oldmako

Much of it depends on what you want to do with it, and what your expectations are. I'm on my third one, and love it. As for size, if you want it for the gym or running, a small one is the way to go but you'll sacrifice storage space. If you want it for travel and while sitting in airports, planes, boats, etc then a bigger one is the way to go. The batteries in the newer ones are phenomenal and last a long time. You'll have to load iTunes on your computer. Easy and idiot proof for the most part. It will find all the music on your hard drive, transfer and display it in iTunes. Then when you plug your pod into the PC, iTunes will automatically transfer all of it to the iPod. Any change that you make to the contents of iTunes, will be made to the iPod the next time you synch them. Due to compression, you lose fidelity unless you go with lossless downloads. So, if you want to use the device as a source in your home stereo, the sound will not be the equivalent of a CD or album. It still sounds good, just not as good. Thats about 20 percent of it.

I used to have an older Sony unit which I really enjoyed messing with. I got it and a huge box of tapes for $50. It was DOA, but an evening on the floor with some beers and tools provided me with a list of stuff (mostly belts) it needed. I got the parts for next to nothing and was up an running in just a few days. I love all that old mechanical stuff, and poking around with likages, gears and the like. It wasn't a very high quality machine and I eventually got rid of it, and all the tapes. WHAT AN IDIOT! hahahah. Of course, I also threw a Nakamichi in the dumpster too. So, now I am searching for the next one. I hope to find a nicer machine than the Sony with spares & tapes to go with it. Just missed a NICE Teac on CL a month or so ago.

It sounds interesting, but I am a bit wary of things on the net which sound too good to be true. Is it safe?? Just how much of your personal info is out there in space? Here is a link to an article which praises it but adds the safety caveat. This article is old and hopefully they have since addressed the issue. I'll keep on looking to see if I can find newer info. Till then, I'll continue to drag my 80 gig iPod around and stream Pandora from my phone and laptop. http://www.zeropaid.com/news/99/what_do_the_stars_say_about_audiogalaxy/

I always thought it was pronounced "God-zirra"

260 gig on my External. But, a lot of it is junk which I ignore. 60 gig on iTunes. 11240 songs. 31 days. I really need a Slingbox Duet!

Took a while, but you got it!

JUMP! I'd use them for my rears. That would be a kick in the butt!

Thanks for the replies, and great news on the plugs and comparison. I have a pair of 3.2s, and a Marantz so I figured that he couldn't go wrong. I LOVE Craigslist. I'll let him know on the plugs.

I'm not trying to impress my neighbors, but I have pi$$ed them off a few times! I have tried to explain to them that Who's Next? can only really be appreciated at "fairly high" volume, with "fairly high" being both entirely subjective and under the direct control of the big knob. The big knob being both the one on the amp and the who rotates it clockwise. When Roger screams, YYYYYEEEEAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!....he's screaming right? So....loud is good! Big Speaks = Big Sound. I suppose I need a farm or house out in the sticks.

AudioHomies, I finally managed to get a Buddy to defenestrate his ZebcoStereo and step into the enlightened state of Klipschdom. For 235 bucks, he picked up a mint pair Black Veneer of KG3.5s and an old silver faced Marantz Receiver. The speaks were a CL find and the receiver came from a church sale. He's out buying wire now. May I inquire (ax) the assembled Braintrust a few Qs? Will these accept banana plugs? He's entertaining the idea of moving them around for parties, get togethers, balls, orgies, mosh events, soiree's, galas, shindigs, barbeques, functions, riots, disfunctions, melees etc. The serial numbers are still a mystery to me. Most of the info I find under search seems to pertain to the older Heritage serial numbers. KG35VBK98390260 - 251 KG3.5, Veneer Black is about as far as I get.... Many thanks.

70 watts will probably be plenty of power. I often hear guys say that old watts are more powerful than new watts due to the way the output was / is measured, but I don't know about that. RIght now I'm using an ancient 200 wpc Phase Linear amp. They seem pretty happy with that! As far as corners, experiment. The problem is that they are a bit cumbersome to move. I lean then on the corners and "walk" them around. I think they weigh about 90 pounds. Mine have "spikes" which elevate them an inch off the floor. I suspect their main function is to tie them to the floor which has been carpeted to increase the bass. I seldom increase the bass more than one or two stops from flat, and on many recordings have them in the other direction. Especially newer recordings which really seem to be skewed toward more bass, abnormally so to my ears. Its as if we all drive ghetto cruisers, listen to RAP and love to annoy the populace when at stop lights. Gnomesane? Enjoy them.

