Blumin' Hummer

[The Barbarian]

Why is Hi-Fi so expensive. You could buy a top notch amplifier for less than £50.00, 45 years ago!

[hifi_dave]

Yeah and I was earning £40/week..:scratch:

[The Barbarian]

That was a good wage what yew moaning abart?

:eyebrows:

[walpurgis]

Yeah and I was earning £40/week..:scratch:

And that was good money then.

[The Grand Wazoo]

Your 50 quid in 1969 is equivalent to £697.37 today (according to this calculator (http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-1633409/Historic-inflation-calculator-value-money-changed-1900.html))

I don't see many 'top notch' amps for that price now.

[Joe]

Your 50 quid in 1969 is equivalent to £697.37 today (according to this calculator (http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-1633409/Historic-inflation-calculator-value-money-changed-1900.html))

I don't see many 'top notch' amps for that price now.

Well, quite. It barely buys a coherent cable loom!

[The Grand Wazoo]

Interesting, as Dave's £40 per week equates to a salary of £28,964, which is a bit higher than the average UK wage of 2014.
So what amp would you have got for your £50 then, and what's it's modern equivalent?

[The Barbarian]

If you shopped about you could get summert like a Ferrograph 'F307', Armstrong '521', Leak 'Stereo 30' Even a Quad '33' or a '303' could be had for around £50.00 each or less even.. You could easily buy a Thorens 'TD124' for that or a Garrard '401' with SME '3009' fifty notes the pair..

[walpurgis]

Interesting, as Dave's £40 per week equates to a salary of £28,964, which is a bit higher than the average UK wage of 2014.
So what amp would you have got for your £50 then, and what's it's modern equivalent?

Well in 1969 that would have got you a pair of Quad II power amps. A Lowther L18S integrated valve amp for £47 or a Leak Stereo 30 for £47.

[The Barbarian]

You got a lot for you money back then & people appreciated working hard to save up & buy things. Far to easy to flip out the plastic these days..A lot of people are impatient, things come easy see. However the Hobby of Hi-Fi back then is the polar opposite of what's been created these days..

[The Grand Wazoo]

Sorry, I didn't mean what was available for that price then, what I meant was: So what amp would you have got for your £50 then, and what's it's modern equivalent?

[The Barbarian]

Ive only ever gotten on with two amps in my life. The Ferrograph 'F307' from the late 60's/Early 70's & from the Late 70's/80's: A&R Cambridge 'A60' i would not dream of buying any amplifier these days. I think i paid £199.00 for that 'A60' in 1983, i still use it now. In today value the latter amp would have cost over £100.00 more.

[Macca]

TMy XTZ cost about seven hundred so the same as fifty sovs back in '69. It's as top notch as your going to get for that kind of money. The fact that Andre wouldn't touch it with a bargepole doesn't change that :) and I didn't buy it on tick either. Good kit is cheaper than it has ever been and the used market is a dream come true compared to even twenty years ago. This is a golden age for the enthusiast anf we should enjoy it and appreciate it while we have it as like any golden age it wont last forever. Which is why they call them golden agrs.

Have to go time for all new Ancient Aliens...

[nat8808]

You got a lot for you money back then & people appreciated working hard to save up & buy things. Far to easy to flip out the plastic these days..A lot of people are impatient, things come easy see. However the Hobby of Hi-Fi back then is the polar opposite of what's been created these days..

The empire still had it's reverberations back then with raw materials so damn cheap and people around the world getting shafted left right and centre. OK, many people get shafted left right and centre still but their living standards on the whole have gone up in comparison to what they were. Same here too in this country (although the last 20 years have seen a gradual increase in the wealth gap due to vast debt creation, repealing of Glass-Steagall etc etc).

The world has changed significantly - what you're talking about isn't so much to do with society's changing attitudes etc, but more the effect of world events on society. It's more about political and economic history of the last 50 years than one of personal attitudes, hifi industry business practice etc the latter are more consequences of the former.

Anyway, what would be the point of hifi back then? Where's the electronica? Where's the funk? Where's Oasis?? (Joke!) The best it got was some echo-heavy psychodelia... (another toungue in cheek joke).

Oh, and of course oil was so cheap and flowing endlessly whilst now it's essentially drying up. Debt is so high that there is simply not enough energy in the ground via fossil fuels nor any other resource for any country to manufacture their way out of it..

The last 60 years have essentially been a blip in good times and it's come or is coming to an end - you guys have had it good! Back to the grind now for the following generations..

[nat8808]

Then again..

... consumer society is such and has been such, that really no-one needs buy anything new any more! There's already enough stuff out there for all of us (well, in the west anyway) hifi included.

The boom of the last 60 years has made all this stuff and now we can just keep using it, repairing, recycling etc etc. Stuff should really tend to free if it wasn't for human emotion, desire to hoard, money cheap and therefore project those desperate desires to have this old thing and that old thing via their wallets.

And that's why i have a good system (I think) and it's really not cost me anything on the whole other than time, just a lot of swapping about with some cash intermediate stages in between.

[jandl100]

You can get a new Amptastic Mini-1 for £100 - an excellent amp, imho.

I'm currently listening to an AI Alto amp that cost me £90 used. It's one of the best amps I have heard.
And a CD player that set me back £250 used. It sounds great.

Together that's less than your 45 year old £50.

You don't have to spend big money to get good hifi. But you can if you want to. :)

And I wanted to with my speakers. :D

[nat8808]

Amen to that - so much good stuff out there secondhand and new tech also.