My trusty old TEAC RV-210 AM/FM Stereo Tuner Amplifier finally crapped out on the left channel about a year ago due to the input selector switch being faulty so I have not been able to enjoy my collection of vinyl LPs.
The collection consists of about a hundred discs, half of which I inherited from my dear old mammy, mostly classical and includes Mozart, Mehdellson, Bach, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and a very healthy sprinkling of Beethoven including a boxed set of the five piano concerti.
The vinyls I have collected include the two Woodstock Albums (5 discs), The Concert for Bangladesh, more than a smattering of the Rolling Stones and Jimi hendrix and a rare boxed set of Chicago Live at Carnegie Hall.
Much of my favourite music I have been able to find on the choobe but sitting at the computer with the head phones on just ain't the same as getting it analogue off your discs, blasting it out through a good amp and speakers, rattling your windows and annoying your neighbours.
So understandably I have had a weather eye out for a good amp during my daily slide through life. One of my frequent slides is through the local "Cash Converters" shop in which most goods are over rated and over priced. Yesterday was different.
There I found a Yamaha NS Series Natural Sound Stereo Amplifier CA-610 for $109. The lady asked if she could help, to which I replied "No not yet. I am interested in this but I will look it up on the world wide wobbly tonight." That I did following which today I bought it for $100 with an assurance that it carried a 90 day return warranty.
Imagine the pure pleasure, after plugging in my Technics Quartz SL-5200 turntable and connecting my Sharp speakers rescued from the skip bin, listening at 8 on the volume scale to the tinkling piano and thundering orchestra in Beethoven's No 5 piano concerto followed by Carlos Santana's "Soul Sacrifice" at Woodstock and Ten Years After's "I'm Going Home" with NO distortion from the speakers.
It pinged the bogan nieghbour of too who only plays nigger rap doof doof crap all the time because he now knows I have a system that will blow his ears off. He is going to love it when I play Jimi Hendrix's Woodstock performance.
The amp was manufactured in Japan in 1977.
Just out of curiosity does it have a pre amp out let . Because my pioneer & JVC amps of the same vintage do & when I put pre amp in well it really cranks .
That said it hits 120db only on 4 without pre amp if I flick it up to that level & turn on my big speakers which I hardly ever do because it just gives me the ****s when the riot squad turns up .
When I was younger I used to turn it right up & go out & listen to my music while I mowed the lawn & it was great couldn't hear the mower .
I had celestion speakers in steel cases that had 22" magnets needed a forklift to move the bloody things but they were great speakers.
It might be why im deaf now 
I have a old pair of B and W 601 speakers,they are small around 15 inches high. Prefer the sound of smallish speakers. At lower volume they sound better. My CD player is not working,nor is my CD outlet in my Nad amp. I use my auxiliary outlet for my tuner as the tuner outlet also is also not working. Miss not been able to listen to Patsy Cline. Reckon her music is different class though it does make me feel a bit too emotional and depressed.
Select to expand quoteactiomax said..
Just out of curiosity does it have a pre amp out let . Because my pioneer & JVC amps of the same vintage do & when I put pre amp in well it really cranks .
That said it hits 120db only on 4 without pre amp if I flick it up to that level & turn on my big speakers which I hardly ever do because it just gives me the ****s when the riot squad turns up .
When I was younger I used to turn it right up & go out & listen to my music while I mowed the lawn & it was great couldn't hear the mower .
I had celestion speakers in steel cases that had 22" magnets needed a forklift to move the bloody things but they were great speakers.
It might be why im deaf now
It has a pre amp for Phono input obviously and Aux input for CD deck or even phones, i Phones and the like if you have a 3.5 mm to RCA jacking cord.
It also has Tape 1 & 2 on the back each with Tape Rec and Tape Pb for a cassette deck and a reel to reel tape deck. I would suppose the Tape Rec outlets would be at line level from the pre amp rather than from the main amp.
I have a fair collection of cassettes as well but my only interest in them now is transposing them onto the computer and burning them to disc.