I own a pair, but I'm pretty much a bottom dweller on most things electronic. As a consequence, I can't give you much info. But just for grins, I powered mine recently with a tiny, and I mean TINY tri-path amp which probably doesn't put out 10 watts. Very clean watts, but this thing is puny. Surprisingly, they sounded very good, but started to fall apart at loud volume. My Fortes sounded much better with the little amp and I suspect that their efficiency made all the difference. I have listened to my CFs with a whole mess of SS receiver / amp combinations, but never tubes. To my ear, they sound better with higher power, particularly when I am trying to summon the local constable. They're a weird beast, but I love em. Good luck with yours.

I have no idea what this thread is about. Therefore I am not in either camp. I am wandering around lost in the woods. This discussion (and you gents) are several orders of magnitude over my head. But, I am trying to learn, as this stuff is both confusing and fascinating. Thanks for the interesting discussion. I'll go back to my old vintage SS stuff and shut up now.

That's a sweet deal. When I started reading the thread I thought that I'd put a good word in for an old Marantz! You beat me to the punch. Nice score. I picked up a 2240 a few weeks ago for 40 bucks. It sounds GREAT although the volume pot is a tad messed up. The left channel is a bit reluctant to get going, but once it does its fine at louder volumes. I peered into the cabinet and its quite dirty. I have yet to dig into it, so it may be a simple detox....(for me) and Deox for the unit. It's my first piece of Marantz gear and its very nice. According to the web, it was built in 1974 and retailed for almost 600 bucks. So, not a cheap piece of gear. I was going to give it my daughter for Xmas, but she's getting a big Onkyo stack now. Well, unless I find something more suitable on CL in the next few weeks! Then I'll sell the Onkyo gear. I also have a nice old G5700 Sansui which I highly recommend. 75 watts and a gorgeous design...nicer than the Marantz. But the tuner section on the Marantz is really amazing. There are 6 tuners in the house and the Marantz 2240 is far and away the best. Congratulation on the great deal! I have seen empty Marantz wood cases alone for 200 bucks!!

David, You said that ".... However, I THINK that the nature of these amps should make them significantly less susceptible to an electrically noisy environment than analog designs simply because a lot of the sensitive work is happening in the digital realm..." My plan was to wire this thing directly to the ships 'house' battery to eliminate any noise. But your comment makes me wonder if just hooking it up to the present 12V power supply (generated and already at the planned point of install) would be a way around the noise issue. Plus, it would save me a fair amount of work. I suppose I can just try it, and if its noisy, run the wires directly to the batt. I'm going to take the little mother to my brothers house. I'll hook it up to his Chours II's and amaze him. This thread reminds me of the guy in the desert with LaScalas driven by a tiny little amp with a motorcycle battery.

OK, I was so jonesed about this concept I got to thinking. I had purchased a little cheezy amp last year on ebay, because it was insanely cheap. But when it showed up it seemed like a toy. Barely larger than a pack of smokes, and light as a feather. I didn't know a T-Amp from a T-Square. Then I read this thread, and went and dug out the toy. I have attached an image, hopefully it will take as my PC skills are extrordinary(ily bad). First, I hooked it up to my Fortes in my bedroom / house o bondage. HOLY SMOKES. Then it took it downstairs and hooked it up to my CF3s. HOLY SMOKESSQUARED. I had no idea that this tiny, nearly featherweight box could make such noise! I turned it up to max with no input and heard...nothing. To be fair, it suffers a bit a very loud volumes, particularly on the less effecient CFs (and in a very large room). The bass is reasonable at low volume, but tends to get boomy as its cranked. Careful attention to the tone controls was necessary as volume increased. But, talk about bang for no bucks. I can't wait to schlep over to the yot and get it wired up. Insane! As Pete said in "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou"......"That don't make NO sense!!" Happily confused and fairly stupid (but with a nice glass of mash).

Interesting thread and interesting amp. I'm currently running a sanyo double DIN car unit on my boat, with an el cheapo (noisy) yard sale amp. The dynamic duo are powering my Klipsch KSB 1.1s. Due to it being a marine application there is a ton of remnant noise in the audio due to interference from engine ignition, crappy old wiring, other electronics etc etc etc. I picked the sanyo because it has an aux input for my ipod, and it was cheap on ebay. I hate to put pricy electrics on a boat that lives in salt water, since most everything just gets tosssed every few years anyway. This little amp also has an 1/8 input, so it would work with the ipod. But the real kicker is that by using batteries, I could eliminate all the noise from both the current lousy components AND the boats electrical system. The only down side is the way it's mounted and battery access, but I can work around that somehow. I'd rather use the larger one (50 wpc) but it's 24V. I'll do a search and look for others. Any guesses how long it would operate with regular old batteries? Or, is there something unique about the design of this amp which would make it less susceptible to passing on the noise from the boats elec system if it was wired directly? THANKS!

