Hi-Fi Blog... Page 10 - 2026

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January 2026 Blog

PC Desktop Computer Issues In 2026: You Must Buy New To Upgrade.
Older Users may feel a little 'unaware' of what is Required, so we research it for ourselves. We use a Desktop PC & have since Overpaying for our First One at 'PC World', where the media's idea back in 2000 was to get Service Waranties, a Waste Of Cash if ever. We'd Buit our Custom one within 2 years & be sure the 2000 one was worth 10% to sell on. Back then it was Windows 98 & for where we put the Case Unit, the Wire for the Mouse was only long enough to be used Left Handed, whiich is Odd ifyou're Right Handed in Pen Use & Typing. But better to be Ambidextrous really & skills Mouse-wise never realky suited Right Hand use so it stays into 2027. The Big Problem is Windows has gone far toomuch into AI & The Windows11 "We Must Have" requires a certain New Motherboard & RAM. To geta n Idea ofthe Current Scene, to look at "Dell" Computers. A friend got one a few years vback& it was better than you'd expect it to be, if rather Modest in Spec. Tosee what The Current Minimum Spec Is on their latest PC gives the idea. Be awarethere are Older Models with Less Spec, but the "Dell Slim Desktop" is the Newest One at £679, if you can Spend over £3000 to fill it up with exras & Warranties, which are perhaps noot what you'd ever need. Loking at Windows10 to Upgrade, it says certain values plus the "UEFL Secure Boiot" feature in the Main Processor on the Motherboard & TPM Ver 2, which older Motherboards won't have, Minimum Specs the Microsoft page states are very Modest, but see the AI Copilot section giving 'Real world' values, like Intel Core Ultra (5, 7 etc) 200v series, to require 16GB RAM at a time when RAM as DDR5 unitsare very expensive, just by chance of course. a 256GB SSD storage (Solid State Device}. SSD seems to have been the Boot Drive format a while now, it seems older SATA 3.5" HDD drives may not be supported even. Then the Microsoft Account it forces you to have to save Settings & make you think Cloud Storage is a good iidea, oh boy. The MS Account we had to get to get W10Extended Support & it's no big deal. The Dell Slim Desktop at £679 initially seems a Great Buy, based on what a Motherboard, Processor & Fan, plus Power Supply, Case, basic Mouse & Keynoard. The RAM & SSD could cost you £400 alone, Motherboard, Processor & Fan maybe £200 soas a Package it's not bad. But Look Deeper. The PCI-e slots are limited, making any expension hard. Where is a Sound Card? There is nothing beyond a Front Headphone Jack, not even the 3.5mm Line Level Jacks. Where is the CD/DVD drive which may not get much use but it's still very useful? None Supplied. You can buy a Soundcard & DVD-CD Drive but will the Power Supply or Motherboard be able to fit them? No SATA connections mean you can buy a PCI-e board to take them, but will the Power Supply have enough power or cables? 180w to 280w. The Dell Slim Desktopis good with 16GB RAM as one 16GB unit & 1TB SSD Storage, Intel Core Ultra 5 225. Older models with 8GB cost £140 to upgrade to 16GB & a 1TB SSD Storage drive' is about £120 extra to upgrade from a 256GB. The Amount of Extras they offer is Bewildering, a real Cash Cow. The Dell site shows the Rear of the £679 one, not easy to make it very big & see te Moulded On Screws supposedly for the Power Supply! This Unit. A Picture of The Insides is on the£479 'Build Your Own' page has someone Complaining "No SATA sockets", not that they are mentioned. Insides, but there is One.. Sockets are One Long PCI-e x16 socket & 2 of the short PCI-e x1 sockets. All 3 Sockets in Limited Space, so Odds Are the Bigger Soundcards, Display Cards & whatever woon't fit. It's a Decent Starter Set Up, but not a Power User or Gamer unit, those will likely cost you over £1000 via Dell. Our Verdict. We'd find it very liimiting, £679 may seem a Good Buy but Limitations of things We'd Miss. For The Money we'd be better off getting a new Motherboard, Power Supply, Processor & RAM ourselves. To Find the Right Motherboard is the Challenge. We already have Recent Display, Keyboard & Mouse. Looking Further Inside, to see what a 2025-26 Computer has, to help Moterboard searching. Has one SATA with an unused space for another. Still has the old CMOS 3v CR 2032 Battery. Cabling is more Minimal, the long socket & short socket Power Supply can't see too clearly what it is. Three PCIe sockets spaced as the general spacing some Boards can overspill with big Heatsinks, maybe a thing of ago now. Two RAM DDR-5 sockets. A Beeper to Beep at you constantly. Two Blocks probably Wireless & Bluetooth. A smaller Heatsink the Display driver. One Fan in a Airflow unit that will likely be too Fast & Noisy as Resonant. It's a Minimal& Efficient looking Motherboard, really not so Different from ones in 2012. The Power Supply's Outputs are Unknown, might still be the same as Ours if Computers & Phones love Changiung things for No Reason. It's just to be Aware of what there is to go looking for Something More Custom.

