When we last left our illustrious hero, he had taken his set of Technics Micro Components to Prescott to be serviced.
I will be the first to admit that—at least for me—eBay is the work of the Devil. While I loved the Technics SL-1300Mk2 turntable that I'd had for over nearly 20 years and was still working without a hitch, I suffered from ongoing SL-1200Mk2 envy. (For those of you who don't know, the 1200Mk2 models, aka "Wheels of Steel" have been the go-to turntable for DJs for the last forty years, and for the longest time were just about the only direct-drive turntables remaining on the market.) I checked the 1200Mk2 auctions periodically over the years, kicking myself when I had the means and opportunity to buy one new in 2004 but neglected to, but it seemed that the ones being posted were obviously DJ workhorses and had definitely seen better days. Call me crazy, but I like my audio equipment to look as good as it sounds.
But shortly after the fire and we had settled into our new abode, I spied an auction for a 1200Mk2 that supposedly had only seen home use. It was flawless. Knowing how quickly these units disappeared from circulation, I threw caution to the wind and put in my bid. I won the auction.
It arrived, packed for the ages. Shipping turntables is always fraught with danger, but it was obvious the seller knew what he was doing, and it arrived in pristine condition. And pristine it definitely was. My faithful 1300Mk2 was packed up and put in the closet.
As expected, it took Randy nearly a year to get to the repairs on the Technics Micro Compoents, and while the power amp did have a small issue upon its return, he quickly addressed the issue and got it working as expected.
After that one final repair, I got everything home, hooked the units back up, and while they worked fine, after having lived with the more powerful and frankly more robust Kenwood 6600, they failed to wow me in the way I'd been hoping the would after the restoration. I disconnected everything, put the Technics units into closet, and reconnected the Kenwood.
In May 2022, on a whim, I did jumped into Satan's playground once again and performed a search for the venerable Kenwood KR-7400 receiver that I'd been so happy with for over a decade. I wasn't unhappy with the 7600 by any means, but I just wanted to see if there were any 7400s available. Turns out there was one, which was kind of a rare occurrence. The unit was described as "Powers On. Dial lights out, but no sound from tuner." The unit was absolutely mint in appearance, however. Knowing now that Randy had the skills to get these beasts-of-a-bygone-era working again, I figured it was worth the $150 that the seller was asking for it, justified the purchase as an early birthday present to myself, and a week later it arrived on my doorstep.
The seller's description was accurate. It did power up. The tuning knob was loose, and it didn't spin effortlessly across the dial. The dial lights were burnt out and I got nothing but static from the tuner. The inside was filthy, and the veneered end panels had seen better days, but other than the end panels, it was cosmetically mint. Kind of disappointed that I couldn't just swap this unit in to use while the 6600 was with Randy, I decided instead to use my place in line to give him the 7400 to work on instead.
I got it back in February of last year and as you can tell, it was stunning:
He wasn't able to address the loose tuning knob or the fact that it wouldn't spin effortlessly across the dial the way my previous 7400 had done, and the LED I'd asked him to use in the stereo indicator light (as had likewise been the norm on my old 7400) seemed way too bright, but everything worked, and it sounded good. It worked well enough that I took the 7600 up to him for any service it might require.
After we moved last spring, all the little issues with this 7400 started wearing on me, and quite frankly, it just didn't sound as good as it's younger sibling that was now up in Prescott. Knowing it would probably be a year before work was completed, in September I said fuck it and called Randy and told him I wanted to get the 6600 receiver back as-is. No problem, he said.
And once I got it back, I verified that indeed, it wasn't just my imagination that it sounded better than the 7400.
So the 6600 was the centerpiece of my system until just last month. Seeing ads for, and watching YouTube reviews of the new Yamaha amps and receivers kind of got me; I caught the bug. I would've loved to buy a new Yamaha R-N100A receiver, but I just couldn't justify the $1800 expense. As good as my Kenwood 6600 sounded, it was still missing something, and once I dove back into the world of Yamaha, I knew what it was: that Yamaha sound. Remember the Yamaha A-700 amp I bought new in 1986 and then replaced in 2001 after foolishly selling my original unit? Well, shortly after Thanksgiving I once again found myself on eBay…
To be honest, I'd looked more than just a few times over the past couple years for an A-700, but each time all the units being offered were pretty beaten up. But when I looked again this time, there was a unit up for sale that looked like it had just rolled off the factory floor…and supposedly had no issues. (Not surprising, considering Yamaha build quality.) I thought long and hard before I hit the "Buy It Now" button, but I justified it by telling myself I could sell the now fully-restored Kenwood 7400 to recoup the expense. At the same time I picked up a matching Yamaha T-1 tuner:
So now my system consists of the Yamaha A-700 integrated amp, T-1 tuner, a Yamaha CD-S303 CD player, Technics SL-1200Mk2 turntable (with an Ortofon Blue cartridge), and a pair of JBL 166 Horizon loudspeakers. And with retirement looming, this is undoubtedly my last stereo system…and I'm okay with that. When I can actually just sit down and listen, (no other distractions) it's pure bliss.
I have to apologize for this latest series of posts; in finding the links to insert I realized that I've written about all this—or at least most of this—before.
I'm old.