The Sears Silverstone

"Denver Is Stuck In The 90s" (denver80222) 12/13/2014 at 23:50 • Filed to: None

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UPDATE: A song just came on the radio that depicts the sound quality really well:

I dusted off my grandmas old Sears Silverstone 8 Transistor AM radio. It was only ever used for emergencies and still sounds amazing. I have no idea how old it is but its definitely 45+ years old. Anybody else on Oppo have vintage audio equipment?

I've been listening to alot more radio since I got my truck. The tape deck gets too much cell phone interference with a MP3 to Tape adapter connected. Ive been experimenting with ferrite beads but I think I need to buy some snap ons, I dont think the ones I hacked out of old cables are gonna cut it.

Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 12/13/2014 at 23:55

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got a couple of late 80's-early 90's Aiko speakers with a matching amp and tape deck in my basement. they still work, but haven't been used in a while. gotta love old tech.

PyramidHat > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 12/14/2014 at 00:00

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I don't, but I just saw a pic of this on someone's FB. It's the stereo in Frank Sinatra's house in Palm Springs

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shop-teacher > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 12/14/2014 at 00:08

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I've got a cool little transistor radio that was my Grampa's. Still works. I grabbed it and took it into the basement with us, last time the storm sirens went off.

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > shop-teacher 12/14/2014 at 00:15

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Old radios are pretty neat. I just updated the post with another video. Depicts the sound quality pretty well

Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy > Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy 12/14/2014 at 00:19

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Got a video of the same setup.

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy 12/14/2014 at 00:21

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Real gone, by sheryl crow. Nice song

Boxer_4 > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 12/14/2014 at 00:22

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Nothing much, just an old Sanyo JXT-6430A and old Sanyo speakers, all from 1978. It has a good sound, but the turntable needs attention: it's frozen solid, a common issue with the old BSR units. The old grease needs to be removed, and all of the mechanisms need to be re-greased.

I'm currently in the process of building a CD player for it out of old computer parts. I have all of the parts ready, I'm just need to find the time to finish building it.

Bandit > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 12/14/2014 at 00:28

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Oh goodness yes. Most of my equipment is from the 70s (all hand me downs from various people). I have a pioneer reel to reel, a pioneer 8-track player, a pioneer SX-750 receiver (good it is amazing), all going to some 90s Ohm CAM42s that I rebuilt http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/audiolopnik-th…

VonBelmont > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 12/14/2014 at 00:36

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It's not mine, it's my mother's. It's a 1926 Edison "Diamond Disc" Long Playing phonograph. Plays special thick 80 RPM Edison discs that last 5 minutes in normal mode and 20 in LP mode. Sound's startlingly lifelike, but unfortunately Edison insisted on approving all the artists. This means that the disks are mostly godawful vaudeville, with a sliver of jazz and classical. My great grandfather bought it to hide liquor in during Prohibition, and it still sorta serves this purpose in the dining room. Looks like an ordinary cabinet, except for the hand-crank on the side. I'd like to see anyone top that :D

I got a Sony Super-Betamax deck from 1985, but other than that, most of my equipment is decidedly more modern.

pdx107 > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 12/14/2014 at 00:40

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I have one of these I got from my dad

Also have a 20 or so year old digital short wave radio that gets a decent amount of use

Saf1 > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 12/14/2014 at 00:51

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[i'm in]

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > Saf1 12/14/2014 at 00:55

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In what

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > pdx107 12/14/2014 at 00:56

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That thing is gorgeous. Best design language for any electronic device IMO.

VonBelmont > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 12/14/2014 at 00:57

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Speaking of the phono, I also grew up with and learned to play on an old reproducing piano like this, although ours was a Steinway upright (and a real bomb of an instrument too). Basically, these were Nana's pianola with a highly complex expression system to mimic a real human playing. There's a video of ourexact piano being restored for a cousin of mine so his daughter could take lessons, but hell if I can find it. The music from these really encapsulates the breezy Great Gatsby cocktail-and-cigarette atmosphere of the time. Just listen to it, it's unreal:

Oh, and I got a Sony Super-Betamax deck from 1985, but other than that, most of my equipment is decidedly more modern. I think running classic equipment, like tape decks or vintage receivers, is like dailying a classic car. Yeah, it's cool and special, but you're bound to the limits of the time period and you get less and less connected with the present that it becomes more and more frustrating to keep using it.

pdx107 > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 12/14/2014 at 01:01

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I can't argue that, and, they aren't that expensive to buy.

Worst part is they use the old Pioneer plugs for the speakers

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > pdx107 12/14/2014 at 01:02

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I hate those, makes finding speakers a pain

Saf1 > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 12/14/2014 at 01:11

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Cah! You';re gonna say you're studying but you're on oppo anyway so JOIN (original password)

pdx107 > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 12/14/2014 at 01:26

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speakers don't matter, just the plugs, which I have seen go for $25 to $60 each.....

Make a great connection but damn are they hard to find

ranwhenparked > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 12/14/2014 at 01:29

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I believe that model is a solid 50 years old, probably mid 1960s. I've got a bunch of old radios I collected as a kid in the '90s gathering dust in my parent's basement. Their cords are all pretty shot, so they've never been plugged in. All tubes, mostly brown Bakelite. Plus one Heathkit shortwave set I salvaged out of the school dumpster.

crowmolly > pdx107 12/14/2014 at 02:14

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I have an old Kenwood that's similar in style.

Works AMAZING.

And the really strange thing? The one thing that I love the most about it is how fluid all the dials work. It's a slightly heavy but soft turn. Very precise.

JoelA237 > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 12/14/2014 at 02:24

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I have no pictures, but my "music setup" is currently a 70s Harman Kardon Twin Power 430, powering two unknown brand tower speakers of the same vintage. It's got a nice warm sound, very detailed and clean. I had almost no hiss just plugging it into the wall, but now have NONE at all using a monster power conditioner. I have less than 200 bucks in this setup, so I'm very happy with it.

KnowsAboutCars > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 12/14/2014 at 05:43

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That is cool.

twochevrons > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 12/14/2014 at 11:40

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Sears used the "Silvertone" brand on radios for years – I have a bunch of old Silvertone tube radios that I'm restoring. I'm also in the midst of fixing up an old Zenith tube radio that can actually receive FM, too.

I love old hi-fi gear – my living room is adorned with a mid-'80s Bang and Olufsen Beosystem 5500. It looks straight out of the future, and sounds magnificent hooked up to some similar-vintage Beovox S45.2 speakers.

Back in the day, it was a crazy high-end system, and it definitely looks the part. Everything is piano-black and brushed aluminium, and it has some really clever features. The tape deck does some really cool things – it can assess the frequency response of the tape before recording, and then adjust its equalisation to compensate, and it has a clever automatic CD-to-tape function that arranges tracks so that you get as many as you can on a side, without any breaks. The turntable is of the linear-tracking type, where the pickup slides along a track, instead of swivelling on an arm, but the coolest thing about it has to be the remote control:

Instead of putting all of the controls and displays on the various modules themselves, B&O put them all on a wireless control panel designed to sit on a coffee table or some such. The user interface seems bizarre at first, but once you get used to it, it's very logical and well thought-out.

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > twochevrons 12/14/2014 at 11:43

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One of the battery connector cables came undone sometime last night so I soldered it back on this morning:

I think I did a pretty good job