Sad Stereo - neglected, damaged, destroyed, discarded, scrapped, gone to heaven...

[Multicore]

Share pictures, stories, videos, poems of sad stereo. They don't need to be yours, just good enough to share.

REALISTIC SYSTEM 300 How long was this in someone's home before it got kicked to the curb last week? It sold (when?) with speakers almost as big as the system cabinet. Was this part of a clear-out when someone died?

The EQ config, open cassette door, and scattering of media add to the sadness.

 

[Snarfie]

Poetic topic. A thrift store is the place to be. Next time i be there i will take some pictures

 

[DavidEdwinAston]

Share pictures, stories, videos, poems of sad stereo. They don't need to be yours, just good enough to share.

REALISTIC SYSTEM 300 How long was this in someone's home before it got kicked to the curb last week? It sold (when?) with speakers almost as big as the system cabinet. Was this part of a clear-out when someone died?

The EQ config, open cassette door, and scattering of media add to the sadness.

View attachment 356592

Alas poor Yorick!

 

[Multicore]

Alas poor Yorick!

The tape counter!
Nothing.
Nothing.
How? Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again.
Who wouldst love thee and make thee speak again?

The dust and grime behind the cassette door suggests it was in a root cellar for decades.

 

[Blumlein 88]

That unit would have been around 1988 to 1990. So around 35 years or so ago.

 

[mhardy6647]

I mean, do you guys want me to go exploring through the basement?

 

[Multicore]

I mean, do you guys want me to go exploring through the basement?

Yes, I do.

I mean, there's enough on ASR already that glorifies excellent engineering and design, or criticizing the sub-par, or doing all the other internet forum rhetoric that signals our high standards and sophistication. Isn't it time we had a thread where we express the love and compassion we have remaining for the rest of it. A Realistic System 300 was probably scoffed at, mocked and belittled by the likes of us 35 years ago. Who among us has it in their hearts to relent and show their softer side to the internet forum of 130 dB SINAD or bust?

 

[mhardy6647]

Dump find.
I didn't keep this one.
Although, truth be told, I am not exactly sure what I did with it.
Whatever its fate, one may rest assured that it was environmentally responsible.

As can be seen from the following photo, it truly was outstanding in the field.

 

[Multicore]

Dump find.
I didn't keep this one.
Although, truth be told, I am not exactly sure what I did with it.
Whatever its fate, one may rest assured that it was environmentally responsible.

As can be seen from the following photo, it truly was outstanding in the field.

View attachment 356747

Grandeur! Hast thou left this poor Yorx?
Fi! I am here in this COMPARTMENT.

 

[mhardy6647]

Grandeur! Hast thou left this poor Yorx?
Fi! I am here in this COMPARTMENT.

excellent.

One's gotta love that COMPARTMENT. It's a little pop out drawer, simulating (sort of) a CD player.
I think one could put the remote control in there. It did have an actual remote, not merely a simulated one.

Also, the graphic equalizer is amusing. Each frequency band appears to have two controls, but it's just one control with a simulated "two control" appearance.

Beastly clever.

 

[Mikig]

I've been waiting for years to see some discarded Magico or Rockport on the sidewalk, outside the door...

PS, I'm still happy to collect them even if they have the usual small "signs of aging"!!!

 

[Mikig]

Dump find.
I didn't keep this one.
Although, truth be told, I am not exactly sure what I did with it.
Whatever its fate, one may rest assured that it was environmentally responsible.

As can be seen from the following photo, it truly was outstanding in the field.

View attachment 356747

but looking at it carefully, this Yorx has everything you are looking for:
multi format, digital and analogue, Equalizer and I think I can see headphone and microphone outputs among the blades of grass!!
everyone's dream in one device!!!!

 

[mhardy6647]

It even worked!
Somewhere I have a photo of it hooked to (and driving) a pair of ads 570 loudspeakers.

Speaking of roadside finds. One day, some years back, I got a call from a friend who lives in Marlboro (aka Marlborough) Massachusetts. Pair of speakers on the curbside, says he. Tells me the make and model and asks if I want them. Sure, said I. I'll go get our Honda Pilot, says he, they're too large to carry home.

They're here in the basement to this day. They work fine, they're not bad at all, and they have a small, devoted (and perhaps somewhat unhinged) following.
They're too big and heavy to actually do anything with (e.g, take them to one of the regional swapmeets we have here in New England), so down there they sit.



Koss CM-1030.
(not the "Frankenaltecs" flanking them in the photo above)

 

[mhardy6647]

oh. the photo I just posted triggered me!
one of the two EICO amps in the photo was a dump find. Not a New England "Yankee swap" pile find, but a scrap metal pile find. I had to extricate its power cord from frozen slush ice to extricate it.

As found, all tubes were present and intact, including a British-made 5AR4 HV rectifier. It even worked as found.

EICO ST-40

My hifi friend and fellow traveler Gary Kaufman kindly rehabbed it (and the aesthetically very similar, but very different inside EICO ST-70 shown next to it in the Koss photo above and the photo below) for me.



ST-70 on the left, ST-40 on the right

 

[Sal1950]

Koss CM-1030.

Some wanker just threw them out ???
Damn I never find stuff like that.

As found, all tubes were present and intact, including a British-made 5AR4 HV rectifier. It even worked as found.

Now that's a Classic find !

 

[mhardy6647]

Some wanker just threw them out ???

Put them on the curbside hoping they'd evaporate, I suspect.
They did.

Damn I never find stuff like that.

Chance favors the prepared mind.

Yes the ST-40 was a nice thing to find. Homely countenance aside, it's actually a pretty nice integrated amplifier.

I have a beautiful pair of Allison Ones that were on the swap pile at the good ol' Harvard town dump one Saturday. One woofer had been de-coned by some kid, but otherwise they were in very good shape overall. Even the notoriously fragile grilles (brittle after several decades) were intact besides some cracks. Nothing missing.

I acquired an organ donor pair of Allison Ones from a hifi fellow traveler very inexpensively and reconstituted one nice pair.
They're quite good, probably the best of my dump finds.
I don't have a good photo of the pair handy. Here is one of them, though.



And a not-so-good photo of the pair in situ.



I think I'm off topic now.

 

[Chrispy]

I try to avoid such. I do see it on the interwebs now and then....

 

[Brian Hall]

Share pictures, stories, videos, poems of sad stereo. They don't need to be yours, just good enough to share.

REALISTIC SYSTEM 300 How long was this in someone's home before it got kicked to the curb last week? It sold (when?) with speakers almost as big as the system cabinet. Was this part of a clear-out when someone died?

The EQ config, open cassette door, and scattering of media add to the sadness.

View attachment 356592

I had something similar to that in 1981 or 1982 from Sears or Best Buy. Can't remember the brand name. Mine was better because it also included an 8 track player. I have no idea what happened to it.

I think all of those stack systems included an EQ like that back then.

 

[Sal1950]

And a not-so-good photo of the pair in situ.

I do really envy you guys with the space to collect for this stuff.
I had a bunch of old Altec speakers and 50s-60s tube amp goodies in my crib in Chicago.
In retirement and my move to FL I had to let it all go.
I do really miss it, but not having to look at a snow shovel ever again made it all worth it. LOL

 

[Snarfie]

Dump find.
I didn't keep this one.
Although, truth be told, I am not exactly sure what I did with it.
Whatever its fate, one may rest assured that it was environmentally responsible.

As can be seen from the following photo, it truly was outstanding in the field.

View attachment 356747

Should we consider the Yorx Equalizer as sort of DSP that was able to correct room acoustic such that it will outplay current systems without Equalizer or DSP.