The Frustration Of Reading Hi-Fi Forums & Facebook Hi-Fi Groups.
Others may find them of some use, but to us, they are just Frustrating & Annoying. To see one where the poster finds a high grade 1968 Sansui 3000A. This 1968 version we've had Three of & they generally are in nicer grade. To see them ask if it's had the Pointless 1971 Upgrades. One says bring it up on a Variac which is a thing we Never Use as often Transistor amps have Regulators that won't work until full voltage applied. Frustrating reading the comments which clearly Don't Know this Complex amp. We've had One of the '3000' too, one we have here & it has had a lot of issues but is now Extra Good if it took ages to even get it playing right. As you'll find in these Forum type pages, one says "I've Had Two" yet that's all they say, so with No Proof you're Not Believed. Will they bother to Google Search to find Our Site? They paid $200 for it suggesting the seller had looked on ebay to see prices on these. Status Unknown, it may not work, may be damaged from years ago or might be playable, but not without a Pro Tech looking at it first. 1968 capacitors used to still work 12+ years ago but they are getting too old now. What will the Buyer do with this Complex amp that is difficult to Bias? Hopefully they'll just sell it on to someone more aware, rather than making a mess of it. No Shame in realising an amp is Too Much, we got that 1962 Lux(man) Valve Receiver that's 100v only. Currently it sits with no work done beyond cleaning & a service to a degree. Maybe to just sell it on as it is would be a better idea, it's a First Model Released & in good original complete grade, but 100v only. Online you find People asking those who have No Idea for their Opinions. Generally those who Do Know haven't got the time or the energy to deal with Questions. The Frustrating Thing with Forums is they only know Standard Questions in a Booksmarts way. Try asking them anything complex or outside of the box type thinking & you'll get silence. It's why this Hifi Site exists, some of these Blogs are us working out things for ourselves.

Thermistors In Older Amplifiers.
In Power Amplifiers before the Introduction of the Double and Triple Diode, a Termistor was used. Our 1st Run Germanium 1965 Trio-Kenwood TK-80U has a "TH" in the original design, if ours was updated before sale witk the later design the Silicon version used, a Double Diode & Adjust Pot. This works fine still. The Trio-Kenwood TK-60BU that is into 1966 has the Double Diode & Pot but has the Thermistor still too. It shows as a small unit on the underside of the Heatsink, a disc with two wires in a plastic cover. The Bias on this Amp isn't good as it gets too Hot & won't adjust to the correct value to run Cool as it requires the very last bit of the Adjust Pot which will never remain constant or reliable. The 1966 Akai AA-7000 uses Four Thermistors on the Top Heatsink by the Output Transistors. It shows here the Thermistor acts as a Heat Sensing device & will go from Low to High Resistance & make the Bias wrong to show as some sort of Protection Circuit. The thing is they could have worked 50+ years ago, but the AA-7000 when it used to get Hot on the Top Lid never cut out, so the Thermistors are Useless. You can buy new ones if what are the spec? If a Thermistor is Faulty it'll read an incorrect value always. Not much on Google about Thermistors if they group the similar Thyristor with the SCR device, a Silicon Controlled Rectifier as we first saw in the Teac AS-100. These are considered Hard Cut-Off devices by opinions we've seen & to see the SCR operate, to wonder 'What's The Point Of That?' The Early Thermstors we've read show about 20 ohm which is a value still buyable. They seem to be used more in Industrial Uses. Looking at Trio-Kenwood the 1968 KA-4000 & 1969 KA-6000 still use them, if not the disc versions. The 1970 KR-6170 does too, these have always Biased well on ones we've had. The 1972 KR-6200 we had recently uses a Diode STV-3 block much used on later amps. It's a 3 diode unit. The KR-6200 moves onto a Differential & Relay design. How Do They Age? Beyond 'working' or 'faulty' ones we've read that the Amplifier wasn't 'correct' the Resistance can vary but not be open circuit. On the TK-60BU they read the correct values so other ideas are required to get the Bias stage to be better. The TK-66 we had years ago was like this & way beyond our ideas to solve. Having to do some Redesign is part of Rebuilding & Recapping Vintage Amps, more so on the 1960s ones. Why manufacturers make Adjustable items that have a Potentiometer across a Thermistor carrying a Voltage that isn't reliable to adjust makes you wonder why. The Thermistor & Adjust Pot give Voltage to the Driver Transistor Collector. To age & run too Hot so it gets thrown out. As with other amps, this design is the issue & with knowing Design & Consequences of items, to do it differently as it's just not good enough. Tried our best but it still sounds Rough & Spitty, meaning a deeper rebuild requred. Thermistors not the Fault at least.

