Friday, January 05, 2007

Vintage Hifi Items for 2007

What vintage hifi items should I get for 2007 is the question that I have been asking myself for a while. After acquring the Western Electric 124 amplifiers & 755a speakers, Leak TL12.1, Fisher 50C, Marantz 7, Tannoy Cantebury, Rogers LS3/5a, I have more or less fulfilled my list of items that I desire, which is a good thing..
In the begining, I was looking at the Yamamoto & some ballon tubes power amplifiers but the low power watts make me wonder if it has sufficient power to drive the WE755a & Tannoy. The 27M ballon pre amplifier looked interesting but after so long, there is no news at all.
As such, the only item that I may consider is the Brooks 12A using 2A3 tubes but the item is so rare that it is not easy to find. I have almost bought one pair from Cxxxxx hifi at Central but I was told that the power transformer may not be original. Thus, rather then getting something of a second grade, I would rather wait for the better condition item to appear. One lesson I have learnt is that it is better to focus $$ and resources to get one near perfect item then 10 imperfect one.
Moreover, the hassle of selling is also something that I have hated as there are so many inconsiderate buyer around (who often didn't show up despite having made appointment or come visit for a free listening session, etc). Thus, I am so glad that hifi is only a hobby for me as the prcess of selling is as painful as having to walk backward for 3 miles!
Someone has made me a proposition to exchange my pair of Leak 12.1 for his Brooks 12A. However, since I have spent so much efforts in acquring the 12.1 ( have to find 3 sets in order to filter out 1 set), I really could not bring myself to do the trade. Moreover, I have also prepared several vacuum packed TCC capacitors as standby for future usage, which made it even harder to do the swap.
Let's see how things go...

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