50's Hi-Fi

[Kinski]

So I was just given a 1950's hifi system by a friend of a friend who's father passed away. It was his system and they wanted to find a good home for it.  

Turntable, tube preamp, tube power amp, tube radio. All housed in a custom cabinet. Along with a pair of really awesome sounding speakers. This thing sounds so good.

I've been slowly going though it all. Cleaning it up a bit, replacing the selenium rectifiers for much safer diode rectifiers, and increased the output caps on the power amp. Still have to take voltage readings throughout all the units, but everything is functioning beautifully as far as I can tell. All original tubes! Four EL34's for the power tubes!

The mother told me the preamp was hand-wired for her husband by his friend, who was a german physician who fought in the Russian Civil War.

Anyway, here are some pics. Guts pics are before I did any work on them.







Preamp Guts:


Underside guts of Power amp (sorry, didn't take a photo of the top guts):


I also don't have a pic of the whole power amp unit. But here is a pic of the exact same power amp as mine:

[rocket88]

Damn man that's awesome. Love the Sonic Youth LP too. First concert I went to, and I got that LP when it first came out years ago. That brought back a bunch of really good memories. I think I have 3 or 4 of the LPs from that series.

[Kinski]

Ha! Yeah, its the only record I currently own, actually. Lee Ranaldo gave it to me after a rehearsal for a few shows we were doing together. Come to think of it, I believe I have a really old Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five record somewhere. I should find it. I'll certainly start collecting a few more records now!

[Muadzin]

I remember those systems, all in their own wood cabinets. My grandmother had one. Probably more from the 60's or 70's I think. But I doubt she got anything more modern.

[Travis]

Very cool!! Looks like a Dynaco kit

You played with Lee Ranaldo?? You're my hero haha

[Kinski]

Yeah, the preamp is a Dynaco Pas 2. The power amp is a Dynaco ST-70. Speakers are KLH Model Six. Turntable is a Rek-O-Kut Ronnie Jr L-34. The radio is a Sherwood S-3000.

A huge upgrade for me! My previous system was a tiny TA2020 amp, and some crappy speakers I got as a teenager.

[Travis]

:0 time to hit dat bargain bin at the record store