What People Mostly Use In Hi-Fi Useage.
Generally from Facebook Groups, the Late 1970s-1990s Gear is mostly what you see. You know what we're going to say, loads of ICs, MOSFETs, OP-Amps, Logic Gates & other gear that really is Unnecessary. The Main Reason is it is still possibly Useable without even Servicing which leaves a Tired Amp. The Amount of Servicing the 1977 Marantz 2385 185 watter needed & it improved it hugely from the Dull Slow Muddy Sound. All before Recapping it & redoing Repairs properly. Certain Amps will have had regular use since New, meaning 30-40 years without Repair or Service. Their Choice. The general idea is they Get One At A Good Price. You'll find Groups & Forums liking most gear as they really don't know How Much More Musical pre 1974 gear is even. These are now 50-60 years ols & our Blogs tell of the Amount of Work the 1960s ones need to give Sound way ahead of the Thin IC sound. Crisp Open Treble, Smooth Midrange & a Meaty Bass does 'hide' in Amps of this era. The Seventies-Nineties gear increasingly gets made of Plastic & Low Grade Controls that Wear or Break as Plastic goes weak & brittle as Car Restorers know well. As time goes on the Nineties gear will soon be as old as Sixties Gear. It'll just end up being Abandoned as beyond Recapping etc it can Often Be Unrepairable. The Facebook Posts show The Music they are playing, the Commercial Rock-Pop of the Seventies-Nineties, they play it on Vinyl, you don't see CDs. This gives away the Age of Hifi Buyers too. For Today's 'Music' it's played on Headphones or Earbuds, are they aware of Hifi even, does Daddy allow The Teens to play their Tunes on hisa 'Mega Bucks' system? Probably not so as with much Vintage Gear, if they don't know it they don't want or care for it. As "American Pickers" shows, they find Hifi in USA quite often. Quality Gear but left abandoned & covered in Dust. "They All Need Going Through" says Mike. Already to see some Quality Hifi on Ebay, it's ended up as Rubbish at a Recycling Yard & for Seconds it got treated as Rubbish with Damage from just a few seconds with one who doesn't understand. To wonder sometimes "Who Wants This Stuff" on seeing Robbie with all those 1950s Push Car body shells. The UK Shows you see the Shops lined with Grandfather Clocks that loudly Tick Your Life Away. Things once worth £1000-£2000+ are often unsellable or do Auction at sad prices. As with Most Old Stuff, the Items will fade away to be Unusable & few get the Rebuilds they Need & Deserve. You often hear "The Grand Kids Aren't Interested" but they're still Young. Collectors & Buyers only take interest in later years past 30 & they'll regret they didn't keep Grandad's Medals or similar.

Biasing On Older 1960s Power Amplifiers.
Two Types of Biasing: Fixed or by Adjust Pot. The Bias is set correctly on Fixed Bias, against a Thermistor or other designs. These are far more reliable. The Early Adjust Pot type is far from accurate & you're Gambling your Speakers on it possibly, with Direct Coupled ones. The Old Original ones are Working right to the End of the pot's Rotation & this is always inaccurate as the Pot is often worn as previous owners have used it back & forth, wearing it out in a similar way modern tiny front panel Volume-type controls do. You can fit the Modern trimmer pots that are aften far too small & older amps can use the 'Two Pin' versions making three pin ones need altering. Later Amps use the Bias Pot in the Middle of it's rotation, if we've still had to alter designs to Fit Bias better than right at the end & risk huge variations, such as 5mV one time & big jump to 500mV which is no good & is considered 'Unreliable'. We're finding it's best to Redesign without these Clumsy Devices & More which keeps the amp running Cool & considered Safe. Bias Circuits can cause bother, so for one deeper into design only. One amp we have, to see the later additions by someone trying to overcome bad Pots from a clumsy old repair & probably why it was abandoned.

