Hey guys, how are you doing?
I was looking in my parents garage and found a pair of Sony APM-121ES speakers, an AKAI AM-2800 stereo amplifier and 4 Infinity Satellite L-MPS speakers. I have no idea about audio at all, but I am trying to learn by reading articles and introducing myself into music production (nothing serious). Could you help me telling if they are midly decent or just garbage nowadays?
Thank you
Can't hurt to try it.
I'd say just set it up and if you like it then you save a lot of money, if not then it's not like you had to pay for them.
Okay, I will give it a try soon. Does the sound input matter? I mean, is it different that I reproduce the music from a DVD player that from a music player?
Input connections matter slightly, but the quality of the 'source' matters a lot.
With input connections, digital is always better. That system might have an optical input, but RCA isn't that bad.
The 'source' is the quality of the recording and the media it is on. A DVD player plays disks that don't have compressed quality. Most people use .mp3s which are an inferior format, but if you have recordings in a lossless format like .flac, then it shouldn't matter that you use a music player. Aside from that, the quality of the DAC between the DVD player and your music player would be a small factor.
The Speakers will work fine for basic things. Speakers are 90's. That Amp though is around 1979 Vintage probably.
Capactors in there are probably bone dry wasted unless its been refurbished. I'd sell it to a collector.
All things said if you're ok with vintage gear and appreciate a higher than normal Noise floor, nothing wrong with that gear. Don't bother with any of that fancy digital input talk from above posters this is vintage gear, hook up a record player if you're feeling real hipster. Records sound best like that.
Akai AM-2800 service manual
I have gear older than this still running sweet.
Nothing to lose by giving it a try - should be an aux input at standard line level
If the amp has any buzzing/hum noises would suggest capacitor problems. This can be fixed if you wanted to find someone good at servicing this older gear. If not, may still get a good price for it as a spare/repair item. Other issue might be crackles when using the controls - can be an easy fix as long as you use some good contact cleaner (not WD40!)
The speakers should be good as long as no drivers have blown - those square bass drivers might be tricky to replace.
These were expensive items in their day and were very well built with good quality components. Electronic design in audio amplifiers was very well advanced even by end of 1970s. Unless some components are suffering from old age, noise should not be an issue
Only way to decide if this stuff is worthwhile is put it together, play some music, and decide if it sounds good for you