At least I think it was yours I used some time sgo....)

I may have to get out my Mosaic disc which has been on the shelf, neglected, for the last few years.... ;o)

I would have to say it was about '99 or 2000 or so, when instant messaging was the "latest big thing"; kinda' like Text Messaging before there was Text Messaging. (At least, everybody in school was or seemed to be using an IM system of some sort back then.) That to me, aside from the time when TheirSpace Network went mainstream (and its later unfortunate buyout by Fox), was about when the Internet seemed to have "died".

And now look at the vast commercialised mess we are stuck with!

I was yakking with one of my former co-workers (a kid some years younger than I; not the friend I mentioned above) last weekend about systems like Telnet and Gopher, and he thought I was making the whole thing up. Didn't believe me at all.

All that entered my mind at that point was, "My Gods, what's happening to the younger generation?" Even I got my start in computing by programming BASIC and later 68K ASM on an Apple IIe and C64, when I was only in second & third grade! (Didn't bother with LOGO or any of the other "kiddie languages"; I delved straight into the real stuff right off the bat. And now I would be extremely lucky if I can even remember that you never should enter the command "SYS64759" before you have saved your work!)

'Twould be lucky if he even knows what DOS *is*, let alone knows that it was what we used to (and in some cases, still do) operate our entire computer systems on!! But, him having been brought up pretty much entirely on Macintrash and later Winblows systems, it really wouldn't surprise me at all. Sad indeed.

One of these days just out of pure cruelty, I ought to invite him over to my pad and sit him down before a real, working Apple IIe................

> By chance do you still have your Gopher site up?

Yep. Try 386server.info. The site was down a few weeks ago while I replaced the server's hard drive. However, it turned out that what had been causing the server to freeze up periodically was a defective CD-ROM drive and not the hard disk.

I'm contemplating creating a gopher and/or web archive of 3840 HAM recordings. I just have to find the time to do it.

By the way, there is a public gopher-to-web proxy out there for people whose browsers don't support gopher or for those who are on networks that don't support connections to gopher servers (like a lot of corporate LANs). To use the proxy, go to http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/

Thanks.......

I had a lot of fun with that today Alfredo!

Well, I just found my old C64 in my folks' basement on Tuesday (with the Vicmodem still plugged in to the cartridge slot!) buried under a bunch of other junk......I'm going to hook it up this weekent and try and get in a bit of Telnetting. Shame about FVRL's Dialpac/PAL going belly-up tho........

I also found my Colecovision and a bunch of cartridges. I just need to find a power supply transformer for the thing (the original one I had broke years ago.)

So if you need to find me this weekend I'll likely be in my apartment in front of the TV, C64 in hands, snooping around for unsecured corporate telnets so I can sell all their data and trade secrets to unscrupulous shady characters who only come downtown late at night. ;o) *sinister grin* Buwahahahaha!

Just don't login to the Whopper with Joshua as a password and play "Global Thermonuclear War"!