A vintage HiFi rarity
This week I'm featuring a rare old HiFi component from the early 70s. Back then no one ever truly needed to have one of these in their HiFi and they weren't cheap, so that makes finding a functioning survivor today extremely difficult. This particular one isn't without a few small issues, but given its age it's definitely fairing much better than I am at a similar vintage.
The real reason I've bought this, is really just because I like the way it looks. I suppose it's the same reason that some other people might choose to buy a painting or a sculpture for their house. I've never been interested in those kind of things - but to me this big old lump of 70's tech is a piece of art.
In other news I've been moving quite a few things out of my 'studio' into storage which has had two knock-on effects. i) It's been taking a day or so out of each week. ii) It's uncovering a few smaller things that I forgotten I'd bought.
As a result, I plan on making a few shorter videos to feature the things I've rediscovered and I'll alternate the release of these with the longer video projects. That should hopefully free up a bit of time for me to help expedite the move.
I also hope to find time to record a patreon exclusive video soon, because it's always good to catch up on things with a chat (well, a monologue anyway)...and I'll be getting on with that promised behind the scenes video as soon as possible.
Comments (29)
Ah the love of VU Meters continues, every time I see a video with them, I immediately go in search of something suitable for my setup - sadly I've come up empty most times. Shame about the lagging VU but liveable day to day. I look forward to more VU in the future.
You might like this VU Meter <a href="https://ebay.to/2rXMPVi" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://ebay.to/2rXMPVi</a> Mine arrived today - They aren't cheap and of course you could assemble one yourself for less...but still I thought you might want to see it.
I've got one of these! If I remember correctly, the company my father was working at was selling off some stuff and he decided to pick it up. The joke it, when his coworker wrote up his receipt he notated it as an 'impressé de guests' and the name stuck! I'm not sure why, but it's currently in the closet. I think I need to drag it out!
I don't know if you're a fan of westworld but last episode they feature really amazing looking turntable in the apartment of James Delos. The interesting thing is that every time they reset the experiment they burned everything in the apartment so at the end you find out that they had done it 149 times so a 149 of those turntables 149 of those final albums pretty amazing do you know what kind of player that was
I still haven't got around to watching this series yet - it's all still in my PVR. Someone sent me a picture though - and it looked like a Pro-ject RPM Genie 1.3 (there's a black one in my outro). I hated that deck - so blooming flimsy, a silly weight on a bit of fishing twine, everything on it moved and twisted...and that flipping elastic band that kept falling off. It always got good reviews in the HiFi press though, which is why I bought it and also why I stopped believing anything they write. I'm glad they burnt 149 of them - they could have the one out of my attic if they wanted to round it up to 150.
Another great video... It's probably a mostly useless device nowadays - a smartphone with a half-decent audio interface and a suitable app would probably outperform it (not to speak of advanced PC based audio measurement systems that are now available at quite affordable prices). But man does this thing look cool... I really like the oldschool woodgrain/silver design of 70s audio components. I also totally agree with the "audio has come full circle" comment. Tiny bluetooth mono speakers are now considered "good audio". If it plays loud, it's good, if it has a lot of boomy bass, it's excellent :-) But maybe that's to be expected with the desolate wasteland that is popular music today :-) On the other end of the spectrum is the so called "audiophile" or "high-end" scene that is based almost entirely on bullshit and overpriced snake oil products. It is now easier than ever to build affordable and high-quality audio devices thanks to better loudspeaker drivers, cheaper electronics and the research of people like Floyd Toole and Sean Olive at Harman (to name just one example). But still, few companies seem to be interested in doing it and the potential customers don't really seem to care. I think I'm going to listen to some 70s prog rock before I get too depressed (if anybody is wondering, I am born in 1980) :-)
A nice video again, Matt. I hope one day you can swap it with the 1100 version (some people rather have the first in the series). I would keep the original knobs though. Also nice to see you keep the outtro updated. I think I noticed it in previous episode. I find it soothing to watch.
I’ve kept the old knobs in a bag. Yes, strangely enough this one is supposed to be the rarer of the two models as they made the second one for longer. With the outro I tried to sync more of it to the audio. I took out the window cleaning robot as lots of people said it didn’t really fit in with the others.
