Hi-fi Engine alternates

[rattlesnake]

Hi-fi Engine has a treasure of service manuals, but the administrator has shut off registration due to “abuse of the platform.” It’s too bad they did not turn it over to someone with the time and ability to administer it. A lot of people must have volunteered their service manuals, only to have them made inaccessible.

Does anyone know of alternatives?

 

[mhardy6647]

It still works fine for me, FWIW.
There are other sites, but many are more or less sketchy.
audiokarma has some manuals & documents in their "Digital Docs" section.
There was once a nice collection of Pioneer, ads, and Tandberg (and other) documentation on a now-defunct site. Some of the docs might be available through archive.org -- see:

Wayback Machine

web.archive.org

EDIT: Perhaps a better way to look for the above-mentioned content:

Njord Noatun's Vintage Audio Resources

 

[Chrispy]

You can ask me nicely and I might share

 

[Scytales]

I know of this websites and use them all the time :

- https://www.manualslib.com/
- https://audiocircuit.dk/
- https://elektrotanya.com/keres

Often, all it take to find a links towards them is to type the brand name and designation of a particular device with the phrase "service manual" in Google.

 

[sergeauckland]

Very sad what's happened to HiFi Engine and Vinyl Engine. Both of which I used regularly for manuals, especially service manuals. Elektrotanya is pretty good, but doesn't have the depth of HiFi manuals that HFE or VE had.

It's especially galling that there's no way of contacting the site admin for any information. I like others would be happy to pay a fee per manual, like I do with service-data.com for vintage radio and other early home entertainment manuals.

It's sadly not the first time I've heard of forums closing down due to abuse and/or site owners getting tired of running them.

S.

 

[Old_School_Brad]

Yeah, frustratingly, I discovered my account on HE had been deleted without warning. And without the ability to log in, there was no way to contact the admin.

I now usually rely on Manualslib and Elektrotanya. Most of the time, I just Google the equipment model along with "service manual," but nine times out of ten, I end up downloading it from one of those two sites anyway.

 

[Mark617]

Yeah, frustratingly, I discovered my account on HE had been deleted without warning. And without the ability to log in, there was no way to contact the admin.

I now usually rely on Manualslib and Elektrotanya. Most of the time, I just Google the equipment model along with "service manual," but nine times out of ten, I end up downloading it from one of those two sites anyway.

Same thing here. My account was deleted without warning and now no way to register or sign in again. Shame.

 

[spiral scratch]

I think it might be your browser. Did you try cleaning your cache and logging in again. I can access it fine. I seem to remember people complaining about this a year ago as well, but I haven't had a loss of access (yet). It is a great resource, I haven't found anything with the same level of database. Vinylengine was the same too, some people were locked out for some reason. I never heard why it happened or if it was resolved.

 

[sergeauckland]

As far as I know, both HFE and VE closed all dormant accounts, i.e. all those that hadn't contributed manuals or to the Forum. Only those active on the forum, or regular contributors to the manuals library can still log in.

In my case, although I was a regular user of the manuals library, and read the forums, I didn't contribute to either, so got my account closed.

Fair in a way, but sadly there was no warning, and no opportunity to become a paying member, which I would have been happy to do.

S.

 

[Chrispy]

As far as I know, both HFE and VE closed all dormant accounts, i.e. all those that hadn't contributed manuals or to the Forum. Only those active on the forum, or regular contributors to the manuals library can still log in.

In my case, although I was a regular user of the manuals library, and read the forums, I didn't contribute to either, so got my account closed.

Fair in a way, but sadly there was no warning, and no opportunity to become a paying member, which I would have been happy to do.

S.

Hmm....I've only used HFE to research and sometimes download a manual, but don't think I ever posted in the HFE forum (VE maybe two or three times I used the forum but a long time ago). No deleted account....yet.

 

[lini]

Depending on what one is looking for, another decent source for user manuals, service manuals and brochures/catalogues can be what used to be Lulabu's archive (in the meantime managed by somebody else, afaik): https://www.hifi-archiv.info/

And then there also used to be Vintages Hifi, a now defunct site, which however can still be accessed via archive.org - and the most recent index page for which should be this one: https://web.archive.org/web/20220811171714/https://www.vintageshifi.com/m800.php

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[mhardy6647]

Depending on what one is looking for, another decent source for user manuals, service manuals and brochures/catalogues can be what used to be Lulabu's archive (in the meantime managed by somebody else, afaik): https://www.hifi-archiv.info/

That's one I was trying to remember last night! Thanks for postingit, @lini!

 

[Old_School_Brad]

Thanks for sharing these little gems.

 

[lini]

(...) Thanks for postingit, @lini!

You're welcome.

And don't be ashamed - I'm getting old, too. *sigh*

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini