Hi...new guy on the block

[jeff nesbit]

Hey everyone I'm Jeff from SC...I'm 62 a musician and former quad owner...back in the day I was fortunate enough to own a Harmon Kardon 900+,with a Dual 1229q and a nice set of Bose 501s...really wonderful system....well,over the years components wore out and were replaced...but never equaled...I guess being older has made me nostalgic for those wonderful sounds...CD-4 albums that I haven't played in years have been calling out from the closet...Well,I decided to see if I could maybe set up another system like the one I had....501s aren't hard to come by and I'm sure I can find a good turntable out there...the 900+ was not happening till a couple days ago when by chance I found a fellow with two for sale...now I'm sure I'll probably have to make one good one and use the other for donor parts...my question now is,is it worth it to try and fix these?..he said they both power up but they probably need going through,which I'm sure is the case...I'm just not sure that there's anyone around anymore who can fix these things...I know all about the circuit boards and other problems...but the price is just so low that it's a shame to let them get thrown away...well anyway if y'all have any advice or suggestions I'd appreciate it if you'd chime in and lend me some of your expertise..,many thanks, Jeff

 

[HomerJAU]

Welcome to QQ Jeff!

 

[par4ken]

Hey everyone I'm Jeff from SC...I'm 62 a musician and former quad owner...back in the day I was fortunate enough to own a Harmon Kardon 900+,with a Dual 1229q and a nice set of Bose 501s...really wonderful system....well,over the years components wore out and were replaced...but never equaled...I guess being older has made me nostalgic for those wonderful sounds...CD-4 albums that I haven't played in years have been calling out from the closet...Well,I decided to see if I could maybe set up another system like the one I had....501s aren't hard to come by and I'm sure I can find a good turntable out there...the 900+ was not happening till a couple days ago when by chance I found a fellow with two for sale...now I'm sure I'll probably have to make one good one and use the other for donor parts...my question now is,is it worth it to try and fix these?..he said they both power up but they probably need going through,which I'm sure is the case...I'm just not sure that there's anyone around anymore who can fix these things...I know all about the circuit boards and other problems...but the price is just so low that it's a shame to let them get thrown away...well anyway if y'all have any advice or suggestions I'd appreciate it if you'd chime in and lend me some of your expertise..,many thanks, Jeff

It's always worth fixing vintage stuff! That's easy for me to say as I do my own repair work. Sadly it's getting harder to find places to work on old equipment. With two units I would try to fix them both & keep one as a spare! Unless you need some unobtainium parts or assembly, then that's a completely different story. It always pains me to see units "parted out", I tend to wonder if any real attempt had been made to restore those units.

Welcome back to the Quad world, to quote Dave Mason "It's Like You Never Left"!

 

[LuvMyQuad]

I think it's one thing to already have vintage equipment and get it repaired.

I think it's a totally different thing to buy vintage gear with the idea of getting it repaired somewhere, as the OP seems to have done.

Assuming the OP isn't going down this vintage rabbit hole for nostalgic purposes (if so stop reading now, as the rest won't matter), there are better options IMO.

More and more quad recordings are making their way to being re-released on optical media. The OP should look into what vintage recordings he has to play vs what has been re-released. Quad SACD is available from Dutton Vocalion and quad Blu-rays are available from Rhino, all at pretty reasonable prices. There is also the used market for DVDA, DVD, SACD, and even DTS-CD that are out of production, and which go for prices that are not quite as reasonable. so a lot depends on what one prefers to listen to.

The various Quad releases, the 5.1 releases, the Atmos releases can all be played back on a quad system if one wishes. Going with optical media instead of records changes the need for a turntable (and special cartridge, cables, and demodulator, in the case of CD4} to a need for an HDMI enabled universal disk player. There are many on the used market and even a few new models available. I still own a 15 year old Oppo BDP83 that will play anything we are talking about. You will also need an HDMI enabled AVR. This need not be a full Atmos enabled AVR. Again, many models are available.

Compare what titles are available with optical vs what's available with records. Compare the sound quality of each format. In both cases, the gulf is huge.

One still needs a speaker array either 4 or 5 mains plus an optional subwoofer.