I have been trying some things with my Fortes. Initially I used a 75 watt Sansui G 5700 that I found on CL for 45 bucks. Fantastic in all respects. A wonderful old receiver. Then I went with a higher power Onkyo stack that I picked up on CL for 150 bucks. It consisted of M501 amp at 150 wpc, and matching Pre, Tuner, and double cassette deck. They sounded....very good, but nowhere near as good as with the Sansui. The stack looks cool, but I'm not in this habit for looks. Ho hum. I suspect that the amp alone might not be too bad with a different Preamp. Right now I am messing around with a sick Marantz 2240 (40 wpc) which I picked up on (again) CL for 40 bucks. It has some issues with an intermittent left channel. But I must say, they sound GREAT with that thing. I am very impressed with the old unit. The tuner is amazing. With just a scrap of antenna wire it sucks in everything. Best tuner in the house by far. I took the cabinet off and cleaned out the dust and crud, and sprayed electronics cleaner all over, and on the pots in particular. Initially all it did was snap, crackle and pop, but now it's clear as a bell and all the controls are silent. But to get the L channel to work you need to wind it up pretty loud. It will come on and then can be adjusted. But, I hate to spank that speaker like that and I am going to try cleaning it again. If no luck, there is a local old guy who works on electronics. I feel that it will be worthh the expense to get it right. Still patiently scouring CL for some Tube gear which I can afford. The last thing I saw was a Fisher 500C but he was firm in his asking price of 500, which is too rich for my blood right now. Maybe when my kid graduates, who knows. I am dying to hear them through tubes based on what I have read.

Marantz 2240 for $40 on Craigslist. It was a fuzzy mother upon fire up, but an hour and some detox has it sounding sweeeeet!

Something must be amiss. I have the CF3s and on 90% of my recordings the bass is seldom above flat, perhaps 1230-1300. On OLDER recordings when played really loud, it ocassionally gets to 1400. I think the newer stuff is mixed with more bass. Just my opin. You say your room is 5x5, my guess is thats meters?? My room is probably 5X6m. I can't imagine needing or wanting a sub with these mothers.

Sweet find. Congrats. LOVE walnut.

I have a bunch of the old stuff. I like it, and its all I can afford. I want to see a TON of knobs when I look at a piece. Yes, I'm a dork. I have the idea to find my 18 year old daughter a nice old integrated amp for one of her XMAS gifts. She loves Cream, The Who, Led Zep, Little Feat, Petty etc along with Cake, Weezer, etc etc etc. She loves music and it cracks me up when she puts on some Dino-Rock and sings along. She hates rap, and most of the junk that kids listen to these days. I give her high marks for that and I'd like to reward her for it. Last year I bought her a set of Klipsch KSF 10.5s. She also has first dibs on my KG 3.2s. Now I want to work on the other end. My question is what do you guys recommend in the 40-80 watt range? It doesn't have to be just an integrated amp, IOW I am also looking at old Marantz / Sansui / Pioneer / HK etc receivers. But I want it to be fairly robust and have the power to make some quality noise, and allow her to have more flexibility in the future as she upgrades. I was always told that the more you spent on an old silverface piece, the better the quality of the components that were in it as well. So, I 'd like to pick an apple from fairly high up the tree. Money IS an object, but I don't want to buy a piece of (relative to high end audio / tube / MacIntosh, etc) junk. Any ideas? Or older stuff to avoid??? I picked up a mint Pioneer SA 8100 for 60 bucks. Something along those lines perhaps?

I'd leave them alone. Buy some doilies. Or, place the latest edition of Cigar Afficionado on the top. Its a big *** magazine. Or, some orchids. The great thing about orchids is that they don't require water! Take em to the sink once a month and hose em good. Let them sit for an hour in the sink and then put it on the speak on a proper soft bottom dish. With two ounces of prevention and care, NO chance of water stains on your speaks. Chicks dig em, if you're into that sort of person. They look pretty damn good as is, and if you messed them up then I'm afraid that your whole world might come crashing down. Locusts, pestilence and all that. And that would really suck.

Here's the rest of the downstairs guts.... The Phase Preamp is currently in a box and on its way for service. It has issues and the Pioneer sounds just great. I have budgetary issues so this is about the best I can do. It makes ME smile, so that's what counts. I'll upgrade someday.

This is the HT end of my set up. When in 2CH mode the CF3s are used but are powered by an amp on the other side of the room. I use a Niles SPK - 1 for switching. Sometimes when busy and running around the domo I'll just select "Blues" on my cable box and listen through my Sony receiver, but it's just not the same as the Phase.