Gino's Toys

[Thermionic]

This is a sort of vintage odds and ends system set up in a spare room which we call my 'museum'. The sub is not a perfect match with the Ls3a’s but seems quite good enough for the moment. The rest of the kit has been cobbled together over the years. No exotic leads and no mains conditioning (I am a philistine) Not Hi-Fi by many standards but just a bit of fun to play with.



Goodmans 15 Ohm Ls3/5a's, Atacama Stands, Quad 303 or Leak Stereo 20, BK Sub, Period G Plan Table, Lotus Elan cam cover



Audio Research LS7, Stellavox SU8, Sony D50, Technics SLD4, Dynavector 17R, Trichord Dino, Decca Dac, Sony MiniDisc(!) Stax Lambda Sig. System, Home built 'Gainclone' amp, Stax energiser, MiniBox E+, Stax SR5's (with home made silver leads), Lab PSU (for the Stellavox), Magnum Dynalab FT101a, HHB 'Burnit ' (AES into the Decca dac), Old computer trolly (to get at the leads easily)



Nagra T-Audio, Dolby A361 X2, Yamaha CT7000 (8 element in the loft) Home built Speedframe

[Ali Tait]

Well all I can say is "wow". Some great vintage stuff there!

[chris@panteg]

wow that nagra !

[Macca]

wow that nagra !

Yes, my thought exactly!

[Thermionic]

Yes, the T is a remarkable thing. Not the best sounding machine ever perhaps but a marvellous piece of engineering.

The transport was taken from their Ti instrumentation recorder, and I believe the T was introduced as a ‘base station’ for the portable recorders. A basic Stereo version was also available and the BBC had a few, but it was very expensive compared with other professional machines from the likes of Studer. When the time code option was introduced the big Nagra became popular as a lay-back machine for video post-production (as the video facilities had the money).

It took me some years to find my own example and I sold a good Pr99 to help finance it. But while bettering the Revox in many ways, the Nagra is a high precision and fantastically complex device. So while I was able to sort out most problems with the PR99, if the T goes bad I have had it!

Here’s a picture of the beast opened.

[Spectral Morn]

Very nice set up, very nice indeed


Regards D S D L

[Lodgesound]

and......is that an Ampex VPR80 I see a corner of in one pic??......complete with TBC6??

[Lodgesound]

The Nagra T's transport is indeed a thing of beauty.......it puts to shame (sorry...wipes the floor) with almost all other tape transport mechanisms being a true twin capstan dynamically tensioned deck.

[Thermionic]

Lodgesound well spotted sir, that is indeed a VPR80 and a TBC6 in the corner. They are both sort of working at the moment though as you probably know Ampex made their money on servicing their machines.

I put together a small collection of mid 80’s broadcast kit some years ago (probably saving most of it from landfill) and I keep it dusted and operational the best I can.

You probably also know that in the big T the right capstan is quartz locked and the left one is servoed to the tape tension sensor in the head block. I am not sure about the ultimate audio quality as there are a fair number of ICs in the audio paths. Not impossible I suppose to fit better electronics externally but my machine sounds pretty good in my modest system.

[Beechwoods]

Wow... nice to see some fantastic open reel tape gear on display! The Nagra T is impressive, but the Stellavox as well?! You are definitely a connoisseur! I'd be interested to see some more pics of it if you have any... have you had the chance to compare it with any of the Nagra portables? There's definitely divided camps when it comes to Stellavox vs Nagra... Superfically I prefer the Nagra IV aesthetics but I've not had the chance to play with a Stellavox yet. I'd be interested in your thoughts!