Well, not to bring the title of this thread into disrepute but I’ve just added another bit to the not so retro and not so budget equipment. I’ve got the Akexa bug 
4 echo dots (3rd gen) literally ‘dotted’ around the house, 2 echo studios as a stereo pair in the lounge, loads of smart plugs/lights and have just added an echo sub woofer! Subscribe to Amazon music unlimited HD as a prime member so have access to tons of music in HD quality! which sounds really nice through the studios/sub 2.1 system. All this is in advance of Mrs B returning to 2 days working from site by the middle of March, I can start to listen at higher levels more! The only downside for me, is the fact it won’t act as a sound system for anything other than Amazon stuff, so Netflix, prime video, YouTube etc works but not any Sky programmes. Music is fine though, 
On a slightly different note, I’m looking to resurrect the mono-blocks, using the built in phono amp on the AT-120 TT, put each channel directly to each mono-block, then the separate outputs to each speaker. I had them configured using the main AIWA amp as a pre amp previously, outputting L/R channels to the mono-blocks? It worked OK but I’m interested to hear how it will sound directly from the TT. Might not get done for a while yet but worth trying out I think 
Barrie
That’s great Barrie! 
Whatever it is 'cos I haven’t a clue what any of that stuff is, or does! 
It’s a box that connects to the internet and you can ask it questions. It then replies ‘I’m sorry, I don’t know that’. A bit like having a polite but stupid mate. You don’t need one Roger, you’ve got all of us.
Whatever you do, do NOT ask Alexa how you say 100% in Welsh.
Don’t ask me how I know. 
Not when there are kids around anyhow.
But of course…some will.
They will now Rob! 
Quite.
Some did!
Barrie
It was a “Funny” I was sent by a certain chap all the way from the Infantry Battle School in Brecon years back.
I finally got around to it: some new EZ34 valves. I got my old Leak TL12+ valve amps out of the loft and working again. Hooray! And also from the loft a pair of '90s Mission speakers, an '80s CD player and a heap of CDs.
Didn’t sound quite right. Took me a while to figure it out, but I got the left channel audio on both speakers, and it seemed to be the CD player at fault. {sigh} That’s absurd. Can’t be, surely? Checked it’s not the wiring. Unplugged all of that and just stuck headphones into the CD player’s HP jack and sure enough: left channel in both ears.
Downloaded a service manual for the Philips CD-471 (in Dutch {shrug}) and convinced myself the fault is in the digital domain. My money is on the overclocking filter (out of production for 30-ish years, naturally). I thought eBay might be a good place to find an identical player cheaply but the DAC chip in these machines seem to have a fan following and used prices are not the pocket money I fondly assumed.
I thought the amps were going to be the problem. I assumed the rest would just work.
That’s a story of two halves Martin! Fantastic that you’ve recommissioned your old HiFi equipment, shame that the CD transport hasn’t been so lucky?
Nice to hear someone’s using gear that carries my name 
LEAK that is, not Phillips. You’ve given me another nudge to get the LEAK DELTA 75’s sorted and set up with the 3001 TT and 600 series floorstanders! 
only the amps require work bit unlike yourself, it’s way above my pay grade! Thanks for contributing to the thread.
Barrie
Thanks Barrie. Getting the Leaks going was no trouble as I previously built them up from almost bare chassis. An old friend skip-dived those from outside Bush House (he worked for the BBC World Service) where they’d been dumped as part of a BFBS studio refurb. Years passed and he realised he was never going to be up to repairing them so he passed them on to me.
It’s ironic that you can still buy all the bits to make the 1960s tech work but the 1980s stuff is salvage or nothing.
Interesting (in parts) article on BBC news website.
Nice looking piece I thought, from the end of the Art Deco period?
Hi everyone! Funnily enough, only this morning, I watched a couple of YouTube videos from a chap called Andrew Robinson in America who had a Pioneer 780 tuner amp updated to a more modern spec, obviously not quite as old as the one Paul has linked to! Last half of the 70’s I think. He had another YouTube channel (just audio) undertake the work on his behalf. They in turn have produced a video of their work from start to finish. Apart from a complete overhaul of the unit to better than OEM standard, they swapped out the spring speaker connectors to banana sockets, converted the mains lead to a plug in type, installed an HDMI ARC socket, Bluetooth, a streaming device etc. First class job and apparently, sounds great!
Barrie
My Audio Technica AT LP5 Direct Drive turntable is for sale. This turntable is in mint condition and comes with the original AT95EX cartridge which is unused. This turntable was awarded 5 stars by What HiFi. Thought I would offer it on here before putting it on Ebay. PM me for more details, pictures etc. if you are interested.
Having rad many of these posts for some time, I finally decided (well my wife decided) that the CD player in the lounge needed fixing as it was not working. So I took it apart and realised that when accepting the CD into the drive, it was not loading properly. So I took it apart a bit more and greased the loading mechanism and low and behold Success!! Gave it a clean, put it back together and we can now listen to CD’s in the lounge again…
I like those DENON midi systems with the mirror fronts, nice system
Barrie
Thanks, I must have bought it all in about 1998 or so - from memory it was about £900 with the Mission speakers…however not used it (apart from playing Xmas CD’s) for a long time, since we got an Amazon Alexa system…
We have about 400 CD’s, but with music streaming and Amazon, you do not really need them. However we have the music stuff in the kitchen and this system is in the lounge, so we might give it a go again…
I’m a recent Alexa convert and threw myself in with gusto! I’ve got an Amazon HD music subscription (also use Spotify) to listen on a 2.1 echo studio and subwoofer group. The Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones with Alexa built in, four 3rd gen echo dots literally dotted around and a 4k Fire Cube. Loads of smart plugs, indoor and outdoor lighting too! All the analog stuff is great to have but the convenience is immense with the Alexa stuff
I’ve got to stop!
Barrie
We have Alexa and the Google thingy but there is just something about putting on an LP or pressing the buttons on our Jukebox. More involved somehow.