One of my friends has flat panel speakers. They do have a pleasant, realistic sound.
My 1980’s stereo speakers, conventional cone-types, were slowly disintegrating. Thinking about rebuilding them. I had recently tossed a 27 inch Sony picture-tube television, but kept the speakers. Decided to give them a try. Didn’t expect much b/c television’s sound was unspectacular. Surprisingly, I like the television speaker’s sound better for the stereo, cleaner somehow.
My guess was Marantz, I had a couple of Sansui receceivers plus four channel add on amp. Hooked a reverb unit to run through rear speakers into my Kenwoods. Turn table was a Dual with a Shure cartridge. Teac reel to reels.
Lots of new turntables available that have USB direct outputs so you can now put all your vinyl into a modern format. As for me, I sometimes find the digital sound to be a little too “clean”. I like the warmth that you can only get from a turntable, a 70’s era receiver, and some heavy floor speakers.
Or maybe a cassette played on my Pioneer Supertuner car deck with Jensen 6X9s cut into the rear shelf. (to keep it car related).
Yep, it’s a Marantz, a 105b tuner. Look up ‘Geico Marantz’ and you’ll find several discussions. One guy figure out it was the ‘b’ by looking at the back that shows up in the commercial’s opening.
Everything old becomes new again
White box special?
It was a long time ago, I have opened a lot of boxes since then… lol
I do remember it was a Western Auto, and the Master tech there at the time is the one that developed the inner tie rod end tool… (maybe the universal one)…
Not disputing, but I’m guessing the reason for this is more than folks now prefer vinyl to CDs. Old Geezer me likes the CD format, and sound quality, but I already have most of the music CD’s I want, so rarely buy new ones. Younger folk seem to prefer to listen to music w/ digital downloads, so they don’t need to buy CDs. Add to that, its very easy to make an exact copy of a CD, so if a younger person wants a specific title, they’ll likely borrow the title from a friend and make a copy for themselves. Not that I condone it, just saying. (I think the ‘easy to copy a CD’ still applies, but maybe the manufactures have invented a way to prevent copying CDs now.)
Big reason is that CDs are now obsolete, sales have been dropping for years. Doesn’t take much vinyl sales to exceed them. Streaming and downloads are now how folks get their music.
You’re probably both correct but I think there’s another factor driving the continued existance/increase in vinyl records, film cameras and manual transmission vehicle sales.
On a purely rational/economic basis there’s no reason for any of these to continue to exist but we’re not purely rational animals and we crave the tangible, controllable and simple to understand.
i.e. An 8 speed automatic is faster, smoother, easier to operate and more fuel efficient and rational than a 6 speed stick but it’s emotionally more fun to drive.
Fortunately we live in a wealthy economy that’s allowed most of us to move beyond the purely rational/subsistence level of “needs” and also indulge our emotional “wants”.
So whenever I hear another strident prediction of, “The death of personal vehicles, gasoline cars, Hot Rods, etc.” I just put on my Old Geezer smile and another coat of wax on the old runner. 
old farts with records/sound systems are dying off. kids use what they know. and see. music? iphone. listen to music at home? wheres the 80" tv? and sound bar. ill load my music onto my plex server and stream it to my remote device.
I’d say that depends on the vehicle
This has a manual transmission and is not emotionally fun to drive
Sure, for a weekend pleasure car, but there’s no way I would have a manual transmission as a daily driver. I live 37 miles from work. My drive home often exceeds an hour and a half. There’s no way I’m rowing my way home constantly clutching and shifting for 90 minutes.
Parts counter people and mechanics don’t exist anymore. We only have computer “looker uppers” and " parts exchangers" with parts cannons. Everybody is trying to hire people cheap . Problem solvers are rare. You get what you pay for
Close to 40 years ago I had a noise from the front left wheel that I was pretty sure was the wheel bearing. It was an Olds Omega, an X-car. The wheel bearing was an assembly. I took it off the car, but It seemed OK to me. I brought it to a mechanic friend and he concluded it was bad. I took it to a parts store and the employee there insisted it was good. I disagreed and asked him to order the part for me anyway. It WAS the wheel bearing.
I once had a 1999 Monte Carlo. I had noisy front wheel bearings. When I got them off the car they seemed ok, nice and smooth. I still installed new and the noise went away. So they can “feel” great but still be bad.
Another lesson, don’t be cheap! I went to NAPA and they had a Chinese one and an OEM AC Delco. Delco was 3 times the cost. I installed the Chinese one and it immediately sounded like my worn out one! So back I go and pay the big bucks for the OEM. Nice and quiet.
Now I love the service the parts store provides. They did a good job of cleaning terminals, using a memory saver when I have had batteries replaced. Even install windsheild wipiers. I pity them and try to have things done when the weather is nice.
One of the pro-mechanics here ( @Nevada_545 ) has mentioned it’s not uncommon for a wheel bearing to show no signs of fault on inspection, but replacing it proves it actually is faulty.
This is a good point. Recently , standing in a parts-store line, the employee was assisting an elderly lady with her key fob, appeared to be installing new batteries. It’s a fiddly job so took quite a bit of the employee’s time, 10 minutes probably. From the look of the procedure there was simply no way this elderly lady could have done the job herself. She was appreciative and left the employee a small cash tip.
One of the problems with parts-store staff providing this sort of time consuming service, the store needs to have quite a few employees manning the counter, otherwise the folks waiting in line get impatient and cranky.
There are several people on this forum that would beg to differ 
I agree with that
But I’ll add one more thing . . . if you suspect a wheel bearing and go on a road test with chassis ears hooked up, a bad wheel bearing WILL make itself known when you’ve selected the channel that’s hooked up closest to the wheel bearing
It’s one of the best tools I’ve ever bought and it often removes all doubt
