Loyalty to old gear

[jazzpiano]

This question just popped into my head as I was looking at the gallery:
I wonder who on this forum has lived contentedly with his old gear the longest? Who put a system together in say the 70s or 80s, and with minimal change has lived and listened happily with that system ever since, and why?

Best,
Barry :interesting:

[jandl100]

[I wonder who on this forum has lived contentedly with his old gear the longest?

Ummm ... probably not me! :nono:

:)

[StanleyB]

I still have most of my old kit from the 80's, but mainly by accident than anything else. I worked in the repair department of an audio and video retail group, and I could get good discounts on customers returns. So I bought some of the best items on the market at that time for next to nothing. When my wife and me moved from a flat to a house after the wife said she was expecting, I put all my hifi gear in the loft when we moved in the new place. The idea was to take them down when my son was at least five. I had previous experience with the kids from relatives, and my hifi gear :steam:. But every five years the wife kept saying she is pregnant:rolleyes:, so it took a good 20 years before I could retrieve my gear from the loft. When I see what those bits ere now fetching I decided to hang on to them, which has turned out to be a smart move.

[Tea24]

I have lived with my Quad 66 system and my KEF 104/2s for over 20 years now, although I did upgrade from a 306 power amp to a 606 Mk2. I have changed tts however from a Rega Planar 3 to a Notts Analogue Junior Spacedeck & also now a
re-plinthed & armed Lenco GL75.

Why stick with the old quad & Kef? Well the speakers are truly wonderful & I like my Quad which can still be repaired and I like its tilt & filter controls, although I don't use them a lot.

[Gromit]

Nice idea for a thread Barry. :)

Loyalty to old gear? I don't have a single item from my original system but I dare say there are a few items over the years which I wish I'd stayed loyal to! :doh:

[Rare Bird]

This question just popped into my head as I was looking at the gallery:
I wonder who on this forum has lived contentedly with his old gear the longest?

I live for 60's/70's Vintage.Yeh i'll listern to Lossless files for convenience but when it comes to the main system i wouldnt be seen dead with modern gear.

[Barry]

I might be in the running:

Pickup arm: SME 3009 Series II, bought 1969
Turntable: Thorens 124/II, bought 1971
Speakers: Quad ESL57s, bought 1974
Power amp: Quad 405, bought 1979
Preamp: Quad 44, bought 1980
Tuner: Quad FM3, bought 1980

Of these the pickup arm, turntable, speakers and power amp are still in use (though the latter has been heavily modded/fettled), and only recently have the preamp and tuner been upgraded.

I stopped using a late '60s Ferrograph reel-to-reel tape recorder when I found I could make equally good recordings on a Nakamichi cassette machine, but both Nakamichi machines have recently been retired.

I still occasionally use a '60s vintage Nagra IV-S reel-to-reel machine and one of my turntables is an EMT 930, which according to the serial number was made mid 1974. The EMT cartridges I also use were acquired 1979 and later. Until then I was using an Ortofon SL15E, bought in 1972.

[Marco]

Hi Barry,

I think you may well be in the running, but I think you have good reasons for choosing the equipment you use.

Btw, how's the SPU doing? You've been rather quiet about it, so spill da beanz, baby! ;)

Hope Dave and you are having a good time down there and drinking plenty of vino! :cheers:

Marco.

[WOStantonCS100]

Hi Barry,

I think you may well be in the running, but I think you have good reasons for choosing the equipment you use.

Btw, how's the SPU doing? You've been rather quiet about it, so spill da beanz, baby! ;)

Hope Dave and you are having a good time down there and drinking plenty of vino! :cheers:

Marco.

Hey Marco,

Have you seen my PM?

--------------

Back on point: It's good to feel young every now and then. I was in my teens in the 80's. I didn't really have a budget for anything audio until after I was married in the early 90's.

However, my father transitioned from a Garrard to a Technics semi-automatic SL-1400MK2 in the late 70's ('78 - '79?). The MK2 Technics (all of them) left a big impression on me; subsequently, a MK2 Techy has been my main table since the mid 90's (back when they weren't fashionable or expensive). ;) But, I've actually preferred and used them for over 30 years now. I guess I am an old fart. :wheniwasaboy:

[Marco]

Hi Biff,

No, I'll have a look now :)

Marco.

[The Grand Wazoo]

I thought you might be up there Barry!

I used to buy stuff (especially tuners and receivers) like it was going out of fashion but I've slowed way down to a relative glacial pace over the last 5 or 6 years. This is because I'm very happy with the sound I get, but more importantly, I have realised that the thing I used to seek is completely unattainable - there is no hi-fi on this earth that can make a recording of a rock band sound like the band performing in real life.

Of the components in my main system I've had my ARC SP8 pre-amp and Michell Gyro turntable since about 1991. My Zeta arm and one of my Koetsu Blacks have been with me since 1989.
I still have the Cyrus 2 which I bought in 1986, and only a couple of months ago I sold the first amplifier I ever bought, & what the Cyrus replaced - a Sony TA-343 (can't remember when I got it).

[WOStantonCS100]

I have realised that the thing I used to seek is completely unattainable - there is no hi-fi on this earth that can make a recording of a rock band sound like the band performing in real life.

Oh, dear. Do you know how hard it is to get some folks to acknowledge that!?!?!? I'm mean... ...stand in front of my Marshall for a few minutes!! Even just 50 watts of EL34 raw power screaming out of a 4x12" cabinet will rip your face off as it disembowels you. :lol: (For my health, I use an attenuator.) As a music listener, I do not want it to sound like the band is in my listening room. Are you kidding? Deafness in T minus............. :lol:

Great, and often dismissed, point! :)

[The Grand Wazoo]

It was witnessing Neil Young playing with Pearl Jam that made me realise this - even when not single a note is being played there is energy crackling in the atmosphere at a gig like that. Show me the hi-fi that can do that!

