Modest review of my vintage setup!

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Deleted member 38504

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Would love to add my two bits to my lil vintage audio setup!

First up, my Philips turntable 242.
Bought it from a dealer in Mumbai,I overpaid,paid almost double its price. What the heck,this was my first TT and experience with vintage!
Having said that,it's in great condition. Neat and tidy to look at! It came with a e400 cart. Cosmetically in very nice condition I must say!

I have replaced the cart and stylus now with a jico stylus from Japan and a shure m44-7 cart. The sound quality and experience has gone up ten fold! The combination really makes the TT sing quite beautifully! I can't thank shafic Bhai from Mumbai and Selvin sir from Blr enough! More on them later!

The belt on the TT is a lil old,need a replacement for that for sure.

Next up, vintage pioneer speakers! Model CS 205. Absolutely mint condition,picked them up locally in Mumbai from an old gentleman. Hooked them up to the denon, occasionally felt they sound just as good as my polks! Just a lil bit of lows were missing, needed a lil push from the Polk sub. The speakers are about 20 inches tall,look gorgeous in the wood veneer finish. Need to keep them at least 10 feet apart to experience a nice open and wide soundstage. The Polks are definitely more crisp,wider and clearer,but the pioneers have a warm vintage kind of sound. Ideal from my turntable and amp.

Last but not the least, my sansui AU777! Now this is the heart and soul of my vintage lp setup! I nearly missed this sale, the moment I saw it,I called up shafic bhai and booked the amp! Eferd,who is a member told me regarding the amp for sale on the forum so thanks to him! What can I say about the amp! Beautiful to look at and the sound is to fall in love with! Sweet sounding and close to tube like! Don't be fooled by the lil 25 watts 8 ohm per channel rubbish that the specs say! I have yet to go beyond 40% on the volume knob! Really really powerful for home use. Puts my denon to shame for sure! Has so many features on the amp that I'm yet to learn! Such a lovely yet powerful amp! Believe me, after hearing this amp, I've stopped believing in watts ratings. The amp is in really good shape for being so so old! All the pots and the internals are original.

My first lps were bought from Selvin sir from Blr who incidentally also was instrumental in advising me for the jico stylus from Japan that I bought. All thanks to him! Very nice man to talk to!

Shafic bhai, I don't know what to say about this man. I have been to his house a few times, bought lps from him, bought the amp from him. He is one of the very few lovers of vintage music I know! Such a nice and humble man! After I bought the amp, I wanted to get it checked out and serviced. Shafic bhai immediately made time for me. Again I went to his place with the amp. We sat for 4 hours at his place while he so patiently cleant the amp internals. He used a lil bit of deoxit on the pots and viola! Brand new! All the junk was cleared off the knobs and pots! Along with that he inspected my Philips 242. The platter was making a lil sound, guess what, he fixed that too. So patiently he helped me solve these lil niggling problems. He even changed my cart and stylus and put the shure and jico on the TT.

This gentleman spent 4 hours of his time with me that day,and all he got from me was good wishes and a thank you! He is a true gentleman who just loves his music! Thanks to shafic bhai for all the help he has given not only to me,but to countless of forum members without anything in return!

I listen to about 5 to 6 records on my off day everytime.No skip at all with the new cart and stylus, just beautiful sounding music!

Very soon,I want to upgrade my turntable. Looking for something more intermediate. Also looking out for a dancing lights equalizer. Will make my vintage setup complete!

Thank you for reading!
 
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Thank you so much! Good observation! Lol :)

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Thanks so much! Vintage is beautiful!

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Just a thought. The sub is placed below in the rack housing the TT. Although it looks neat but from vibration angle would it not be better to shift sub elsewhere, if possible. Assuming sub and TT are used at the same time
 
The sub is used along with the polks and the denon for music and movies.

The tt is connected to the sansui connected only to the pioneer speakers for record listening in stereo :)

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Yes thanks I know, he had a previous one I missed out on, I want an equalizer with lights actually and this particular version does not have what I need, looks beautiful and well kept though!

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Congrats Celester....
Nice setup.
The speaker is an eye catching.... little bit jealousy about it...
:clapping: Enjoy...
 
Thanks selvin sir! Was lucky to get these from the old gentleman in Mumbai! :)

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I got to know Derek recently through PM. He's very passionate about vinyl and vintage stuff.

Derek, your equipment looks in fantastic condition. My advise would be not to upgrade the TT so soon. When one buys a TT for the first, second or third time, almost everything in the neighborhood will start sounding better. This is not because your TT is lesser than any other source, its because you are acclimatizing. In order to successfully enjoy vinyl, one has to become familiar with it. Understanding your TT fully is one of the enablers. Once you are really familiar with your TT, all the dependencies and what clearly needs to be done to better the sound, only then go for upgrades.

The M44-7 is a great cart for old records. You won't believe this given my TTs listed on the signature and probably everyone will laugh at this, but I actually have one mounted on a SME headshell for playing old records. It somehow has this knack of making old records sing, keeps groove distortion down, has the best bass response among all carts I have every heard and tracks splendidly.
 
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Ur definitely right about the shure m44 Reuben! It is a beautiful cart that! Thanks for the kind words,very soon in a month or two will get the opportunity to get a nice lil TT. Hence the upgrade. I'm just glad my wife loves listening to records too!

Thoroughly enjoy listening to about 4-5 lps everyday! Was listeNing to some Santana the other day! Beautiful!!! It's such a joy seeing the record spin! Nostalgic I say and very therapeutic!
 
Ur definitely right about the shure m44 Reuben! It is a beautiful cart that! Thanks for the kind words,very soon in a month or two will get the opportunity to get a nice lil TT. Hence the upgrade. I'm just glad my wife loves listening to records too!

Thoroughly enjoy listening to about 4-5 lps everyday! Was listeNing to some Santana the other day! Beautiful!!! It's such a joy seeing the record spin! Nostalgic I say and very therapeutic!

Yes indeed, there is a lot of nostalgia involved as well, especially for me, growing up in a westernized household on a staple of stuff from Jim Reeves to Julio Iglisias, from Hendrix to Zeppelin and loads of instrumental stuff.
 
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