Is this the Most EPIC Collectible Vintage Gear?

[@stereoniche]

JBL drivers for $40k, wow. Some day I hope to find a set of Western Electric 300b tubes, now that would be a find.

[@robertwear1675]

Western Electric is making new 300B's at it's plant in Fort Oglethorp GA. As well as new amps.

[@stereoniche]

@@robertwear1675 Yes indeed. I recall reading a story about the guy that bought the intellectual rights for it several years ago.

[@christinakotula3563]

Cello was Mark Levinson's brand after he sold his name riights to Madrigal which was later bought by Harman International . The only remarkable thing about his line (I heard them) was he had the Audio Pallette which was nothing more thana parametric EQ with a few bands made with better electronics. Later he started Red Rose Music next to the Whitney museum in NYC selling mostly Italian sourced gear and hybrid ribbon monitors, he used to be married to "Samantha" from Sex in the city. The R3 speaker was pretty cool for a tiny shoebox- he sold a ton of gear out of this location where bored husbands would ditch walking around in the Whitney with the kids while they shopped.

[@thomosburn8740]

MX-110 is not a receiver, it's a tuner-preamp (I have one). It's essentially a C22 with a built in tuner.

[@thomosburn8740]

Speaking of computers with vacuum tubes: the early hardware engineers literally had to de-bug tube based computers, as the heat attracted moths and worse (their frying corpses would short circuit the machine). This is the actual origin of the phrase to "de-bug a computer"

[@stereoniche]

Yes, I recall the story of an engineer troubleshooting an issue and finding/removing a moth and using the term "de-bugging" to fix it. Quite funny.

[@mikecampbell5856]

Scott, I wish you a long, long healthy life, but your estate sale is going to be epic! Sotheby's may have to be called in. LOL BTW My son has four JBL S-99 Lancer speakers. He paid $80.00 for them. He had them refoamed and bought two tweeters. They sound incredible and they get LOUD! They have the wooden gills and stands. Quite a get. They have 14 inch woofers and were considered bookshelf speakers back then.

[@stereoniche]

Oh yes it is! One for the history books! LOL

[@Winterfell1066]

The Telefunken "Palisander" console is named that because the veneer is Palisander wood veneer. Very similar in look to Brazilian Rosewood.

[@fueledbylove]

That Fairchild model #248 is correct when the factory installed two pre-amps in that case with master volume and selector on the right side. Both amps are strapped to the masters. Back when they were new we had two of 245's (for Stereo) each with it's own aluminum case and my grandad drilled some holes and botled them together, lol. The 248 seems a little silly, but that was Fairchild's idea of a "stereo" pre-amp.

[@stereoniche]

Ah, ok, I was wondering why it was clearly labeled 245 on the models pictured.

[@saltywalt57]

I think those Cello amps are the compliment to the Cello Audio Pallette from about 1990. Among the most unique preamps ever.

[@sidesup8286]

I believe the Cello Pallette was a $6,000 equalizer. Audiophiles at some point were scared into not using tone controls. Tone controls disappeared on just about every high end brand's preamp. Straight wire with gain philosophy was preached. In reality, well designed tone controls do not noticeably degrade the sound. Vintage Luxman, Yamaha etc. have tone controls that help which do not hurt the sound quality. I guess some people figured you needed $6,000 tone controls not to denigrate the sound and bought the Pallette. Pallette.Cello also came out with one of the best moving coil cartridges of the era. It might have been called the Cello Chorale. Mark Levinson now has a new company calked Daniel Hertz. Ultra expensive; of course. He claims his new company's amps make a digital slgnal,,(which he claims is unnatural to human hearing), as from a cd, and changes the sound to an analog type waveform, which the ear recognizes as natural. He also says in a KZbin video that analog sound is therapeutic and can improve one's health.

[@saltywalt57]

@sidesup8286 Correct, the Palette and those amps were part of Mark Levinson's very modular design concept. Tone controls based on noisy potentiometers have now been replaced with software eq (no background noise). Mark Levinson is right, analog is still wonderful and DAC's are getting better.

[@sidesup8286]

The Palette you could buy individually or with the preamp. Most cds are close enough in amount of treble and bass, that maybe I could live without tone controls playing cds. But no big penalty involved in having and using tone controls that are well designed on amps. But lps vary widely in tonal characteristics and also tape, especially cassettes.Those 2 formats vary by much. Having your cassettes laying on the floor (static field) will lessen the high frequencies (and even midrange) considerably over time. The bass starts sounding really ridiculously bass heavy. Philips and Sony gave us the cd format. I never had a Sony player, but many players, not just Magnavox, were using Philips innards in players that they put their brand name on. The sound was colorless almost, lacking tone colors and warmth. There were a few Magnavox players I liked, the 582 for instance; but I think people were listening to too many Philips based players. They would have been better off pre year 2005 listening to JVC and Onkyo cd players, especially Onkyo. The DACs in some of those players circa around 2000 could fool you into thinking you were listening to fine quality analog, especially after a few mods.

[@stereoniche]

Thanks for the insight. I had not every run across this gear until I saw this sale.

[@sidesup8286]

Mark Levinson is the one credited with saying "Audiophiles use music to listen to their system" instead of the other way around and using their system to listen to music. However, he came out with a series of audiophile lps decades ago, whose music was not as interesting as the sound quality. They were called Mark Levinson Presents Vol 1 through (however many).They are rare and collectors items which can fetch a lot of $$. There is a difference in the way one listens when evaluating. You are focusing more on individual instruments than taking in the whole. But listening to how an instrument sounds is hard to do without also hearing what it's playing. So unless someone is sitting there & listening for a tambourine throughout the whole record; you are doing both. Just listen to what impinges on your conciousness at any moment, don't try to follow instruments too much, unless they are the emphasis of the music, the recording WILL have emphasis's which direct your attention. Just follow the flow. It is the most natural thing and the easiest thing to do.

