It's taken me a bit of time, but I finally got a 1/2 decent bedroom system assembled out of mainly vintage gear and it's been in use the past few months:
Fisher 800B receiver (circa 1960) - no cabinet; came from a custom installation
KLH Model Twenty speakers (circa 1965)
Sony CDP-C50 (circa 1989)
All tubes and connectors treated with Walker SST
I also have a Sony PST-33 turntable (circa 198?) waiting to be included.
The sound? Amazingly good! I really like what the Fisher can do, esp. after about 20 minutes of warm-up play time. ( I noted that my Fisher is sans cabinet, and as a bedroom system, the glowing tubes works fine as is, just need some compressed air to dust once in a while.) Decent levels of detail, very good sound stage width and depth (speakers have a little toe-in), excellent warmth, pretty good instrument and voice placement. Regarding the KLH Model Twenty - they don't have the strongest bass, but otherwise amply acquit themselves, esp. with the loudness switch of the Fisher engaged. I note each Model Twenty speaker has a single RCA-type plug on the back, which I haven't seen on speakers in years. Rat Shack was the only place I could find cable terminated with this type of plug-in connector; I wonder if upgrading the RCA-type terminus to speaker posts would bring an appreciable increase in aural enjoyment?
Also, I think there's a bit too much high end, and think that using SST on all the tube pins and connectors might be the culprit. Thus, over the long holiday weekend, I'll play around with the Deoxit to see if I can lessen the high frequency push. I note the Model Twenty speakers have a tweeter switch that lets one add, subtract, or norm the high freq. response; now I have them set to subtract.
So, here's to vintage equipment. Also, a shout of thanks out to my dad, who had to have a Bose radio/cd thingy (believe me, I tried to talk him out of it several times) and gave me his Fisher 800B. If you knew how meticulous my dad was, you'd know in what great shape the Fisher came to me.
