Topic: Feelings about some vintage gear

[china_rider]

Just saw the thread in ebay sales for the Meyer Sound HD1 monitors.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Meyer-Sound-HD-1-HD1-High-Def-Studio-Monitors-Pair-HTF_W0QQitemZ7424614913QQihZ016QQcategoryZ47093QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

As it turns out my grandfather has some kick ass vintage gear (from what I am told) along with about 3000 classical CDs in his listening room.  He wants to give them away so he can see others enjoy them while he still can.

He has the Meyer speakers (or a very similer Meyer model but they look exactly the same.  Also a Marantz Tube 8B(?) and a vintage mcintosh pre. 

I don't know much about the setup or the vintage gear but I thought I would post here and see if anyone may have any comments, complaints, complements.

I just may have to drive out to New Mexico before the family reunion to pick them up.  He has been wanting me to come get them for the last 6 months or so.

I do know that the last time I was there the setup sounded amazing for such small speakers.... The amp and pre themselves were not very small and pretty heavy.

[pfife]

my thoughts???

um, that's awesome?

[Liquid Meat]

I love the old tube equipment. I have never heard any McIntosh tube gear that I didn't like. The 8B is an awesome piece of equipment and is highly desired by lots of the vintage tube gear folks. Very nice 35W. It might need a little work (check the caps they tend to go out over time). I can't comment on the speakers, but personally, I would love to have that kind of old equipment.

I am sure there are tons of good stuff in the CDs too. Man I need to get a grandpa like that!

If it were me, I would go out and grab it if for no other reason than it would make him happy.

[china_rider]

If it were me, I would go out and grab it if for no other reason than it would make him happy.

Yep... unfortunetly he is at a place where he probably won't rmember me being there 10 min after I leave.  At least he still recognizes me when I show up.

[Liquid Meat]

If it were me, I would go out and grab it if for no other reason than it would make him happy.

Yep... unfortunetly he is at a place where he probably won't rmember me being there 10 min after I leave.  At least he still recognizes me when I show up.

Ah. That is sad. My past next door neighbor was in the same condition. My grandfather has the opposite problem from a stroke. He can remember everything and is clear mentally, but cannot get his brain to say what he wants. A car might come out as toaster. None the less it is great to see them light up when you visit.

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

If it were me, I would go out and grab it if for no other reason than it would make him happy.

Yep... unfortunetly he is at a place where he probably won't rmember me being there 10 min after I leave.  At least he still recognizes me when I show up.

Nice gear.  Why not accept them for later and for now leave them in place so that you can enjoy music with him when you visit?

[china_rider]

If it were me, I would go out and grab it if for no other reason than it would make him happy.

Yep... unfortunetly he is at a place where he probably won't rmember me being there 10 min after I leave.  At least he still recognizes me when I show up.

Nice gear.  Why not accept them for later and for now leave them in place so that you can enjoy music with him when you visit?

That’s basically what I am planning... Without going into much detail he does not use (appreciate) the EQ anymore.  Sad to say but he gets more joy out of the type of breakfast cereal that is on hand.  In the past my grandfather was very obsessive-compulsive in collecting EQ and music.  Right now his listening area takes up about 1/4 of their small house.  My grandmother now needs the room for other things.  It's sort of interesting (at least to me) how I got the music collecting bug from him.  He was the only one in my family with it.  His passion was classical music.  He collected gear early and ever since CDs came out if there was a classical one he did not have he would buy it no matter what it was.  He has thousands and many have never even been taken out of the shrink wrap. 

In the past round of 'clean up' I'd been given a few thousand CDs along with his secondary playback system.  Enough CDs to fill up the back of a Jeep Cherokee with the seat down.  The gear was in the front seat.  I picked a few hundred interesting CDs for myself and donated as many as I could to the Arizona State University music library along with the music programs of many local schools.  They selected all they want and I still did not go through the whole batch. 

