Ears were ringing!
Yup,
I got the stereo all hooked up. Holy shite it is LOUD !!!!! I went up in the attic and found my old vinyl (what I have left from the superb collection I had at one time) and was spinning some records. Quite an eclectic collection I have. The Beatles, Ellington, Bob Marley, Eno, Taj Mahal, Muddy Waters and the like. All I can say is… It is LOUD ! I had the Sex Pistols cranked up and it was incredible, my ears were ringing and I was half deaf afterwards, like I was transported back to my bedroom circa 1979.
I woke up at 2:30 in the morning last night and went downstairs and hooked up the DBX boxes and the CD player. Yup, listening to Sheryl Crow as I right this (but at a low volume, Grace is still sleeping upstairs). I even hooked up the old Pioneer SR-202 reverberation amp. Yes, you heard me right, a real honest to goodness reverb! When was the last time, if ever, you heard one of those? I remember my father had one on his stereo, along with his 8-track and light boxes, those things that looked like speakers but had diffracted plexiglass in the front and flashed multi-color light shows along with the music. I’m not going that retro, but I thought the reverb would be a cool touch!
Did I mention how LOUD this system is?
The only thing is I need to take the receiver apart and clean all the pots and switches, it’s noisy when you adjust the volume. But that’s to be expected with it’s age. The contacts get dirty and corroded after 20 or so years. No big deal, a can of tuner cleaner will fix it right up.
When I first plugged it all in the turntable wouldn’t spin at all. It lit up but the platter wasn’t spinning. I spun it by hand and noticed that if I turned the pitch control up all the way it would make a little jerky motion. So I took the belt off and spun the motor spindle fast between my fingers. It spun a little, real slowly, then stopped. So I noticed that if I spun it real fast it would get up to speed. Basically I took it apart, lubricated the motor, made sure it spun consistently at a fast speed (and it stopped making squeaky noises) and put it all back together. Voila! It worked. Who said electronics repair was hard? And I only zapped myself twice… Just kidding.
So all in all, with a little tweaking and twisting and lubricating (hmmm, sounds kinda erotic) I have it all working like a dream. Clean the pots on that receiver and I’m rockin’ like it was 1979 again! Hell if you was a fly on the wall ya’ mighta even seen me doing the pogo to Eno in my living room! Sorry folks, no pix of that!
OK, gonna go cook up some pancakes for G and me. Have fun and enjoy this day that only comes once every 4 years.
