What is your oldest regularly used component and why ?

[Puffin]

My leather Ikea 2 seater sofa that I bought for £25 about 25 years ago from a swanky house where the owner was emigrating. The best part was jamming it into a Nissan Cherry to get it home. There was more sticking out of the back than in the car

[majex45]

Kef Reference 104ab (from a charity shop)
B&W DM 1 (bought in 1973 2nd hand)
B&W DM 2 (from a museum closing down)
Spendor BC 1 (bought last week)
Linn Kans (from the tip, needing repair)
Celestion Ditton 15 (also from the tip, candle burns on the boxes)
AR4xa (from a charity shop)

So far the Spendors are winning.
These are fed from CD via a Marantz CD63 Mk 2 (not SE or KI) (from ebay about 5 years ago) via Audiolab 4000s (from Audiojumble, Tunbridge).

[Johnny nocash]

Helios Stargate CD player. I've not heard ANY digital reproduction sound better.

[paulf-2007]

Denon DP80, Sony STR 6055 receiver and Shure Ultra 500, don't know which is the oldest
Oh forgot Stax UA-70 tone arm.

[Barry]

Paul,

Your Stax UA-70 dates from 1970, whereas the Denon DP-80 dates from 1978. So it looks like the Stax arm is the older item.

Not sure about the Shure Ultra 500, but it is from around the mid to late '80s.

[paulf-2007]

Paul,

Your Stax UA-70 dates from 1970, whereas the Denon DP-80 dates from 1978. So it looks like the Stax arm is the older item.

Not sure about the Shure Ultra 500, but it is from around the mid to late '80s.

thanks Barry, so only youngsters compared with say a 301

[Made in 1968]

Sony Amplifier 1973

[Made in 1968]

The reason i use old Vintage gear is basically Nostalgia. I cannot live without it. I also dispise a vast amout of what the hobby is so kind of section my self away from that.

But its my Nostalgia, My hearing & what i feel comfortable with, not only Hi-Fi its other stuff. It people cannot cope with that, they clearly have the same problemas i do with them, works both ways you just have to accept it..

[Bencat]

A pair of Quad ESL57 Speakers according to Quad they were made in 1959 . These are still the best speakers I have ever heard and they change what recordings and in paticular what voices sound like. I have been used and I suppose conditioned to voices through mechanical coil speakers and thought ahh that is what this should sound like. When I heard voices through the ESL57 I started out thinking it was something wrong with the speakers (this after a complete and costly refurbish) . I was wrong all the ESL57 was doing was letting me hear what these voices really should sound like and once you adjusted to this you only then realise what other speakers are doing .

[Barry]

A pair of Quad ESL57 Speakers according to Quad they were made in 1959 . These are still the best speakers I have ever heard and they change what recordings and in paticular what voices sound like. I have been used and I suppose conditioned to voices through mechanical coil speakers and thought ahh that is what this should sound like. When I heard voices through the ESL57 I started out thinking it was something wrong with the speakers (this after a complete and costly refurbish) . I was wrong all the ESL57 was doing was letting me hear what these voices really should sound like and once you adjusted to this you only then realise what other speakers are doing .

Your Quads were made 5 years after the first (the so-called designation 57 is a misnomer - the Quad electrostatic was first advertised for sale in 1955; but the designation, whilst incorrect, has stuck to the point that even Quad use it).

I would be interested to learn the serial numbers of your speakers; Quad changed the cross-over frequencies around SN 500, making the speaker which waas originally designed for mono-reproduction, suitable for stereo.

I have been using Quad 57s for the last 50 years, and am unlikely to change now.