Sony NR-335

Vintage Sony units truly define an era. 

These 70's modules are by far trend setters of their day.

Here is a somewhat rare cassette Dolby B noise reduction unit from that era. Not to be confused with Thomas Dolby although he was equally innovative! Remember, "poetry in motion" moog music! Interesting fact... He won an achievement award 1998 for Internet music downloads. Interesting because his hits were prior to Internet down loadable content. 

Back to Dolby Labs gem...
It is encased in a true wood cabinet and sports the two massive VU meters so characteristic of the day.
This is a museum quality piece that should be appreciated.

Here are some specs

Built-in Headphone Jack
Two Mic Input Jacks
Two Professional VU Meters
Two-position Mic Attenuator Switch-reduces level of input to minimize input distortion
Tape/Source Monitor Switch
Built-in 19 kHz Filter Switch-eliminates FM multiplex interference
Two Playback Volume Controls - Ultra cool
Two Record Level Controls
Built-in 400 Hz Oscillator for input/output balancing.

Bravo Sony!

Sheffield Lab Recordings

From an early age I was shown the quality and performance of vinyl cut directly to disk in Sheffield Lab studios in New York. Breathtaking clarity and equally impressive musical performances as they were "cuttin grooves" with each note played. Masters which were 1st generations!
Lincoln Mayorga and Doug Sax are the visionaries and founders. The story goes that Lincoln relentlessly pursued a piano recording that could detail precise tone and clarity as if the piano was actually in the room from the recording. Thus long story short, they were brought to where they produced direct to disk recordings of unsurpassed quality.

There are many excellent LP's available including one of the clearest I have heard. James Newton Howard and friends is basically a Toto album, including the members of the day the Porcaro brothers. Jeff Porcaro shot to fame as the incredible drummer on Steely Dan's Katy Lied LP.
This collaboration has exceptional keyboards of the 80's with a somewhat Jazzy melody. All originals that I'm sure with this caliber of musicianship got very little rehearsal time. If your looking for that vintage sound or keyboard test sampler this is it man!
Here is Lincoln's (founder) own recording. He was an accomplished studio pianist.

and another quite notable...

Go to SHEFFIELD LAB HISTORY to read the full incredible coming of what is now the best vinyl produced! I hope you will enjoy one of their recordings soon. I do all the time.

Some Gear around the House

Leslie W2 Vintage Headphones

 

 

One of my great friends Yuri, taught me most of what I know about music and recording. I remember he introduced me to the vintage sound of a Hammond B3 through a Leslie speaker cabinets on the early Deep Purple & Nucleus (highly collectible) records. Yuri has the original pressing, I have a newer 180g vinyl pressing. 

The Doppler swoosh sound was incredible to me as he went through his incredible selection of vinyl. He described how the Allman Brothers Band and others would perform on stage with their Leslies rocking back and forth on the stage to give it a methodical sense of manic timing and sound. So calculated were the echoes of the vibrating Leslies most noticeable on Pink Floyd's "echoes". They were simply put, "the sound of an era". I was in high school listening to the Police and a Flock of Seagulls playing their mini moogs and DX-7's at the time and loved that I had been opened up to this new (old) ear candy. I came across these 1968 vintage Leslie W2's and it brought me back to that time. I recognized the logo and had to grab them. I didn't know that they even produced any audio accessories so these seemed like quite a find and it turns out they were. Ultra rare the W2's truly are vintage open aired units that have great reproduction. If I were to find a flaw it would be a lack of bass as is not unusual in those days without spending some serious money on higher end cans. Great mids and low fatigue,  I find them to be excellent for 40 year old phones. The W4's were the successor to the W2's and were upgraded with a switchable crossover to select genres from Classical to Popular and then to Vocals. Cool! These were only available in black with chrome accents. I will be watching for a pair of these one day.

Yamaha YP-B2 Turntable

Here is a very nice manual belt driven turntable that arrived this week. It has a simple and elegant vintage look with the Brazilian rosewood stocky plinth. A polished S-tonearm is complimented with the original head shell. It sounds like a menu description doesn't it? Ah well these units are like fine foods aren't they? When all the right ingredients are there it truly is delectable!

I replaced the belt and wiped it off and away we went. My wife actually likes cleaning them for me. Quite nice when she comments on the quality of a unit. Once the tracking was set up I found the sound to be surprisingly good as I was skeptical on the Yamaha series although they really did have some gems in the late 70's. All in all this is a solid entry level TT that you really cant go wrong with in both function and design.

Luxman K-5a Cassette Deck

I had a ton of hits on the vintage Nakamichi deck so I thought while the interest is there I would show this Luxman Deck that came in at the same time. Yet another 2 Head, Dolby B NR system in this spectacular tank of a unit. Vintage Vintage look from 1979. In terrific shape I have not yet put it up against the Nak but I am looking forward to the comparison. This deck had an MSRP of $495.00. Quite pricey if you compare the $200 difference over the Nakamichi. I will see if we have a winner. Same cleaning performed and the same cassettes will go head to head. :) Be well!

Contact Me

If you have any questions on the equipment you see please do not hesitate to email me at vits@gmx.com
I would be happy to answer any of your questions. Enjoy your Day!

Nakamichi BX-1 Deck

When it comes to analog signals I prefer to run vinyl over tape simply because of the superiority of turntable equipment that I have. Until... I set up this Nak deck and gave it a run through various music genres.

I was blown away at the dynamics of this simple two head system and really enjoyed the tapes that I have collecting dust. A great music lover friend walked in on a playing of the Aja album from Steely Dan and said "nice tunes". I told him it was a cassette and he was shocked. "you gotta be kidding" he said, "that's incredible quality". We had a nice discussion on the history of the Nakamichi's of yesterday and went through quite a few cassettes in the process. I have many 2 head decks that cost much more in their day then the BX-1 but this is truly a wonderful unit. The BX-1 is on the lower scale of decks they put out in 1982 but compared to some others this had to be a steal at an MSRP of $299.00
This particular deck is in fantastic shape and looks like it was rarely used or was treated as I would have.

Pioneer PL-530 Turntable

This Pioneer table is a fully automated direct drive table. S-tonearm with very accessible cuing and anti-skating mechanism. I like the bulked up look of this table. It's a very good sounding table and a pleasure to operate. The cover had many minute scratches across it and I managed to buff and polish them out quite effectively. I was impressed with how quiet the table runs. It is nice when a unit is completely original right down to the head shell. This was the golden era for Pioneer and I'm happy its arrived.

Simonetta Transistor Vintage Radio

My passion for sharing is usually the late 60's through 80's components but I really enjoy acquiring interesting radios as well. I did a write-up on a nice vintage Sony radio back in August and had some great emails about it.

Just arrived is this great condition Simonetta built in 1969. These were German built with wave bands of broadcasts, short wave, long wave and also FM. The loudspeakers are moving coil and has an output of 0.9Watt. This unit is leather wrapped and has held up over time. The antenna configures quite differently as it stores horizontally and extends to a 3.5ft height. Crystal clear reception and great power. I need to locate another tuning knob but other than that it cleaned up to original condition beautifully.
Watch for another transistor gem coming in from Denmark...Yes a B&O!