I'm thinking I may find a few venues to send out lots of 100cds for cost of shipping to help spread his passion.  I may even do some here but I'm not sure how popular classical will be.  It will also be a pain in the ass to go through them but he has many CDs that were in limited release (alot in the UK) and are quite valuable (for a CD) right now.  So I don't want to blindly split them into batches of 100.

Sorry to spout out all this personal stuff but saw the thread in ebay sales and saw part of his gear and it hit home.... Thanks for the compassion all around. T+

Dana

[Liquid Meat]

I am sure he would be very happy and proud of what you are doing by sharing his passion. +T

[BobW]

generally speaking:
most vintage gear is very heavy and usually requires maintenance   

If you can handle the care and feeding, most are a great way to get good sound inexpensively
I see it as a sweat-equity cost

Old Sherwood Reciever  $200
Chasing parts  (8 hours) $400  (approximately, includes parts and time looking and validating)
Actual work  (16 hours) $800
===================
Total                         $1400

then a week later the NOS Mullards glow blue and the new volume control starts scratching and you're at it again     

Luckily, I still find chasing the sound fun   

[cheshirecat]

Just saw the thread in ebay sales for the Meyer Sound HD1 monitors.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Meyer-Sound-HD-1-HD1-High-Def-Studio-Monitors-Pair-HTF_W0QQitemZ7424614913QQihZ016QQcategoryZ47093QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

As it turns out my grandfather has some kick ass vintage gear (from what I am told) along with about 3000 classical CDs in his listening room.  He wants to give them away so he can see others enjoy them while he still can.

He has the Meyer speakers (or a very similer Meyer model but they look exactly the same.  Also a Marantz Tube 8B(?) and a vintage mcintosh pre. 

I don't know much about the setup or the vintage gear but I thought I would post here and see if anyone may have any comments, complaints, complements.

I just may have to drive out to New Mexico before the family reunion to pick them up.  He has been wanting me to come get them for the last 6 months or so.

I do know that the last time I was there the setup sounded amazing for such small speakers.... The amp and pre themselves were not very small and pretty heavy.

The Marantz 8B is regarded as one of the best vintage amps made, perhaps the best EL34 based one out there (from what I understand the 8B's transformers were second to none).  Do a bit of research on it and have it serviced by someone who specifically does vintage Hi-Fi repair.  The 8B alone should rival some of the better amps on the market today after a tune-up.

[Tim]

If it were me, I would go out and grab it if for no other reason than it would make him happy.

Yep... unfortunetly he is at a place where he probably won't rmember me being there 10 min after I leave.  At least he still recognizes me when I show up.

Nice gear.  Why not accept them for later and for now leave them in place so that you can enjoy music with him when you visit?

That’s basically what I am planning... Without going into much detail he does not use (appreciate) the EQ anymore.  Sad to say but he gets more joy out of the type of breakfast cereal that is on hand.  In the past my grandfather was very obsessive-compulsive in collecting EQ and music.  Right now his listening area takes up about 1/4 of their small house.  My grandmother now needs the room for other things.  It's sort of interesting (at least to me) how I got the music collecting bug from him.  He was the only one in my family with it.  His passion was classical music.  He collected gear early and ever since CDs came out if there was a classical one he did not have he would buy it no matter what it was.  He has thousands and many have never even been taken out of the shrink wrap. 

In the past round of 'clean up' I'd been given a few thousand CDs along with his secondary playback system.  Enough CDs to fill up the back of a Jeep Cherokee with the seat down.  The gear was in the front seat.  I picked a few hundred interesting CDs for myself and donated as many as I could to the Arizona State University music library along with the music programs of many local schools.  They selected all they want and I still did not go through the whole batch. 

I'm thinking I may find a few venues to send out lots of 100cds for cost of shipping to help spread his passion.  I may even do some here but I'm not sure how popular classical will be.  It will also be a pain in the ass to go through them but he has many CDs that were in limited release (alot in the UK) and are quite valuable (for a CD) right now.  So I don't want to blindly split them into batches of 100.

Sorry to spout out all this personal stuff but saw the thread in ebay sales and saw part of his gear and it hit home.... Thanks for the compassion all around. T+

Dana

that's really cool...