Going vintage implies buying used.. You can still buy used, have a much larger choice of software, play newly released software, play it all with better fidelity, and not have to worry so much about where you're going to get stuff repaired when it breaks down.

One last thing. If you really have the need to keep a turntable in the system, even with CD4, that's doable too.

 

[rmorit01]

I wanted to share this link as this site has so much great info in it. HK 900+

 

[rmorit01]

I wanted to share this on the HK900+ as this site has great info on vintage equipment HK 900+ I took the vintage equipment path into quad, but with the more modern media.

A few things I have encountered. Purchase from an original owner a Sansui QRX 7500, set of 4 Sansui speakers, Sansui quad reel to reel and a dual 1229. That was a nostalgia purchase.

I was lucky to have a Sansui QRX repair tech locally for the 7500. Spent $1K restoring it. So perhaps find a tech first if you are going down that path. I picked up a cheap QRX 6001 which sounds better and QRX 5001 which amazes me ... So the 7500 sits for now. Picked up an Oppo BD103. Bought the Rhino Quaddios. Played around with speakers. Settled on 4 Epicure 202s with replaced cross-overs and components. Got the dual refurbished by Bill at fixmydual.com. Not setup for CD4 or quad. I really needed the Oppo as I stream music via the TV.

If the HK are cheap buy them. Find a tech or see what you can do. Be patient. In the meantime find four 501s. Refurbish them.

However, do not wait on fixing the HKs to get back into quad. Either find an alternative but working vintage piece to use with your record collection or as suggested go cd/Blu-ray with an Oppo and multichannel amp.

Also once here you will also learn more about Involve Surround Master V3. Which is another updated piece that people use to forego vintage decoders for quad.

Keep us posted on your decision as their is no right or wrong path to take. You may find one path easier than another, but get your media out and start listening again.

Bob

 

[barfle]

@jeff nesbit , If you have the chops to work on vintage equipment, then that’s its own reward. If not, this might be the time to learn, although, as noted above, there’s a lot of new gear with surround capability that might cause you less hassle.

Myself, I like working on older gear, although I definitely like to have at least a schematic diagram, and if there are waveforms, that’s better. I haven’t worked on any Harmon-Kardon gear, but the stuff I’ve seen, especially 1970s vintages, should be pretty straightforward.

Welcome back to quad! I think you’ll love it. I know I do!

 

[quicksrt]

I think it's one thing to already have vintage equipment and get it repaired.

I think it's a totally different thing to buy vintage gear with the idea of getting it repaired somewhere, as the OP seems to have done.

Assuming the OP isn't going down this vintage rabbit hole for nostalgic purposes (if so stop reading now, as the rest won't matter), there are better options IMO.

More and more quad recordings are making their way to being re-released on optical media. The OP should look into what vintage recordings he has to play vs what has been re-released. Quad SACD is available from Dutton Vocalion and quad Blu-rays are available from Rhino, all at pretty reasonable prices. There is also the used market for DVDA, DVD, SACD, and even DTS-CD that are out of production, and which go for prices that are not quite as reasonable. so a lot depends on what one prefers to listen to.

The various Quad releases, the 5.1 releases, the Atmos releases can all be played back on a quad system if one wishes. Going with optical media instead of records changes the need for a turntable (and special cartridge, cables, and demodulator, in the case of CD4} to a need for an HDMI enabled universal disk player. There are many on the used market and even a few new models available. I still own a 15 year old Oppo BDP83 that will play anything we are talking about. You will also need an HDMI enabled AVR. This need not be a full Atmos enabled AVR. Again, many models are available.

Compare what titles are available with optical vs what's available with records. Compare the sound quality of each format. In both cases, the gulf is huge.

One still needs a speaker array either 4 or 5 mains plus an optional subwoofer.

Going vintage implies buying used.. You can still buy used, have a much larger choice of software, play newly released software, play it all with better fidelity, and not have to worry so much about where you're going to get stuff repaired when it breaks down.

One last thing. If you really have the need to keep a turntable in the system, even with CD4, that's doable too.

Too many quad titles have been reissued on modern disc, too many low cost multichannel AVRs available for me to mess around with old vintage quad. Too many 5.1 discs are out there of newer mixes to not have 5.1.