I have a decent college stereo system from the late 1980s. I have a
great pair of Polk audio speakers that I think still sound great.
Everything else I could trade in in a heartbeat.

I am in the process of converting all my cassettes to CD-R and at that
point will remove the cassette deck from my stereo and relegate it to
the basement.

I am a computer programmer and new parent, so I am capable of creating
a networked stereo for high capacity storage, but don't have the free
time to investigate this myself.

I want to buy a new receiver, probably want to get a dvd player with
mp3 capability to replace the cd player- that way can listen to radio
broadcasts traded on mp3 dvds.

I would be interested in upgrading my cartridge and stylus, but nothing
over $200 for both pieces. My wife says to choose the top 1000 LPs and
sell the rest and I don't think she's wrong.

Has anyone read any articles about restarting a quality stereo system?
I would happily buy old working pieces on ebay, have no fear of tubes,
etc, but I'm not going to spend more than $500 per piece.

The Absolute Sound reviews, you know, just aren't for me. Can anyone
point me to good sites for this info? please post here.

for those who are really helpful, I listen to 1950s and 1960s rock
music, often mono, mostly on CD.

Don

Check out audioadvisor.com. They have a great selection of turntables,
preamps and amps. I haven't had a turntable in about ten years but I
just started to reasearch turntables and I found these guys.

wrote:
I have a decent college stereo system from the late 1980s. I have a
great pair of Polk audio speakers that I think still sound great.
Everything else I could trade in in a heartbeat.

I am in the process of converting all my cassettes to CD-R and at
that
point will remove the cassette deck from my stereo and relegate it to
the basement.

I am a computer programmer and new parent, so I am capable of
creating
a networked stereo for high capacity storage, but don't have the free
time to investigate this myself.

I want to buy a new receiver, probably want to get a dvd player with
mp3 capability to replace the cd player- that way can listen to radio
broadcasts traded on mp3 dvds.

I presume you're talking about a strictly 2-channel system. There are
2-channel receivers available, from Denon, Harman-Kardon, Onkyo and (I
think) Yamaha, and multichannel receivers from all the usual suspects.
The latter may seem to be overkill, but they do function well in
2-channel mode. An inexpensive 5.1-channel model from Pioneer was
highly recommended here not long ago.

Larger newstands (e.g., B&N, Borders) may still stock Sound & Vision's
equipment directory, which will have full details on available models.

Many receivers no longer include phono stages, however, so you may need
an outboard phono preamp. NAD makes a decent one for $100 or so.

If you listen to a lot of radio, however, you may find that tuner
sections of modern receivers are, to put it kindly, subpar. A better
route might be an integrated amp (NAD 320, Rotel RA02, Yamaha AX596),
and a separate tuner, though together they will run you more than $500.

I would be interested in upgrading my cartridge and stylus, but
nothing
over $200 for both pieces. My wife says to choose the top 1000 LPs
and
sell the rest and I don't think she's wrong.

Can't even touch this without knowing what turntable you've got. For an
LP collection of that magnitude, a whole new vinyl rig may be in order.

Has anyone read any articles about restarting a quality stereo
system?
I would happily buy old working pieces on ebay, have no fear of
tubes,
etc, but I'm not going to spend more than $500 per piece.

At that price, fear tubes.

The Absolute Sound reviews, you know, just aren't for me. Can anyone
point me to good sites for this info? please post here.

The S&V buyers guide will get you up to speed on the current state of
play. Try their site:

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/

Another source of good general info is Ian Masters:
http://www.mastersonaudio.com/audio.shtml

bob

wrote:
I have a decent college stereo system from the late 1980s. I have a
great pair of Polk audio speakers that I think still sound great.
Everything else I could trade in in a heartbeat.

I am in the process of converting all my cassettes to CD-R and at that
point will remove the cassette deck from my stereo and relegate it to
the basement.

I am a computer programmer and new parent, so I am capable of creating
a networked stereo for high capacity storage, but don't have the free
time to investigate this myself.

I want to buy a new receiver, probably want to get a dvd player with
mp3 capability to replace the cd player- that way can listen to radio
broadcasts traded on mp3 dvds.

I would be interested in upgrading my cartridge and stylus, but nothing
over $200 for both pieces. My wife says to choose the top 1000 LPs and
sell the rest and I don't think she's wrong.

Has anyone read any articles about restarting a quality stereo system?
I would happily buy old working pieces on ebay, have no fear of tubes,
etc, but I'm not going to spend more than $500 per piece.

The Absolute Sound reviews, you know, just aren't for me. Can anyone
point me to good sites for this info? please post here.

for those who are really helpful, I listen to 1950s and 1960s rock
music, often mono, mostly on CD.

Don

Hello, Don.

For you, I recommend that you go this route:

Yamaha RX-496 stereo receiver $299.99
Any DVD player that meets your criteria $99.99
Yamaha CDC-585 CD Player $129.99
External UHF/FM/AM Power TV Antenna--the adapter for this is included in
the Yamaha stereo receiver--$59.99

In total, you'll be spending very little, and have a very decent system
that will serve you until you tire of it. As I have said quite a few
times on this newsgroup, for five hundred bucks, you should not waste
time with AMPs and PREAMPs, because the sound just isn't there.

Michael