Setup circa 1985

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Jeff Romard

Jeff Romard

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steve149 said:
That's a festive tarp right there . :)

And is that an aquarium to the right?
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It was an add on I used to sell aquarium and blue tarp. Hey a hundred bucks is a hundred bucks ;)

The box was actually my wire box and the tarp believe it or not was a plastic table skirt which was a step up from what others in my area used to do which was show all the wires or a 4X8 sign advertising themselves

I was sure you would pick out the fans on top or the 3 amps sitting on the 2X4s LOL
 
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MIXMASTERMACHOM

MIXMASTERMACHOM

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What did you use when you first became a DJ? My first setup consisted of a mixer, Sherwood power amp and pre amp. First turntables were Technics with no pitch control and no name DJ speakers on wheels. I practiced in my bedroom. The next turntables were Technics with pitch control in the front. That's when I came outside.

My first setup back was QSC 2450, Numark CDN 88, Numark mixer, Peavey SP-2G speakers and corded microphone. No lights. I still have that amp and it still works great. That's why it pays to buy high quality professional gear.
 
Jeff Romard

Jeff Romard

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MIXMASTERMACHOM said:
What did you use when you first became a DJ? My first setup consisted of a mixer, Sherwood power amp and pre amp. First turntables were Technics with no pitch control and no name DJ speakers on wheels. I practiced in my bedroom. The next turntables were Technics with pitch control in the front. That's when I came outside.

My first setup back was QSC 2450, Numark CDN 88, Numark mixer, Peavey SP-2G speakers and corded microphone. No lights. I still have that amp and it still works great. That's why it pays to buy high quality professional gear.
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Some of my first gear is in that picture. I used a Nikko amp, Nikko casette deck, Rostech mixer, (all pictured) two Nikko turntables, AT headphones and an AT mic which is pictured. My speakers were Cerwin Vega MV 15s all of which I still have except for the headphones
 
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steve149

steve149

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The first gear I used was all home gear .. a Dual turntable, a Sanyo Plus Integrated amp, a Teac cassette deck and a pair of EV Interface D speakers (awesome speakers I got cheap).
 
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Jeff Romard

Jeff Romard

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steve149 said:
The first gear I used was all home gear .. a Dual turntable, a Sanyo Plus Integrated amp, a Teac cassette deck and a pair of EV Interface D speakers (awesome speakers I got cheap).
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That picture above had a JVC integrated on top best amp I ever owned. Clean sounding and tough
 
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steve149

steve149

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The EV Interface D speakers I owned had a list price of close to $1800 for the pair some 40 years ago ... I bought them for $200 from a place I was a college rep for (Brands Mart - I sold audio gear for them and another discounter as a middle man). One of the speakers had fallen off a forklift and cracked a corner of the case and part of the bottom support (other speaker was fine) .. also crushed the EQ unit it came with. I took it apart, borrowed some pipe clamps and repaired it .. pretty well for my limited cabinetry skills at the time. Never had an issue .. kept them for 8 years or so before buying a set of Mission Argonaut speakers in the late 80s. I had to buy the requisite EQ unit (similar to the way the Bose 901 worked). I think it cost me around $80 direct from EV. Extremely efficient speakers .. a couple of watts and they were good. I think the Sanyo put out around 50 wpc .. plenty for the EVs, though after I graduated, I ended up buying a Hafler DH110 preamp and DH500 (250wpc) amp to drive them.
 
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MIXMASTERMACHOM

MIXMASTERMACHOM

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The reason I asked that question is because to show the difference between then and now for a lot of us. How much you have improved over the years and how gear has changed. What I started out with couldn't come close to match up to what I have today in quality and sound.
 
Ausumm

Ausumm

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MIXMASTERMACHOM said:
The reason I asked that question is because to show the difference between then and now for a lot of us. How much you have improved over the years and how gear has changed. What I started out with couldn't come close to match up to what I have today in quality and sound.
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MY first setup wasn't even MINE.
The multi-op I started with supplied the gear:
Including a case of single-song cassettes and a pair of Realistic cassette decks.
 
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dunlopj

dunlopj

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Ausumm said:
MY first setup wasn't even MINE. The multi-op I started with supplied the gear: Including a case of single-song cassettes and a pair of Realistic cassette decks.
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Sounds like The Pros......same here, although I had a bunch of CD's, so I also had 2 Sony CD players that automatically stopped after playing a track.

All 4 players were in cardboard boxes. Ugh...I shudder now looking back...
 
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MIXMASTERMACHOM

MIXMASTERMACHOM

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dunlopj said:
Sounds like The Pros......same here, although I had a bunch of CD's, so I also had 2 Sony CD players that automatically stopped after playing a track.

All 4 players were in cardboard boxes. Ugh...I shudder now looking back...
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You shouldn't feel that way. That was in the beginning. Most of us starting out had sub par stuff we worked with till we understood the difference and made some changes as we kept at it.
 
MIXMASTERMACHOM

MIXMASTERMACHOM

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ittigger said:
Not sure why you're giving this 'advice' when you continue buying sub par stuff, even after claiming to be at it for over 30 years. Seems that some refuse to learn.
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If you're talking about me you got the wrong person. I'll put the stuff I have against yours any day.
 
steve149

steve149

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MIXMASTERMACHOM said:
If you're talking about me you got the wrong person. I'll put the stuff I have against yours any day.
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Be aware that pleather coverings don't give you extra points.
 
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Proformance

Proformance

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steve149 said:
I don't disagree .. just that distances in "most" mobile setups have gear within a few feet of each other.
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Mobile DJs were never a design consideration at that time. Unbalanced connections were used on amps intended for consumer applications. Turntables were the only consumer grade gear in a DJ booth of that time. While we think of the SL1200MKII as "pro gear" that's not what it was built for, and vinyl records were not a preferred broadcast source for professional music playback outside of a disco.

All professional amplifiers of that time featured either XLR inputs or block connectors for installation. The typical cable run to an amp rack in a club was 15 - 30ft and likely in close proximity to noise inducing rheostats.

It's not until late eighties or early nineties that you see pro-sumer class amps that feature combinations of RCA or 1/4" alongside XLR. Many were actually "pseudo-balanced" with varying results

In the clubs the mixers were either RANE or European brands like Meteor. It also might be interfaced with U-Matic video tape players which were broadcast quality XLR balanced. Then comes the Aux outs for lights, monitoring, delays, plus the mains to processing before hitting the amps.

Later, you could find Hi-Fi consumer video decks in a club (higher end) but the RCA audio outs were usually tapped to a Bogen line balancing transformer immediately off the deck to prevent noise and match impedance. Other than that - the only unbalanced links were to Technics SL1200 which of course were right in front of the DJ mixer.
 
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