Best looking vintage Hifi gear

I think a UK based Second Hand HiFi dealer uses one to this day for showing off all their kit. The font and colour of the stand/support is fairly distinctive!

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The Sonab C500 looked great back in the 70’s. Although based on the Nakamichi 500 it wasn’t in the same league sonically, although at it’s price, (less than half the the RRP of the Nakamichi), it was great value. And they were notoriously unreliable.
Sonab C500

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I always thought the Spendor D40 looked great in an understated way. I got mine in 1976. Put it next to the LP12, and along with my BC1s I thought I was done. Silly me! The internals were pretty well sorted.
Spendor D40 outer
Spendor D40 inner

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These B & W DM70 loudspeakers were rather special back in the day. This is a photo from the web, but I must have lots upstairs in boxes or albums.

It’s hard to get an idea of the size from the photo, but it was a 15” bass unit I think and the midrange and treble was all handled by the top electrostatic unit. So they were about 36” tall and a bit less wide. Back in 1974 when I bought mine, a pair cost about £500. They sounded awesome.

image

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B&W have always crafted great looking gear. I read somewhere that in the 70s they used the same industrial designer that did the iconic Kenwood mixer, (food, not audio!).

Sorry, I have edited it in.

Yes and I have edited too! Twilight Zone

If it’s in metal case , I like. In plastic case, much less. :grin:

Hmmm maybe not a looker but the Creek CAS 4040 blew up a storm with the lairy Heybrook HB1s. PR and (just occasionally) Timing. Not mine I hasten to add.

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You would need a bloody big pencil for that FR!

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My first good cassette was a TEAC. Second hand in 1975. It was not reliable… so… I got rid of it.

The Sonab was a plastic case… I bought one second hand in 1976. I had it for a few months. It spent a lot of time in the repair shop. So I got rid of it.

Bought a second hand Nakamichi 600. Better style and better sound. But unfortunately much more expensive to fix. The heads were very soft. So after three months I got rid of it.

Got a Luxman K12. New this time. And it died after a couple of months. Under warranty this time, but I decided maybe a cassette deck wasn’t for me.

I didn’t get another good cassette deck until my Pro Walkman came along. Which lasted almost 10 years.

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It was a JVC. Maybe it’s only me who calls them the jockstrap and vest company.

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Did anyone have the Meridien MCA system? I think it allowed on from the 101/103/105 system in the mid 80’s. It was a modular system with individual components such as pre and power amps, MM module, MC module, CD, FM radio and tape which all fitted together and was powered by some sort of bus bar system IIRC. Looked like nothing else on the market and I always fancied one but could never afford it.

I find these utterly fantastic. The OpArt look in late-60s style never fails to reach me…

Sorry, I struggle to understand

There is one on eBay for £599 if you want one.

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Eek! IIRC this was a seemingly great idea that rather fell down in practice especially as the connectors aged. And the nextel used on the cases was not a finish that improved with age or use…

I remember years back Naim’s Italian distributor ‘Vanino’ Spinelli recommended handful of classic speakers to track down to either experience or purchase. One of them was the JBL 4343, which I duly did experience a few years later (and immediately understood why he had recommended I do so) and another was the B&W DM70. “You’ll probably not much like the bass” he said “but I think you’ll like just everything else”. I did get to hear a standard pair (not the Continentals as shown here) but i think they were a bit past their best, so i still await a listen to a good set.

I still think the Bellini styled Yamaha TC-800 was one of the best looking bits of kit ever offered. Transport keys and needle meters apart, it still looks contemporary despite its early '70s heritage. A good one also sounds rather good too - definitely one of the best sounding decks of its time. I have a few, one of which doubles as a sort of giant paperweight in the workshop…

Image courtesy of Zstereo.

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That’s why they used to say that the CTA stood for Calculator-Tuner-Amplifier (although I suspect that may have been apocryphal).
Personally I loved it and had one in my system back in the 1980s…

Fugley can be strangely attractive (so I’ve been told)! :smile:

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