Who Actually Bought The 1960s-1970s-1980s Hifi We Now Crave.
As Time Goes On, you forget the People around at the time. The Retro TV List Shows & Lifestyle shows give you an idea, but seeing BBC4 in June 2024 showing several 'Antiques Roadshow' from years past, to record them to watch. The First 1979 Edition we've seen clips of, but not the full show. It has British People of the Era, mostly ones 70-80 in age, You'll have forgotten what the Public was like after 45 years & to see Edwardian & First World War era people looks so different to Today's people that we see started arriving into Jobs like Doctors, such as the Indian people who replaced the Tired Horn Rimmed Glasses types that were usually Too Old to be Up To Date on things. The Public as English People were rather Narrow of thought & easily conned by stories told of Dealers offering very low prices, much of which still continues in 'Bargain Hunt' & 'Antiques Road Trip' where Half Price or less is normal. Be sure this can't be real else they'd be Banned from the shops as they basically Rob the Sellers, they pay a higher price & just Lowball prices for the camera as Seller reactions aren't what you'd get if you tried similar. The 1979 people we remember from 'Back In The Day'. ARShow has some awfully Posh sounding ones, quite a few familiar faces that stayed for years, a youthful David Battie, the Clocks guy & Guns guy who were Down To Earth & likeable & the old stalwart Arthur Negus is like Eric Knowles of today. Some of the 1979 owners could have been gone 40 years but live on when it gets Repeated. These were the Consumers of what is now Vintage Hifi. We've had Amplifiers & Receivers that were One Owner, such as a 1977 Yamaha CR-1020 bought likely for a 40 year old, it sat playing Radio 2 for a while, never getting turned over '2' on the Volume & got Sold only for House Clearing in later years. British Buyers were generally rather Reserved in their Buying Choices, the Hifi News Magazine mostly offers British Brands & to this Generation they'd not have been so keen on Japanese items. The Better Hifi sold in small amounts as it was Higher Priced & to never see ones we've had at the time, the usual items were Radiograms & Music Centres. In other Countries what is Rare in UK is not so hard to find, especially in USA as their Living Standard was higher. The British people often scrimped & saved to buy a 5w Record Player, a thing many would have long considered 'Rubbish' but now as TV shows it's Retro & sells better than Wind Up 1920s-1930s 78 Record Players. WE had a 1967 Sansui 400 receiver & it had the Owner's name on, as Blogged before. To find out who they were & when born shows the '400' was clearly his pride & joy to be sold on by Family unaware of what it was for just £20. We Rebuilt & Redesigned it to give a nice sound, it got sold to one who liked it to find a non worker in USA, but with the Wood Cabinet & getting him the control knob with the metal cap to complete the look. As with 'Bangers & Cash' to see Happy People buying all types of Cars & to see How Much Joy they give. A 1962 'Singer Vogue' we seem to remember, maybe the Family had one, a Stately looking car, well made & this one in nice grade. One of the Mathewsons called it 'Boring' which isn't fair, it's a Smart & Appealing Car, if not a Sporty car, buy certainly not boring. One bought it & sold it on soon after as they didn't like it, but the next buyer paying almost the same price were delighted with it. That's Exactly who these Cars are for & be sure the Original Owners are often the same who cherish Cars like they are Family, TV shows this often. There are Soulful People out there still, it gets less each Decade sadly & these items get forgotten just as did those around Buying them new. You can say the Brish People of the 1950s-1970s buying Electrical Items were generally only buying the Cheaper Goods, but Back In The Day it's all they could afford. They were as driven by Hifi Mags & Shop Salesman to buy Big Selling Items as few would py £136 in 1966 for the Pioneer ER-420 when the Rogers Cadet III amplifier & tuner was Half that. What will 'Us Modern People' be remembered as buying by Future Generations? Most Electrical Items are Disposable & E-Waste within 10 years with some items making 2-5 years. Will there be anuthing left for Future People to appreciate? The 1987 Episode billed as 2003, but it didn't seem right, to look at the date at the end. 1987 recorded 1986 was Pre the Yuppie & Brief Boom Years. Looking back at years we knew, still very 1960s, rather Tame, Guys with Comb Overs & Moustaches. Items shown rarely shown now as they're not much wanted however nice Furniture can be, most has nose-dived in price. 1987 people into Collecting Antiques probably no longer around if the Items will be. Some of the Chatter was very boring but shows Passion for Collecting. The Days of a Big Cabinet to store your Trinkets, it's long gone today. For 1987, you only see English People which is still mainly the ARShow of today. To see similar on early 'Dickinson's Real Deal' especially the first 2009 episode had types who Bought Items for an Investment. Big Solid Silver Serving Trays considered a 'Wise Investment' at the time, but now only worth Scrap as no use for the item. Still waiting for more Hi-Fi on ARShow, some like the early Akai AA-5000 & AA-7000 are clearly Designer items but as Rare, they've not hit the Mid Century Modern interest. 1987 being 37 years ago is as far back as 1950 was then & at the time 1950 was Ancient Times. Today people are realising 'The Best Years Have Happened' with 1970s-1990s generally considered the Peak Years if older folks will Disagree. But what will people see as Nostalgia past 2000? There's really not much, it's why 'rubbish' like Pokemon cards & Trainers are collected now.

