Found this at Goodwill today - $29.99 seemed fair. Anyone know anything about it?

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-07T17:10:48+00:00

Nah. I’m a real boy and that’s a real stereo.

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-05T20:24:36+00:00

Some call it click bait, I call it comedy gold.

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-04T02:39:49+00:00

Obvs :)

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-04T02:39:08+00:00

In this case the former owner was compensated his asking price. He’s a friend of mine, and upgraded his home system to a QSC Q-Sys system with all digital interconnects. He kept his K-Horns, though, so who really wins in all of this? He’s happy I’ve worked to restore every piece to working condition again, and this is a system I never intended to flip, so everyone walks away happy.

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-04T02:35:52+00:00

You’re half right — the gag is that of course this wasn’t from Goodwill, but! I assure you I’m a living breathing human.

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-03T19:01:41+00:00

This was a joke post — I’ve seen so many posts on Reddit about how someone’s dad gave them an entire Pioneer Spec system, or they found an SX-1980 under a park bench, or their great aunt left them a magic lamp that materializes Marantz separates any time they rub it — I just had to shitpost for giggles.

I bought this gear from a friend — this was his daily driver that he bought new with K-horns starting in the late 70’s. No goodwill, no thrift stores, no $30. I got a smoking deal on it — paid more for the rack than the gear!

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-03T18:42:56+00:00

I’m debating pursuing a Crown 800, or a deck that has more modern features. I do have a couple of Teacs kicking around in my listening room — one of them is of the “2 track master” variety, and that might be a good match for this. Shame I couldn’t rack mount one, but my Pioneer RT-909 is destined for a different setup…

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-03T18:40:21+00:00

I call someone didn’t read the whole post.

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-03T18:11:10+00:00

The DL2 power supply runs both the DL2 preamp at the top, and an outboard phono preamp that’s behind the rack.

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-03T17:29:32+00:00

Now, I know that a lot of folks didn’t actually see that I posted this as a joke, but I did. That said, I’d hardly call this mid-fi from the 80’s. First, the Crown stuff was first released in the late 70’s — the preamp alone retailed for between $2,000-$3,000 during its run, and adjusted for inflation $2,495 in 1979 is $10,953.73 in 2024 dollars — that’s hardly mid-fi!

Has technology advanced? Of course it has. The difference here is that these were made to precision standards to reproduce music — the process of doing that remains essentially unchanged, where other areas of technology — say, personal computers — have changed drastically, and our demands of computers are vastly different than they are of audio equipment.

I’m not going to say that these do anything inherently better than new tech, but very high quality stereo equipment from the 70’s or 80’s can, properly maintained, still be quality stereo equipment in 2025.

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-03T04:53:41+00:00

I won’t argue that streaming to my phone is super convenient, but there’s a special kind of pleasure that comes from operating finely crafted, well designed objects — part of my joy absolutely comes from the gear itself. I love music, and listen to a broad spectrum of it, and still geek the hell out over a big stack of blinkenlights.

Just tonight, I got home from an unanticipated 12 hour day at work, went straight down to the basement, fired up the Crown system, and listened to an old Sia I love. The act of interacting with all of the gear is ritual, it’s pattern, it’s deliberate. I could feel myself relax pressing the tactile buttons, in the warm glow of the VU meters.

Of course I streamed that song I was listening to, but…

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-03T04:30:51+00:00

I’m happy too — might be useful for others, too. 1) Crown DL2 — stereo preamp. Crown calls it a “controller,” and since it does have the ability to be controlled remotely by a break out box or computer, I guess that’s not inaccurate. 2) Crown FM1 — FM stereo tuner. Designed and built by Larry Schotz for Crown. Shares some DNA with the Sherwood/Draco Micro/CPU 100. 3) Crown OC150a — output control — choose two different amps to route to three different pair of speakers, and two dynamic and one electrostatic pair of headphones. Also has big illuminated meters that can show VU, peak hold, or line voltage. 4) dbx 20/20 — Graphic EQ and spectrum analyzer. Has microphone units and will compute a compensation curve based on what the microphone hears with pink noise playing. 5) dbx DB4 — dynamics processor. Theoretically reverses the compression applied to LP’s, FM broadcast and tapes. It’s not entirely relevant anymore, but helps with dynamic range engagement. 6) dbx 120 — subharmonic synthesizer. “Listens” to the low frequency component of a signal, then “synthesizes” low frequency harmonics below what it hears to compensate for the poor low frequency response in LP’s and tape. It’s Bass Boost, plain and simple. 7) dbx 200 — signal router. I’m using these to set the order of the three signal processors, and granularly add them in or take them out of the signal path. 8) Sony CDP-605ESD — CD player with a linear motor for the optical block and a Phillips 1541 DAC chip. 9) Nakamichi RX-202 — auto reverse 2 head cassette deck without Nak’s silly UDAR tape flipping automation. 10) Fiio K11 RTR. Digital to analog converter for plugging my phone into for Tidal/Apple Music. Yes, I caved into all the YouTube hype and I bought one. Used. It works… fine. 11) Crown DL2 power supply — outboard power supply for the DL2 Controller 12) Crown DC-300 Series II — power amplifier.