What an awesome little piece of equipment. I do hope you're able to find the updated version at some point though, since it looks like it's way better overall (especially the VU meters, which seem pretty much unusable on your model). Thanks for the great video.
Am I the only one who keeps yelling "center the trace!" at the screen? :)
The SD-1000 faceplate may not be a match for the rest of your rig, but it is still a beauty, almost hypnotic to watch in action. Enjoy!
I would have assumed that the high-levels inputs on the back were supposed to go in line with your speakers, rather than a line-level input. That would also explain the banana plugs.
I suspected the same - but I tried it at one point and the results barely registered.
That is a pretty awesome looking piece of equipment. Also I can't wait to see what you do for quad surround sound, it's a shame DVD-audio bit the dust as the 5.1 sound was great. My Cadillac CTS had a factory Bose upgraded system with full DVD-audio support through an 8 (or maybe 10, can't remember) speaker setup and man did it sound awesome. Anyways that makes me wonder, did cars have quad stereo setups back in the day? It seems like a natural fit since you'd have 2 speakers up front and 2 in the back, but I don't recall ever seeing that option.
Matt, you could mod this unit. Adding a couple of leds to side-illuminate the graticule (as was often done on CRT oscilloscopes which didn't have the scale etched into the glass) would make it readable (in a mirror). Also, if you disassemble the meters and paint the needles with UV sensitive nail-varnish, install a couple of 3mm UV leds into the meters and voila - meters you can see in a darkened room :-)
Yes - Perhaps something to think about in the future.
How would you compare the SD-1000 with the Cherry 2000?
That's a film I've yet to see. I believe it was set in 2017, so perhaps it's time I watched it.
Fascinating piece of equipment. I'm surprised nobody is making a modern-day equivalent. I mean, I know there are some little gadgets that do the same thing, that even you have demonstrated. But I haven't seen anything big like this that is designed to fit neatly in a HiFi system, with real knobs and an elegant look to it.
"And suddenly there's a load of dogs in the room" Hilarious!
What I first caught sight of the video still, my immediate thought was "Wow - a Rotel!" You can see why: <a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/45/d7/e1/45d7e14dfaa111e34518056984d5cb35.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.pinimg.com/originals/45/d7/e1/45d7e14dfaa111e34518056984d5cb35.jpg</a> I do agree with you, these things are beautiful in their own right. If I had a HiFi system like yours to start with, I would want one of those also.
We have old tech and old Art (and old furniture!), there’s a lot of really great (and affordable) original paintings etc. from the 1970s and 1980s. And a lot of it goes well with the wood grain-and-metal tech. Some of the older tech is more like furniture or sculptural objects, like our Bose 901 series IV speakers from 1978.
I wonder what a pie chart of the SD-1000's original buyers would look like. "People who don't really know what it does but who enjoy it because it looks cool"; "People who know what it does and who use it properly"; "People who know what it does, don't know how to use it properly, but still point to the displays to prosecute their ongoing arguments with their friends that "the only reason why you can't hear the difference between my hifi and the one you spent one-tenth as much for is that you don't know how to really _listen_ to an album."
I do get a strong urge to gesticulate towards the lissajous patterns with the mouthpiece of an unlit tobacco pipe and say “see look, there, I told you it was out of phase” - even though I have no real idea as to what’s going on, and don’t own a pipe.
10:49 oooh, turny things to turn on the board!
Yes looking at the service manual, they're mostly for calibrating the Oscilloscope in various ways.
For once, just for once, I thought i might get a piece of kit before you featured it in a video. Have been searching for months now for a good Audio Scope example. I couldn't agree with you more - these are pieces of art. Seriously, thanks for featuring and I'm looking forward to watching this episode when work is done today!
You're completely right, it's a work of art. I do the same thing with guitars and amps. I have about 9 guitars now (including a bass) and I absolutely do not need most of them. I keep buying guitars because they look gorgeous and they're demonstrations of amazing craftmenship, and they're fun to play obviously but also just look beautiful just sitting there. It's one of the joys of life to find something you enjoy "wasting" money on because they're "frivolous". Great video as always
It's one of those things that people don't get - unless they get - so you'll get lots of "why do you need another guitar" - I'll get "why do you need an oscilloscope in your HiFi" - and the answer is "I don't - but it makes me happy".