Hi-Fi Needs To Be Kept Aired & Cool.
Put this on one of our Pages long ago, but seeing the Facebook Groups, some clearly are Not Looking After their Hifi. The usual stack of Units that mostly don't get used, but still the Amp at the base of the pile as it's the Heaviest. Ones looking for a more Home Decor look with Amps put into She;ves with what looks like very little top clearance. Understand How Heat Works. Yamana CR-2020 top regulators on the front right of the grille. See Darkened Marks on the Grille which is Overheating, not just Dust Marks. The Plastic Grille Ages. Inside these Regulators run at 80°C in open air with the lids off. This is very poor design & anything over 40°C needs better Heatsinking. With the Lid on it can read 100°C or slightly more & if it was put in a tightly spaced Shelf Unit be suire it'd rise to 120°C or more. For there being other Hot Resistors on this & other amps, be sure these will Age fast & stop working. Hifi has been poorly designed for Excess Heat since the Cost Cutting appeared by 1974. As with many Design things, they know it's Bad, but it's 'Built In Obsolescense' meaning it'll Fail & you'll go Buy A New One. Hifi is often designed to be 'Good Enough' but not last. To even see Amplifiers with a Turntable sat on top, the Heat with an item sat right on top with little clearance could mean the Amp could Warp Your Records. Amps with Class A such as the 1973 Yamaha CA-1000 if used with Poor Ventilation can hugely overheat in Class A & cause even the Large Main Capacitors to Fail & Leak, as happened with the one we had recently. To see Valve Amps going back to the 1950s stored on shelves or tucked away in Cupboards, similarly stored under the Turntable, the Heat building upwill have Warped many Records.

Why Don't They Line Up?
Not about Wantng Customers Lining Up for Rebuilds. This is about Control Knobs on Amplifiers. If set Flat you want the Line to exactly central. not 2mm off true & the Spline only allows a range of 'more off' or 'less off'. Other Amps with Screw Fixing ones can be lined up if often the 'dents' on the Plain Control Rod make it not so easy to get it Spot On as they've been off before. The 1971 Sony Receivers STR-6055 & STR-6065 were like this leaving it not lined up. Is it So Hard? It's like a Microwave, you put a Drink in 10-30 seconds & the Handle is Always at the Back. Can't anyone design it so 10 seconds is one full Revolution. Lack of thinking is often a problem, it's often based on Costs & Their Cutting, rather than thinking "They'd Like That". One solution is metal knobs with plastic inserts. You'll generally not be able to get these out, but Luck meant on us trying a replacement set for one Receiver, the middle bit came unglued as dried out so we could Reset it lined up correctly & drip some glue in to hold. If you do manage to swap them around on an amp, to mark them inside as 'B' for Bass, 'T' for Treble to not mix them up again. Little Things do matter as it gets seen 'off-true' & it gets you each time. It is possible, if trickier, to take the front panel off & loosen to alter the splined control to be rotated just a tiny bit to be True, if often the pointy bit that locks into the Hole needs altering.