Akai AP-206 Turntable

It's been a while since we've posted audio gear on the blog. But, I've finally gotten the time to finish a couple of turntables

This is one of my favorite turntables for not only it performs well and dead reliable, the operations are smooth and it looks great to boot! This is one solid turntable.

In my honest opinion, the black finish is great. It matches both modern and vintage pieces. And, of course it has a nice tall platter and strobe to give a classy look.

The Akai AP-206 is a nice direct drive, 2-speed semi-automatic turntable. It's well built and had good weight. It's freshly serviced and ready to go to a new loving home.

Now, I've had to add a couple touches to this turntable to make it whole. It was missing the headshell and cartridge:

1) is a very nice and light weight ADC headshell. It is a great headshell as it has excellent rigidity, but light weight.

2) I've put a very nice Nagaoka MP-15 cartridge. This is not your average entry level cartridge. The current or updated is the Nagaoka MP-150 cartridge. Nagaoka is one of my favorite cartridge manufacturers, especially their lower level cartridges. I've owned the entire line up and the sound of these cartridges are really nice. They have great bass, in comparison to a Shure. They almost have a Grado feel but much cleaner sounding, especially the treble. It's much more detailed than a similar Grado cartridge and much more lively and dynamic sounding over a Shure.

Overall, this is one great table that's in great shape and has a great cartridge. The new owner will be quite happy with this setup!

Energy Encore 2 Speakers

My family were the original owners of these speakers. We actually had the entire Energy Encore 5.1 surround set, minus the integrated stands. Slowly, the rear speakers were sold. I kept the subwoofer to use with my sound bar, and the center channel broke. All that remained were these little guys sitting on the same shelving unit for the past 15ish years. I used them for a bit for my computer setup but, opted to use my Mirage Omni 350 instead. While these are considered "big box store" speakers, they are still great little speakers. These were made in Canada. Used their hyperdome aluminum tweeter that made Energy famous from the Pro22 days (thank you Burhoe!). A super nice black piano finish and sealed box, with a 4" long throw woofer. Some Specifications that I took from the web: System Type: Magnetically shielded acoustic suspension satellite Tweeter: 1" (28mm) Aluminum dome with cloth suspension Woofers: 4" (112mm) Multi-laminated aluminum polycarbonate c

Yamaha YP-66 Turntable

The rosewood vinyl wrapped twin sibling of the Yamaha YP-221, they are the exactly the same other than the colour of the plinth and instead of silver plastic bits on the YP-221 the YP-66 has black bits. This is your typical belt drive turntable of the mid to late 70s. It's a 2-speed with automatic return (semi-automatic). It's a nice entry level turntable with all the decent built quality that you find on majority of the Japanese made tables of that era. It has a good sized motor and a decent weight. Yamaha tables are like Sony tables, they always have decent quality components and they always look nice to the eyes. The slight smoked dustcover and the rosewood plinth makes it quite unique to look at. Sadly, the antiskate weight on our isn't original. It was missing when we got it. After a bit of research we found the appropriate weight and found an appropriate weight to retrofit into our table. We found a nice brass weight to fit with the design. And, as usual,

Dual CS-616Q Turntable

Finally doing a write up for a couple of turntables. So, let's start with the Dual CS-616Q. Made around the mid 80s when wood-grain design were no longer in fashion and the new sleek grey and black were in. This Dual is in really nice shape, and I mean real nice shape. While it's not from the 70s, it doesn't mean it's not quality. In comparison to other companies of the time that still made entry level turntables, this Dual is really well made. It has decent heft and it is German made so a lot of precision was still put into it. It is a direct drive, a true semi-automatic and quartz lock turntable. Why do I mean true semi-automatic? Well, before some of their earlier turntables had an auto-lift off at the end but the tonearm never returned to the rest post. So, having it returning is a nice feature to have! It also features Dual's ULM (ultra low mass) tonearm and their EDS motor. These tonearms are especially nice for higher compliant cartridges as

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