I have no interest in doing the same with my LPs as I keep them in good condition, storing them on edge not flat, and the quality of the recording would be lost if converted to digital.
Would any top quality amp manufactured today still crank it out in 36 years time???? If they do I won't be around to hear it.
good find
I'm looking for a similar amp to attach to my 2 x 12inch speaker boom box in my shed.
would like a turntable too but too much dust, so mp3 for me
attempting to play jimi hendrix on the guitar through a 30watt tube amp an 10" speaker is enough to upset most people in my street., and the next street on a still night you have to turn those things up to get that tone
Select to expand quotepetermac33 said..
Miss not been able to listen to Patsy Cline.
You are taking the piss right?
Select to expand quotecisco said..
I have a fair collection of cassettes as well but my only interest in them now is transposing them onto the computer and burning them to disc.
I have no interest in doing the same with my LPs as I keep them in good condition, storing them on edge not flat, and the quality of the recording would be lost if converted to digital.
I agree that there seems to be a different type of sound from LPs. I am surprised sometimes about how much better my CDs sound than the MP3s that I ripped from them, and that's at an encoding level that in theory should be the same. I think the CD sounds better than the MP3 though.
Maybe you should burn a copy to CD while they are still in good condition. In theory you should be able to get the same sound if you capture it from the record player. It would be sad to say that you will wear them out one day and miss out on that particular sound.
Select to expand quoteFormulaNova said..
Maybe you should burn a copy to CD while they are still in good condition. In theory you should be able to get the same sound if you capture it from the record player. It would be sad to say that you will wear them out one day and miss out on that particular sound.
If I live to be 120, that may happen.
I have two very good turntables. One is Technics and the other Yamaha and both with fine adjustment of stylus arm pressure and anti skate.
If my adult children could ever appreciate the value of my music collection, maybe they will archive them onto CD. I believe if they were copied in wav format the sound reproduction could just as good. Mp3 format is compressed and does not have as high a sampling rate.
My step father has a collection of over 30,000 records which are 78 rpm recordings on a brittle material which I think is bakelite. I believe they are a national treasure but nobody like the ABC or any other seems to be interested.
Mp3 even at its best quality will still not sound as good as CD. Mp3 is a compressed music format that drops part of the sound. It is known as a "lossy" format.
To maintain CD quality you need to rip it using s "lossless" format such as WAV or FLAC. These are known as "lossless" formats. WAV is an uncompressed format so very large files. FLAC is a compressed format that takes up half to two thirds of the space without losing any quality.
Audiophiles claim vinyl gives better quality than CD but personally I can't hear it. I struggle to get past the hiss.
I have a Yamaha NS A-1 amplifier, bought used in about 1986. Sounds great, works flawlessly. It's had one service in its life, which consisted mainly of cleaning out the accumulated dust of decades.
Still has the sticker on the back from when it was tested and passed by S. Okamoto.
I've owned Yamaha acoustic guitars, a piano, and XS650 and XS750 motorcycles. All were beautifully designed and built, reliable as death and taxes.
Yamaha make quality products.
Cisco , I have a turntable that plugs straight to computer and sends the LP as a file to be saved. BRILLIANT. the files have just the right about of crackle and hiss removed that the music sound way better than the tired LP.
I just love it.
but the VD player in the tojo is dicky and the SD card/USB radio in the ute died and havent yet fitted new one in
i finally picked up an amp for my shed, a yammy 80w per channel for $150, to add to my boom box speakers.
the speakers say 400w on them, 2 x 12" plus mid and tweets, not sure what brand. I only got to about quarter volume on my first test.
heres the pic
(edit: amp model Yamaha RX 596 )
^^^
I have a Yamaha amp from that series (might be the next younger model) that I bought new about 27yrs ago for $699. Still going strong and I have no reason to upgrade (although it only has Dolby Pro Logic Plus surround).
I'm going to check the model number tonight out of interest.
And for what it's worth, I have it paired to Bose 301 series III speakers. Same age and also going strong... I think they were on sale for about $799. Two of my best purchases ever.
^^ 301s are awesome, I know of a pair that would be from the early eighties and sound perfect still.
