Overpriced Vintage Equipment: You've gotta be kidding me!

[4-earredwonder]

Sorry to hear that. I always thought Avanti's were unique & good looking cars. I lusted after them like I lusted after Phoebe Cates in the 80's.

SW, the car was spectacularly gorgeous but it never ran right. The dealer I purchased it from was a dirt bag and after 4 years I sold it.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

I wanna know if it was a "Low Rider" and were you crankin' up the War on a Q8 deck?

No Q8. Cassette. It did ride pretty low. I always liked the rear seat opera windows. God, the things i did with girls in that back seat. At least I married the one I had the most fun with. Drive-ins were very popular at the time, for much more than the movies.

 

[Sal1950]

In days of ole, when Knight's were bold, and FM weren't invented.
AM was a life saver, a connection to the world I left behind when I joined the Army and was stationed at different posts around the US. Many nights I could be found sitting in my car, listening to WLS-AM in Chicago (my home town). Best thing about AM is you could tune into most of the 50 kilowatt, clear channel stations at night when noise levels dropped from just about anywhere in the US.
Rock &Roll delivered by the Wild Italian Dick Biondi, those were the days my friends.

 

[cbmmm3]

Ernie Harwell. Broadcaster for the Detroit Tigers for 30 years or more . Me with Ernie via my transistor radio. That radio also spent many nights in the sweet corn fields trying to keep the racoons away. Pretty sure it was playing WLS....a good 150 miles away from me. Ill still occasionally search AM to hear whats out there

 

[roundhousequad]

I still have from Italy my Pioneer spec stuff in the box never plugged in and a set of AR 9 speakers that came out of the box for about 2 weeks on leave trust me enough for a quad system wonder what pice they would bring with this guy pricing them the pioneer quad receiver only has 2 months on it before some guy in isolation duty with me drove a screwdriver in the top.maybe I should just start a mus

 

[Sal1950]

I love old Chrysler, always wanted a '57-'63 Imperial, absolute favorite car for me.

With a big hemi. My fav's were the 300 series, 1955 was the top for me.

 

[d_archivist]

I had two '56 Imperials at one time in the 1990s; one with Powerflite, and one with Torqueflite. What I wanted was a '56 300B, but couldn't afford it even then.

The 354 Hemis had plenty of power and still got modestly respectable gas mileage.

I still have the Highway HiFi that I bought and never installed.

 

[surround.sound.enthusiast]

This was probably my WORST offender: a 1987 8 cylinder Studebaker AVANTI convertible

Whenever that photo was taken, its not an old one... that's a contemporary Arizona license plate on the back.

 

[quadaholic]

Whenever that photo was taken, its not an old one... that's a contemporary Arizona license plate on the back.

I had no idea studebaker was still making cars in 87. My grandmother down in Louisville had a studebaker that I thought was pretty cool.

 

[furui_suterioo]

I had no idea studebaker was still making cars in 87. My grandmother down in Louisville had a studebaker that I thought was pretty cool.

By that time the Avanti name was on a '85 Corvette chassis being sold by various privateers. Studebaker went under 1964 after it drove Packard down to the ground. My favorite Study is the '53 Starliner, wish I had one:

 

[Zerochief]

Another QRX-9001 on eBay, asking price $3400.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/174864819303?epid=732665223&hash=item28b6c16467:g:mW4AAOSw4b1hA3Z9

 

[senorverde]

Another QRX-9001 on eBay, asking price $3400.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/174864819303?epid=732665223&hash=item28b6c16467:g:mW4AAOSw4b1hA3Z9View attachment 69604

Looking at the service bill I see nothing mentioning pinning/reflowing the problematic channel boards. That in itself is a major deal breaker at any price IMO.

 

[senorverde]

$3000+ for a 5500? Granted the QBL-100 is worth some money but there's no way that one of these should surpass a 9001 in price, especially in that cosmetic condition. Plus the description (or lack thereof) won't help move it.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/194266180640

 

[Sal1950]

especially in that cosmetic condition. Plus the description (or lack thereof) won't help move it.

The wood case looks like it was dropped off a roof. I'd pass.

 

[Owen Smith]

Another QRX-9001 on eBay, asking price $3400.

What do the Dolby options do and what do they apply to? Seems a strange thing to have on something that isn't a tape deck.

 

[Soundfield]

What do the Dolby options do and what do they apply to? Seems a strange thing to have on something that isn't a tape deck.

In order of usefulness in the 1970’s:

• To record and playback Dolby tapes on a non-Dolby deck (of which there were a lot).
• To decode Dolby FM broadcasts (of which there were none).

 

[Sal1950]

To decode Dolby FM broadcasts (of which there were none).

Seems like the general public has always considered FM Stereo sound quality "good enough". Dolby FM flopped and HDFM is doing the same. Guess streaming has control of the markets.

 

[Soundfield]

Seems like the general public has always considered FM Stereo sound quality "good enough". Dolby FM flopped and HDFM is doing the same. Guess streaming has control of the markets.

I'd argue Dolby FM didn’t flop – it never even took off! Although approved by the FCC in the US (the only country to do so believe) most radio stations realised it wasn’t really backwards compatible and would only make their broadcasts sound worse for the vast majority of listeners.

 

[gvl_guy]

Seems like the general public has always considered FM Stereo sound quality "good enough". Dolby FM flopped and HDFM is doing the same. Guess streaming has control of the markets.

Well, technically HDFM didn't flop. Not really. If you have a newer car, it's likely you're listening to FM in HD. (A stupid name to begin with, but that's another story.) The radio automatically flips to HD. Also many broadcasters are getting extra radio stations by taking the HD-2 and 3 channels, putting an entirely new station on that signal, then broadcasting it over a regular FM translator. I'm kinda guessing most people are not listening to that station in HD since the (very stupid) broadcasters never promote that frequency -- just the analog one.

 

[senorverde]

Well, technically HDFM didn't flop. Not really. If you have a newer car, it's likely you're listening to FM in HD. (A stupid name to begin with, but that's another story.) The radio automatically flips to HD. Also many broadcasters are getting extra radio stations by taking the HD-2 and 3 channels, putting an entirely new station on that signal, then broadcasting it over a regular FM translator. I'm kinda guessing most people are not listening to that station in HD since the (very stupid) broadcasters never promote that frequency -- just the analog one.

Actually you've pretty much nailed the main problem in the first sentence. The main FM market isn't a bunch of geezers listening to their 70s boat anchor receivers in their homes but rather drivers on their daily commutes. In fact that demographic is so large it keeps the FM band profitable here in the states (unlike the majority of Europe where analog FM is dead). Considering the large fleet of cars still carrying non HDFM tuners broadcasters need to advertise to the lowest common denominator/largest market share. FM here is in no danger becoming extinct compared to AM and its digital offspring.