A while back I decided that I was going to build the stereo system of my dreams...from when I was a kid. Mainly because even though digital music is much easier to store and access, the sound quality is nowhere as good as good old analog sound. It takes more parts and effort, but it sounds sooooo nice!
The system I actually had as a kid was a nice Lloyds combo record player, AM/FM tuner and 8 Track tape player...THAT COULD RECORD! I got it for Christmas one year and it did a great job. Heck, it even helped me learn to play the bass. You see, I would practice by playing along to 8 track tapes, and if I messed up, I couldn't stop and rewind them. Best music lesson you can learn: no matter what, keep going!!!
Anyway, after I moved out on my own, I bought a nice Techniques rack system, which I still have some parts of. Some parts died and some live on. I decided to use the living in a whole new system!
One thing I never had as a kid was a stereo system grade reel to reel player. I bought some tapes at a local garage sale a while back and that sent me on a journey that ended up with me buying a Sansui QD 5500 reel to reel player.
Now the thing about that player is that it's not exactly stereo, it's quad. That means four channels for the speakers instead of two. You have left/right front and left/right rear. Of course you need a special receiver to play quad tapes and I didn't have one...until my lovely wife decided I needed one for my approaching 60th birthday! (Full disclosure, our old receiver just died) (Further discloser, my birthday is in September, but the unit was a good price and we jumped on it...not literally...)
She got me a 1973 Sansui QRX 7500a! Here it is! Sansui is a higher end brand from the early 70s. Many service men brought them back from Asia after the Vietnam War. They are high quality and heavy as all get out! (I don't exactly know what that expression means)
Oh, and this is the tape deck... also Sansui!
So now I'm busy constructing the new system with parts from here, there, and everywhere. My old system from the early '80s donated the turntable, dual cassette deck, two speakers, and EQ. I have two additional Kenwood speaker towers that I found on the side of the road. For real. Oh, and yes, it even has an 8 track player... that I got off eBay.
...And I have the greatest wife in the world!
Until next time, keep searching for treasure!
Wow. A quad system and an 8 track tape player that recorded too! I had an 8 track for my car in the 60s. Loved that thing. Perfect for those trips up to Phoenix to see the bigger acts that wouldn't make it to Tucson, like Led Zeppelin and the Who. Jimi Hendrix played in a little club on Speedway Blvd. about a mile from my house. That concert is a whole story in itself.
ReplyDeleteI didn't get to keep any of my stuff with the exception of a 1960s Pioneer amp. (I'll have to dig it out and find the model number etc. It was great for loud if you like it) It still resides in the hall closet on top of my 1980 or 81 RCA VHS 4 head player and recorder. It cost me a thousand dollars new back then. I actually took out a small loan to get it and paid it in a year. It was pure gold for a movie buff like me.
Nice job. Kudos to your wife too.
That sounds cool! I remember my first VHS player. It cost over 500, but it wasn't "top of the line." It wasn't 4 head. I couldn't afford that!
DeleteI actually need to replace the 8 track in this system. It "bleeds through" and doesn't have a way to adjust it.
I'm listening to Jethro Tull on real to reel right now! Digital will never sound this sweet!
I remember when our family got its first VCR, it was so expensive my frugal Dad physically couldn't make himself write the check, even though he wanted it a much as the rest of us and agreed that we could afford it. He asked Mom to write the check because he just couldn't do it.
DeleteI bet that’s DrGoat who just commented. [Hi, DrGoat!]. I always love his stories—and want to hear more details!
ReplyDeleteMy ‘79 T-Bird had a Quad 8-track tape player—and I had two tapes that I played over and over. I only remember the one was Jefferson Starship—and I’d blast ‘Jane’ on my way to work and back. Can’t recall who the other group was...[old age].
—Sue
Wow, Sue! A Quad 8 track in your car! You were really really sumpin'!
DeleteI remember I had an Alan Parsons tape (I Robot) that I played in my car on my puny regular stereo 8 track. Oh and I has a "Best of" tape of the Eagles. That's about all I can remember in the car- Although I remember playing a different Alan Parsons tape at home (Tales of Mystery and Imagination). Weird...
Sue,
ReplyDeleteI am just enjoying the fact you have a '79 T-Bird with a quad 8 track. So cool. I think I had a few Jimi Hendrix tapes, and a Steppenwolf tape, but I can't remember what else. That Hendrix concert was in a closed down bowling alley. They ripped up the lanes and you sat on some plywood they just laid down. Very loud, about 300 people maybe. quite a night it was. A week later the Yardbirds (with Jimmy Page ) played down the street in a old department store.
In 1989? my wife and I rented a T-Bird (don't know what year it was) to drive to Disneyland. Fun trip. The only thing I remember about it was it was huge and the seatbelts came down automatically when you closed the door.
PS Stu, good choice of tapes.
I would have given anything to see those shows! Well, maybe not anything, but a lot. Those memories are priceless though!
DeleteMy favorite teacher in high school, Glenna Newkirk, had a 1975 T-Bird. It was HUGE! She used to let kids in her newspaper and yearbook classes take it to wash it and maybe pick up lunch for her. It was definitely a different time then...