Vintage audio in Finland

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kimmo
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Vintage audio in Finland

Post by kimmo »

I spent my 55th anniversary last summer and I have worked 34 years full time in security. In early 90´s I was asked to write reviews in local High End publication Musiikin Ääni, so I did for maybe 1,5 years before publication went belly up. After this I started selling tubes as part time job... or hobby.

My audio hobby began in early 70:s, when we built amplifiers and speakers with my daddy. Later, when I went collage and started earning money during summer holidays, I bought hifi equipment like AR7, Harman Kardon 930 receiver and so on...

In early 90´ I lost my interest in audio. In early 2000´s I got married and got new hobbies. I got interested in wristwatches and wines, but I newer lost my contact to audio completely due my part time tube business.

In 2008 my friend asked if I like to buy Tannoy Little Red monitors... and I did. This was new beginning of my audio hobby. Since then, I have bought several amps, speakers etc. I have the following items now and I believe there are several interesting projects in the pipeline.

Turntables
AR XB with Rega Arm and Denon 103
Garrard grease bearing 301, SMEV, Benz Glider project not finished

CD-players
Audio Research CD3 MK2

Tuners
Quad FM1 with Quad original MPX
Linsley Hood AM/FM tuner from Hart... never got it working perfectly even it is probably very good tuner if working properly... any help is apriciated?
Harman Kardon Citation 15

Pre amplifiers
Quad 22
Harman Kardon Citation 11
Audio Research SP14
Conrad Johnson Premier 7B

Power amplifiers
Solo Mos Fet amplifier
Quad II pair
Quad 240
EAR 509 pair from 70´s
Audio Research Classic 60
Audio Research D76A
Conrad Johnson Premier 11A

Loudspeakers
Tannoy Little Red Monitors
ATC K100 from Wilmslow Audio
Kef Cantata uppgraded
Kef P60
Goodmans Axiom 201
JBL L36 uppgrded
AR 2ax

I am now using ARC CD3, CJ Premier 7B, ARC D76A, ATC100 set.

JBL L36, AR2ax, Kef P60´s projects are going to be finished within next year.

In the old days, I was quite sure how audio system should be made. No negative feedback, no complicated crossovers etc... During all these years I have learned that there are several ways to make good audio. Somebody can get very good results, when using simple circuits from manufacturers data sheets, if he has time to tweak layout and operation points properly. More elaborate circuits can be made to perform nicely or badly. Common nominator for all these ways is not to compromise too much, almost everything matters. There are no free lunches.

I have learned that also products less than state of art can be fun. I restored recently H/K Citation 11, 12 & 15 set. It was odd to note that Citation 11 did have quite many groundings made incorrectly, like left channel smoothing capacitor, lineamp input, or hi cut filter grounded to right channel ground buss, even my 11 was late production unit. I must say that even my Premier 7B did have some similar mistakes made at the CJ during 7 to 7B status uppgrade. Mains cable green wires were attched only to linefilters, leaving chassis ground unconnected to mains plug... safety hazard that is illegal at least here. 7B conversion was not too well made, as also RCA connector mounting holes were opened without deburring the holes and therefore one RCA ground was shorting to chassis and developed ground loop.

However, I have used 7B for 2,5 years and it has been quite nice amp. 11A is good match to 7B even I do not use it all the time. 11A do present nice romatic valve like sound, maybe more coloured than ARC, but easy to like or even love. 7B is clearly less coloured and more accurate amplifier.

There are many things that will interest me. Maranz 7 clones like early Premiers or SP3/6/8 should be investigated. MV75 and EL34 CJ:s, EAR preamp, 802 or G88 would be fun too. Rabco ST8, Thorens TD125, Spendor BC1/SP1/Rogers Studio. H/K Citation I/II, ARC D79... I hope that I will have enough time and funds for all this interesting gear.

Maybe you have now better understanding why I do this and how I think. I hope that we can discuss about all interesting topics of audio freely on this site.

Sincerely Yours

Kimmo Salminen
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Re: Vintage audio in Finland

Post by admin »

Kimmo,
Welcome to CJO. You have a nice set of equipment and I like your story of getting into "audio" then out, then back in again. It's funny how hobbies transition in and out of our lives.

You have some nice vintage gear in there as well. The Tannoy Little Red Monitors are a classic. Very nice.

Hope to hear more from you. I would love to see some pictures of the setup, I bet it looks amazing! Take care.
-admin
Home Theater in Member Gallery
Main stereo: ART Amplifier and ET7s2. 2nd stereo: PV-14L and MV-55. Previously Owned: PF2 preamp, Evolution 2000 Amp, PV-12AL preamp, D/A-2b Vacuum-Tube Digital Processor.
Ray
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Re: Vintage audio in Finland

Post by Ray »

Welcome Kimmo! What a great group of gear! Send pix :D
-------------------------------------------------
Magnepan 20.7
Conrad Johnson ART 300
Conrad Johnson GAT V2
Meitner MA 1 V2
Custom Server running MC 23
Dual Synology 1512+ 12 TB total storage
joeinid
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Re: Vintage audio in Finland

Post by joeinid »

Ray wrote:Welcome Kimmo! What a great group of gear! Send pix :D

+1

Welcome!
kimmo
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Re: Vintage audio in Finland

Post by kimmo »

Thank you for your kind response.

Maybe I should buy digital camera and take some pictures...

Best Regards

Kimmo
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Re: Vintage audio in Finland

Post by admin »

kimmo wrote:Thank you for your kind response.

Maybe I should buy digital camera and take some pictures...

Best Regards

Kimmo
Yes, we would love to see some pictures of your setup in out Member Gallery area! If you have a cell phone with a camera you could probably use that. It's surprising how good the picture quality on my iphone camera is considering the lens is the size of a grain of rice.
Take care!
-admin
Home Theater in Member Gallery
Main stereo: ART Amplifier and ET7s2. 2nd stereo: PV-14L and MV-55. Previously Owned: PF2 preamp, Evolution 2000 Amp, PV-12AL preamp, D/A-2b Vacuum-Tube Digital Processor.
kimmo
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75 kg of refurbished Preamplifiers

Post by kimmo »

Here are my pre amplifiers

Quad 22
Quad 34
Audio Research SP14
Audio Research SP6C
Harman Kardon Citation 11
Audio Research SP3A
Conrad Johnson Premier 7B

Best Regards

Kimmo
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Re: Vintage audio in Finland

Post by admin »

Awesome. I love the dual mono Premier 7 chassis design. A+.
-admin
Home Theater in Member Gallery
Main stereo: ART Amplifier and ET7s2. 2nd stereo: PV-14L and MV-55. Previously Owned: PF2 preamp, Evolution 2000 Amp, PV-12AL preamp, D/A-2b Vacuum-Tube Digital Processor.
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Re: Vintage audio in Finland

Post by joeinid »

Great photo Kimmo. Thanks!
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