[@parttime9070]

The custom reel to reels can be ordered .. A YT channel 'sky-fi audio has them for sale.. Defiantly a boutique item..

[@stereoniche]

I actually bought something from them just recently. Not this R2R, but I am familiar with SkyFi.

[@thomosburn8740]

Cello is a modern builder of amplifiers in Seattle WA

[@robertwear1675]

Not the same Mark Levinson owned company

[@sidesup8286]

The Technics reel decks were famous for their very gentle tape handling. Very important if you are playing reel tapes that are real collectors items. A snapped tape that needs to be spliced can go from being a $300 tape to a $100 tape; or one that most don't want. I had reel tapes snapped several time by vintage Pioneer reel decks; which sounded good but did not have as gentle a tape handling. Your average used vintage factory prerecorded reel tape on ebay is around the same price of new lps these days. Good reel to reel decks can be had used for 2 or 3 hundred dollars; if you look in the right places.. I don't see why people are making it out to be such an expensive format to get into. The famous RL pressing of the Led Zeppelin II lp can be equaled and in some ways bettered by the 7 and 1/2 ips factory reel tape. If you want the very best sounding version of music from the late 1950s to into the 1980s, the best sounding version is almost always likely to be the reel tape. It beats lp for sound quality. Not everything that was released on lp was released on reel tape. There are catalogs by year and label for less than $15 on ebay which tells you all the titles which were released on reel tape. Sophisticated solid state amps, both modern and vintage, can do anything tube amps can do. The better of the bunch have amazing purity, clarity and openness and the sound is better lit and not as dark and murky sounding Tube amps definitely have more warmth; a little too much I think. But I do like both very high quality solid state and tube equipment. I am beginning to think the need for lps and tube gear; is not really a need at all.

[@stereoniche]

The good news is that there is plenty of used vintage gear out there to setup the system your heart desires.

[@Nick-dh4gm]

Yes, there is much to be said about the reel tape sounding better than LPs. But the playback on a reliable, quality is dependent on the tape machine condition. Reel tape machines are very complex. A tape machine for $300 is NOT going to ensure reliability, since many vintage tape machines will need expensive service- before giving the reliability/ quality. I have six, and after 30 years, there is a wide degree of condition in the market. Buyer Beware.

[@pervertedalchemist9944]

It's bad enough reel to reel players are already costly. Seeing the price of the Technics with the McIntosh design doesn't help matters.

[@stereoniche]

Interesting what enthusiasts will do.

[@billmilosz]

Cello was a Mark Levinson ulta-deluxe brand, and was in business until 2000 so I'm not really sure that marks them as "vintage."

[@stereoniche]

Well, "technically" vintage is over 20 years old, but for me, I tend to think of vintage as pre-1990 at this point. I was obviously not familiar with this Cello line, but they appeared to be from the 70's when I saw the ad based solely on their industrial design.

[@AllboroLCD]

McIntosh LD player! Now theres one for ya.

[@stereoniche]

🙂

[@robertwear1675]

I had one. It's a Pioneer with a Mac faceplate.

[@chrislj2890]

That Technics/McIntosh reel to reel sale looks odd to me. They can be pre-ordered from SkyFi Audio in New Jersey but they sell for $20,000. That picture even looks like it was from their store. Somethin' ain't kosher.

[@stereoniche]

Well, eventually they get resold. The ad does not look suspicious to me, the seller has thousands of feedback. You can still find it on eBay sold listings if curious.

[@chrislj2890]

@@stereoniche That just seems crazy to me selling it for probably what a stock deck would go for. But thinking about it now its desirability may be limited to only those having McIntosh equipment.

[@michaeldelorenzo6827]

Its from skyfi audio nj

[@stereoniche]

The Technics R2R is from SkyFi audio.

[@Nick-dh4gm]

Hi, Scott- Enjoyed the vintage audio market and the old audio tubes! The Technics R to R that was shown with McIntosh green lettering, was a type that Sky Fi Audio ( as someone else noted) had featured that they can reproduce, for resale. Another Open Reel brand, by Revox, has been featured in another You Tube channel : kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIvXhIqtq9xsiKc ; cost about $9-16k. Wish I had your layout for display, Kudos to you for your setup and discussions. Maybe my 75” speakers could qualify as a rarity from the 70s?

[@stereoniche]

Thanks Nick! Having the space sure is helpful. What model are the speakers?

[@Nick-dh4gm]

@@stereoniche The sealed acoustic suspension column speakers are the “Tower 1000”, by EPI- each of the 4 sides -use an 8” woofer and1” dome tweeter- Stereophile mag verified sound range from 22- 20,000khz. Original owner from 70s😄

[@stereoniche]

@@Nick-dh4gm Those are about as rare as hens teeth. I've seen some pics of them, but never seen a set first hand. Can you send me some system pics and a little history?

[@Nick-dh4gm]

@@stereoniche Yes- almost done with your request. Will send to Your gmail.

[@hippydippy]

Interesting, but us average Joe's could never afford those prices. I bought, sold & traded vintage gear for about 20 years until I came up with my final destination which well under those prices for my Nirvana. Just sayin.

[@stereoniche]

Very true, not your pedestrian prices for this group of vintage gear, I do over $5k because typically there are some interesting examples. It is just for entertainment, of course, but maybe I will do one for say the TOTL models from various brands for the late 70's, perhaps. Do you think that would be of interest?