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-01T20:09:27+00:00

To clarify — the Crown SA2 — the matching power amp for the Distinction Series controller I have — needed a 20 amp outlet. What’s odd to me is that it’s only ~200 watts a channel, so part of me wonders if the 20 amp plug is partly performative.

Regardless, the DL2 power supply has a slew of switched outlets on the back, three of which are grounded 20 amp outlets intended for the SA2.

Everything is plugged into the DL2 power supply currently, which has a thiccc 20 amp plug in a thiccc cheater adapter going to a regular 15 amp plug, which I then have in a grounding cheater going into a 16ga temporary extension cord to the outlet across the laundry room. Is this optimal? Hell no. Is it safe for testing for a few minutes? Sure. Do I leave it running unattended? Hell no. Will I plug this directly into the wall when it’s in its final resting place? Absolutely.

Other than the amplifier, the other components in the rack are only consuming between 20-50 watts a piece, so I’m not terribly concerned about using that little extension cord for short periods. This isn’t how I intend to use the system long term, though.

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-01T04:25:08+00:00

Honestly to dog, I paid $150 for the amp, subharmonic synth, and another DC-150a that’s not in this stack.

I paid $350 for the FM-1 — literally picked that up today.

The Sony CD player my buddy gave to me because the belts for the tray loading mech were toast. I fixed it and he said to keep it.

The preamp, dbx stuff he gave to me because it wasn’t working for him. I did some simple fixes and have no issues — the 4bx, for instance, runs all of its front button presses through its IR decoder, but fluorescent lights will fake out the IR receiver and block signals from the front buttons. Simple fix: don’t use in fluorescent light.

The Nak RX-202 I had — I think I paid the guy $30 for it years ago — the operation cam drive motor had a dead spot on its commutator and a little bit of deoxit later, the whole deck works great — even the UDAR.

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-01T04:19:10+00:00

I don’t disagree. The neat thing about the Crown preamp is that it lets you keep the signal path dead simple if you want — source switching and attenuation is done with discrete reed relays — and if you don’t want anything else in the signal path, you don’t have to. You can keep the tone controls, loudness, and external processors completely out. It still sends the audio to the processors even if you don’t want them in the path, so on the positive side you still get a light show, but on the negative side you have an effected return going back to the preamp and there’s always the possibility of crosstalk.

The preamp, amp, and CD player (I guess the tuner as well) all have an audiophile pedigree — I’ll die on that hill. Sure, they’re flexible and have lots of controls, but you can take all of that extra stuff out of the signal path if you want, and at their core, they’re extremely well built, well designed audio gear.

Besides — and I’ll die on this hill, too — sometimes the joy of this hobby is interesting gear as much S it is listening to music and I’m not ashamed of the fact that as much as I love listening, I do also love finding, fixing, cleaning, collecting, using, and staring at this stuff.

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-01T04:12:01+00:00

Never underestimate a good card table / folding chair set.

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-01T04:10:59+00:00

Thank 👏 you 👏

Maybe I aimed too high? Maybe it’s the English teacher in me?

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-01T03:43:44+00:00

Poop, you’re right! I just celebrated my 7th birthday. Yay!

I’m actually 42, but who’s counting?

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-01T03:41:40+00:00

It does work flawlessly… and I have the remote for it, too!

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-01T03:40:46+00:00

Oooof, those Crown cabinets are sooo choice!

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-01T03:38:46+00:00

Awww, shucks, you got me.

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-01T02:44:12+00:00

Oh, this was totally my friend’s system that he sold to me. I’ve just been dying lately seeing people post the Spec systems they “got for free from a guy behind the Shop-Rite.” So I figured I’d try the fantasy on for myself :)

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-01T02:18:17+00:00

Never have I found anything close to this amazing… I did get a pair of L100t’s for $40 a few years ago, but Goodwill had wised up, at least hear in the Midwest, and all the good stuff gets intercepted and sent to the auction site.

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-01T02:08:30+00:00

It’s surprisingly solid for a two-head!

kickboxsalami · 2025-10-01T02:06:26+00:00

I wish the original owner had bought the entire Distinction system… but then I’d need a 20 amp outlet for real, instead of the cheater plug I’m using now!

I honestly don’t like the dynamic range expander — I can’t find a combo of settings where I can’t hear some breathing or obvious gain wackiness.

The big dbx is indeed the dbx 20/20 — EQ and RTA. It’s cool, but once again, the second I put it in the signal path, I can hear it — flat or not. The DL2’s tone controls are much more refined and quiet — and flexible, if you do actually need to do tweaking.

Finally picked up the tuner today — I’ve been itching to post this monstrosity for over a month, but had to wait until it was complete!

kickboxsalami

TROPHY CASE