[WOStantonCS100]

Neil Young, what an example. "Live" is "live". Quite right, it's an experience that can't be "canned".

[jazzpiano]

Thanks for piping in guys. Reading your responses has been a lot of fun. I saw Neil Young and Crazy Horse in '79 at a general admission concert - rushed the stage and was about 20 feet away. It was the Rust Nevr Sleeps tour, half acoustic, half electric, giant mock McIntosh tube amps on the stage, Neil sleeping on a giant stack of hay. I totally get what you mean about the buzz in the air, very tactile and tangible. This guy knows rock SOUNDS.

Best,
Barry

[morris_minor]

Does buying another example of the same piece of kit count?

In the early 80s I bought a new Technics SL7 turntable which I loved at the time, and then had to leave behind following a change of circumstances.

A couple of months ago I bought another SL7 from fleabay, which worked so well I got its bigger brother, the SL-QL1. These have given my vinyl playing a new lease of life; they're being serviced by Richard down at Vantage Audio, and the QL1 will be returned to him (when the SL7 comes back) for some serious upgrading. I was never one for cartridge swapping, but have now got 6 p-mounts, with an SAS stylus from Jico ordered for the P22 included with my QL1 purchase (£50 :cool:).

All of this came about when I decided to sell my GyroSE/Technoarm/1042 as I couldn't manually cue it very easily any more due to a deteriorating muscle condition. While I still had the Gyro I did lots of comparisons with the then unserviced SL7 fitted with an LPGear Shibata stylus in an AT body, and they were so bloody close I barely shed a tear when the Gyro went. And this before fettling the Technics. :stalks:

All of which goes to show just how good these decks were, and how well built they are to still keep on going - well worth sinking a bit of money into to extract the maximum performance IMO.

So - as far as this thread goes - I kept faith with my original kit, even if the actual example changed .. .. ..

Bob

[Alex_UK]

Well, my Garrard 401/SME 3009 has been with me since 1986, so 25 years, but it has sentimental value and will never be going anywhere as long as I still have breath in my body - I hope. Lucky it is a good turntable, I would hate to have been emotionally attached toa Matsui mini system or something! :lol:

[DSJR]

I have none of my original gear, but that hasn't stopped me regressing in recent times.

I've been given a Garrard AP76, which was the first "hifi" deck I owned after the Hacker record player. It was totally gummed up with dried lubricant (the pivots rather than sliding points on this one) but is now running and cycling fine and quietly and with a G800E installed - NOT the Lab 80 in build, but you can see the similarities :) My second deck was a GL75 and I now have a GL78 to restore and plinth up (I'll use my sprung GL75 plinth to start with) and am trying to get interested parties to make a new arm-beam for these, as the bearings on the L75 arm are pretty good and only the arm-mass, headshell and wiring being a modern issue with some.

I never owned the amps I had back then, but I sold the Spendors to their first owner and have inherited them.

Lastly, although the actual record player I toddled to and grew up with has almost certainly been scrapped now, I've located another in need of a transformer re-wind and await its arrival one day fairly soon with luck.

[Rare Bird]

I couldnt live without my old gear. These blokes on AOS who are constantly farting about with new stuff (Fooling themselves more than anything, searching for nirvana bull sh*t) i take my hat off cos this hobby has to be the most pointless boring waste of money of a hobby ever.One that the victim will never ever be satisfied with, you guys will never have a system that your happy with, it will just never happen because you can't help yourselves ;)

Ever tried just switching the stereo on & listerning to music (like your suppose to) without thinking about the actual stereo components? :ner:

[Marco]

Ever tried just switching the stereo on & listerning to music (like your suppose to) without thinking about the actual stereo components?


All the time, dude (in fact, I'm doing it now, as I type) :eyebrows:

But, if that's all we did, and didn't bother relating our audio experiences to each other, constantly learning new things in the process, there wouldn't be much of a forum, would there? ;)

Marco.

[Jac Hawk]

Hmmm a very good question, i have none of my original equipment, but that wasn't down to me, the ex missus had a hand in it, so i suppose if she hadn't have chucked it, i would probably still have it all

[Beobloke]

Although I buy a considerable amount of gear to play with, not much changes in my main system.

For example, my Garrard 301 has been my reference turntable since my uncle gave it to me nearly over 20 years ago and my Ferrograph speakers have been in use for around 12, with a 3 year gap somewhere in the middle when I moved into my then-girlfriend's one bedroomed house and she made noises about them being far too big for the lounge!

[Marco]

What's interesting, Adam, is that despite the plethora of kit which must go through your hands, as a reviewer, and the discounts you must have access to (I'm not suggesting anything underhand, but one would presume you are able to buy kit at cost, should you like it, no?), your main system components consist solely of vintage gear....

Is that a slap in the face, as it were, to the standards of modern equipment, or merely a reflection of your lack of deep pockets (lol) and love of vintage gear, or perhaps a mixture of all three? :)

Marco.

P.S I'd really like you to bring the Ferrographs again to Scalford, as I missed them the last time, and would love to hear them. This year I intend to spend much more time visiting other people's rooms, and not simply parked almost permanently in the AoS one!

[Rare Bird]

Yeh that be a good idea Marco..Not many Ferro 'S1' floating about the used marked, it was quite sometime ago the last time i saw a pair on auction..