Quiet day today after the repaving day chaos yesterday. The newly patched and sealed “driveway” (calling something that’s 700 feet long a driveway is a bit misleading – it’s a private road cutting through our property that has a branch leading to the main house) looks pretty good, and I’m happy enough with the work of the low bidder. They got it done in one day and on one of the few days that would work with our schedule and the weather. A big to-do item checked off the list.

So today I’m watching The Masters tournament, reconfiguring stereos, relaxing and having some Angel’s Envy (late afternoon for the bourbon; I’m not a complete wastrel).

I deconstructed the main CA stereo system, making the Sansui AU-505 and TU-666 the centerpiece, removing all the other components. I removed a micro-stack including a Pro-Ject S2 DAC/preamp, a Schitt tone control/equalizer, an ELAC music server that never worked like I expected, a pair of massive Wyred4Sound mAmp class-D mono blocs (250 Wpc into 8 ohms, 500 Wpc into 4 ohms!), a 1 terabyte solid state drive containing hundreds of ripped CDs, a shitload of interconnects…a lot of stuff acquired over the years. All that remains are the 1975 vintage Sansui(s), my Furman power distribution system and the great Marantz 6006 CD player. All driving the Spatial M3s.

In one of the bedrooms, I deconstructed another system, pulling out the Sherwood S-7450 and attaching an old Sony CD player and the Pro-Ject DAC to the beautiful-sounding Kenwood KR-5400. The Sherwood needs some work – one channel has serious problems. I also discovered that the Kenwood’s Tape-A and -B inputs don’t work for shit. I was using them in lieu of the AUX input, but it turns out that the AUX input is the only one without problems. The Kenwood has three speaker outputs (!) and two phono inputs, so it was designed for a different type of listener than me. No phono spoken here. But a good source connected to the AUX input…it’s sweet.

I keep putting it off, but pretty much ALL the vintage gear I’ve bought needs some work. So soon it’ll be time to break a couple of these open and start replacing capacitors and transistors. I have the least attachment to the Sherwood, so I may start there. Or the Kenwood KR-2120 in KY. I want to be sure of what I’m doing before I crack open the Sansui 505 or the Pioneer 828.