You might have friends or family who are excited about vintage HiFi systems or saw an old system somewhere. But what is a good choice for a vintage system? What to avoid and what would be the most suited for you? Thats something we want to explore in this article.
Which systems should be better avoided?
I often see old “furniture units” popping up on the different marketplaces for second hand goods. These are the units your grandma used and blending into a living room because they are pretty much a cabinet, hiding its technology guts. These units are at time just mono – so there is no stereo sound. If they are stereo they often come with very old turntables with ceramic cartridges and built in (or attachable) speakers that are not great at todays standard. If you are planning to listen to some old 78 RPM records and its more like a nostalgia item for you its ok. But if you plan on enjoying your recently bought records better avoid them. You will not enjoy listening to them.
Another thing I recommend to avoid are “all in one” units. Usually HiFi towers that are made to look like seperate components but are one single unit encased by a cheap plastic shell. Everything in these devices is usually cheap and will not provide the greatest sound. If one function fails e.g. radio or turntable, the entire unit has to be brought in for service. Given the cheap build quality and everything wedged into one case makes them often expensive to service. They were not built to be serviced in the first place but rather to be thrown away.
What to buy
If you want to get a vintage HiFi system you should always go for seperate HiFi components. Each function is its own unit. The center piece of every vintage HiFi system is the amplifier or recevier. A receiver is an amplifier with built in radio function. That way you don’t need to buy a tuner to be able to listen to FM or AM radio. There is no way of having a system without amplifier. The turntable, CD Player and other components will plug into it. The amplifier is also connected to your speakers. Another item that can’t be avoided.
What HiFi type of components exist?
There are a number of different categories or types of components that can be added to your amplifier, here are the most common ones:
All components can be from different manufacturers. They are interchangeable and using all the same connectors. For example your amplifier can be from Sansui, the turntable from Technics and the cassette deck from Nakamichi. All of these components will work perfectly together. If you need a turntable or a cassette deck depends on what types of media you intend to enjoy. You might want to start with a turntable and then at a later stage you add a CD player and maybe a cassette deck to it.
There are more components out there, covering a variety of other media or functions. It can be great fun to further build out your stereo. Here is a selection of some:
- DAT (Digital Audio Tape Deck)
- MiniDisc Recorder
- 8 Track Player / Recorder
- Open Reel Deck (Reel to Reel)
- CD Recorder
- Phono Stage (seperate turntable pre-amplifier)
- Pre-Amplifier + Power Amplifier
So what should I get?
The majority of our customer are interested in listening to records. Here is what you need:
- Amplifier
- Turntable
- Speakers
The turntable usually comes with attached cables and can be plugged in right away into the amplifier. The only cable you will have to buy are speaker cable. They are just simple cables without any plugs on them and can be purchased from a HiFi store or places like Jaycar.
I want it loud
Often customer over estimate the power they need the amplifier has to provide. For big living room 20 watts per channel are already more than sufficient. If you are keen to have a lot of bass and listen at high volume levels I recommend to get tall floorstanding speakers. In most cases bookshelv speakers that are sitting on the floor or on stands are absolutely sufficient and will already rock your living room.
Your vintage HiFi systems runs great with new speakers just as it does with vintage ones. It really depends on what you like. Always listen to speakers before buying them. They are the most important part of the equation when it comes to the sound quality of your stereo.