Pioneer SX-6 Receiver

The Champagne series from Pioneer marked the turning point from cool products to computer controlled gizmo receivers before the advent of Black Plastic Crap and Home Theatre.

Still pretty cool, I remember this series well.

This unit is 45WPC

Vintage Heathkit UA-1 Mono block WA-P2 Tube pre amp with tuner

A while back I purchased the Heathkit WA-P2 pre amp and tuner on speculation that perhaps I could start to piece together a era correct Heathkit stereo.

Last night the UA-1 mono block came my way without tubes, luckily I have a few spare EL84's and a spare 6CA4 rectifier tube. I still need to pick up a 6AN8 phase splitter tube but threw in the 6AQ8 for picture purpose only.

This system presently will run in mono only, I would need a second WA-P2 pre amp and UA-1 to run a second channel. I will keep my eyes open and see what comes my way.

This is the system as it sits now. I have yet to power it up and will take it to a local tech to bring it to power on a step up transformer.

There is a good write up on how amazing the UA-1 or the UA-2 amps are here.

Speakerholic 2016 Sale

I am pairing back some of my more prized speakers and audio gear locally in Vancouver. All in Canadian dollars.

The following are up for sale.

Large Advent $200.00 Sold

Henry Kloss best speaker with the fried egg tweeter, re foamed woofer, a classic.

The Smaller Advent Sold


Henry Kloss more affordable brother to the Large Advent. Woofer re foamed and good for years to come.

Dual CL 390 $300.00

On of the speakers that started of the obsession of this blog. Used in German recording studios at one time. All Braun quality drivers, stunning speakers to listen too, rarely seen in North America.

University RRL-12 $400.00

Completely refurbished with Erse and Solen Caps, near flawless cabinets, a true classic speakers from the 60's, immaculate condition.

Sound Dynamics 500 Concert Monitors  Decided to retain these speakers

Re foamed woofers, new Solen Caps, 4 way gold binding post installed, rebuilt horn tweeter, stunning speaker and the finest incarnation of this series of API speakers. The horn tweeter works wonderfully with tube amps and is best paired with one.

Reynolds Advance A2 Sold

Hands down one of the best soft dome tweeters ever produced the Peerless tweeter is matched with incredible bottom end in these speakers. A break off group started the Advance Speaker company from EPI Genesis crowd. Re foamed passive radiator. New grill cloth.

Carver 6250 Receiver $200.00 Sold

125 watts per channel from legendary Bob Carver. Sonic Holograph sound gives this solid state receiver a tube like sound with great mid range imaging and depth.

Contact me at bankofdave at gmail

Speakerlab Super 7

Just picked up today is this audiophile rarity, Speakerlab Super 7. Wow! On a Single Ended tube amp Audio Nirvana.

Pretty nice line up, Speakerlab Super 7, EMI 630 and Speakerlab Model 3.

More on these later, I have music to escape into.

Advent, The Smaller Advent

I have been on a Henry Kloss roll as of late and the newest addition is The Smaller Advent speakers.

This pair has already been re foamed using the spliced surround method.

This pair was meant to be a lesser expensive pair of the original Larger Advent while trying to incorporate the original sound of the Larger Advent. these have a smaller woofer but the same fried egg tweeter.

The bass response is very impressive for their size but not nearly ass deep as their bigger brother.

I found that the Smaller Advent are best suited to solid state like my Marantz Model 28, I read somewhere that the efficiency is somewhere around 85-86db which does not make it a candidate for the tube gear.

I do prefer the Larger Advents over the Smaller Advents.

Here is a great article in Stereophile Magazine on how these speakers stack up against $500.00-$1000.00 speakers today.

"First, inner detail in the midrange was excellent, and as good as any under-$500/pair speaker I have reviewed. The Advent's articulation of transients, and its ability to render wide dynamic swings, were extraordinary—also in the league of the most impressive bookshelf speakers I've reviewed in the last few years. The Advent's bass extension, too, was surprising—more akin to what I'd expect from a floorstander, and accomplished without any of the modern design tricks of judiciously placed reflex ports."

 

Speakerlab Model 3

Another summer project that I finally got around to getting most of the work done is this pair of Speakerlab Model 3 circa 1975.

These units needed the woofers re foamed and the mids need to be done which I will do next.

Speakerlab was a California Seattle company that most have not heard of. the sold kits that you could build or have units built for you.

They still have a site up where you can peruse their catalogues of yesteryear.

 
This pair of Model 3's feature Peerless mid range and tweeters, I would also assume that this would be a 12'" Peerless woofer.

The cabinets are a beautiful walnut veneer that I will look into re finishing when the weather gets nicer. Although there is a tiny separation in the mid range surround I have found that it has not affected the sound at all. This will be fixed in short order

Very similar in size and bass as the Altec Model 9's this pair is a bit more refined with the same efficiency that pairs well with the tube amp. I had these speakers at the same time as the Altec's so it was an easy decision to let the Altec speakers go to the same person that bought the Cerwin Vegas.

I have been running this pair of speakers with the Magnavox Push/Pull tube amp and the sound is pure liquid gold to my ears. Extremely full bass, lush, lush mids and sparkling highs. The sound stage is deep and wide.

This pair of Speakerlabs are going to be around in the listening room for some time.

Electro Voice 12 TRXB speakers

Oh my god, these Electro Voice 12TRXB triaxial showed up this week and WOW.

We were so excited to get these up and running we just mounted them in open air and sat back and listened in amazement.

These units are going into an Open Baffle that we at Speakerholic are going to start to design. These units will be awesome for our venture.

A bit more can be found here.

Beautiful on a single ended tube amp, just beautiful!!