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Thread: What happens when you get too old?

  1. #1
    Join Date: Oct 2011

    Location: Charente, France

    Posts: 3,531
    I'm Nodrog.

    Default What happens when you get too old?

    I only visit here occasionally as my ears have reduced my enjoyment of the 'hi-fi' considerably even if not the music. Headphone rule most of the time for me now.

    We are trying to thin out our possessions so that when we finally manage to sell our house out here, the move back to the UK (if Scotland is still a member) will be somewhat lighter.

    So one of the hardest parts is trying to rationalise all the equipment that now gets looked at on the shelf and not used. My collecting days are well passed. This morning, I dismantled my favourite record deck. When I was younger, things that are a bit shall we say 'hair shirt' seemed worth all the trouble and little foibles were just part of the experience.

    No more. I've reached the stage where I just want it to work, do its job and make music without any faff. I now have just one working record player. Direct drive, home made wooden arm and the Technics 205 of course. Sounds great, open the lid, bung on a record and listen to the music. Just having a lid is new for me but the cats have taken a liking to spinning for fun so it has advantages.

    I have a few bits of Quad gear left but most other stuff has now been sold. I no longer miss it and wonder if the fulfilling of childhood wants was really a good reason to add to the clutter in our lives.

    There was a time when I would have been horrified about abandoning all the rituals and paraphernalia that seems to be a normal part of what was a hobby and is now back to a way of listening to music.

    I wonder how many of you who are approaching or who perhaps have even surpassed my great age have thought about how the ageing will affect you as far as you hi-fi is concerned. Will they let you have all the gear in the old folks home?

  2. #2
    Join Date: May 2008

    Location: Surrey

    Posts: 7,103
    I'm Rob.

    Default

    I can relate to what you are saying Gordon. We recently had some work done to our house in readiness for a move at some stage. I cleared most of the loft and the vast space above the garage and can't count the number of car loads I took to the dump. However, there is one room that has not been touched.......yes my man cave (or if you are posh - sound proofed studio built in the garage)

    It is mainly diy stuff that some looks ok and in nice enclosures, and some not (cough Cough) I. like you now just want it to work, do its job and make music without any faff. What do I do with all the bits gathering dust? They are not really saleable so do they get junked? I put a lot of hard work into these projects and they are only of value to me. A dilemma as we get older.
    Buy Bose...And get your parking validated!.

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  3. #3
    Join Date: Jun 2014

    Location: Chorley Lancs

    Posts: 14,590
    I'm Steve.

    Default

    I reckon the pursuit (collecting) of hi fi and music is, like other hobbies just a distraction from the harsh reality of our mortality, and when thoughts turn to 'what happens to this stuff when I'm gone?' it's not really doing its job anymore. So true the old saying 'It our possessions that end up possessing us'.

    I know people say you can't take it with you, but if your speakers are big enough, maybe you can. Should cut down on funeral costs, and there'll be one for me and Mrs P.
    I just dropped in, to see what condition my condition was in

    T/T: Inspire Monarch, X200 tonearm, Ortofon Quintet Blue. Phono: Project Tube Box CD: Marantz CD6006 (UK Edition); Amp: Musical Fidelity A5 Integrated.
    Speakers: Zu Omen Def, REL T9i subwoofer. Cables: Atlas Equator interconnects, Atlas Hyper 3.0 speaker cables

    T'other system:
    Echo Dot, Amptastic Mini One,Arcam A75 integrated, Celestion 5's, BK XLS-200 DF

    A/V:
    LG 55" OLED, Panasonic Blu Ray, Sony a/v amp, MA Radius speakers, REL Storm sub

    Forget the past, it's gone. And don't worry about the future, it doesn't exist. There is only NOW.

    KICKSTARTER: ENABLING SCAMMERS SINCE 2009

  4. #4
    Join Date: Jan 2008

    Location: gone

    Posts: 11,519
    I'm gone.

    Default

    Well, for me, the onset of some hearing issues has perhaps temporarily resulted in an increase in my hifi collecting.

    My beloved MBL speakers are taking a holiday and I am having a bit of speaker swapping fun while the old lug holes hopefully recover.

    So far a KEF itch and a Podium itch are being scratched.

    Oh and a whole passle of headphones, which seem far less affected by the hearing problems.

    My friend Alan, sadly recently deceased at the tender age of 79 or 80, never lost the hifi bug, happily enjoying new gear in his final weeks.
    I hope for a similar fate.
    .

  5. #5
    Join Date: Aug 2017

    Location: Hertfordshire, U.K.

    Posts: 298
    I'm Graham.

    Default Play it again, Sam!

    When we relocated to the UK twenty years ago, I found that the houses here had little space for the gear that I had brought with me. (Tannoys in Lancaster cabinets, Quad monoblocks, Revox r2r, and more) so I sold most of it. Over the years I replaced the Quad amps with a NAD integrated and a NAD CD player and a set of Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 speakers on stands. I left the turntable in the loft until recently, when a major sort out of the garage and loft dictated that I decide if I was keeping some of my vinyl collection or not. That resulted in the turntable being brought back into service, with a new pick-up cartridge and that meant a new phono stage with a digital output. That also meant a new set of floor-stander speakers.

    Now I have finished sorting my vinyls and I have digitised the tracks that I want to access on my "listening device" (read iPhone) and what do I find in the back of the loft? Yep, a box containing over 500 pre-recorded musicassettes. Do I just ditch them or do I look for a tape deck that works? One of those cassettes is marked "Wedding speeches". Decision made - look for a tape deck. I found a Technics TR-474 mk2 for £20.00. After a frustrating week trying to get the head azimuth set, (I have never been exposed to swivelling heads before - a brilliant solution to a non-existent problem) I have a working deck but with very worn heads. Back to the evil bay. Once the musicassettes are sorted, I will offer the whole lot for sale - will anyone want them? In the meantime, I have had to come up to speed on the current hi-fi technology and I have had to re-validate my audiophile license. My best beloved is being very tolerant with all of this, as I don't have a man-cave, only my share of a small living room. My hearing is not what it was but it's good enough to appreciate the music as well as the equipment.

    Now my son is asking why I don't "stream" my music, and has signed me up to Apple Music. When he treats us to a day out in his new car, or when my grandsons visit, everyone seems to be automatically connected to wi-fi and has music on tap. Something in my water says that this is a step too far. I just want to play my vinyl records in peace. No fuss, no wi-fi. No ear buds. Please.
    GrahamS - It's not what you hear that counts, it's what you think you hear........

    Present Kit: NAD 326BEE, NAD C515BEE CD player, JVC QL-7 DD turntable, JVC Tonearm, Shure M97Ve, Audio Technica AT95EX, Pickering V15, JVC Z1E, Wharfedale Diamond 230s, Visual Rio interconnects and My Ears.

  6. #6
    Join Date: Jan 2008

    Location: gone

    Posts: 11,519
    I'm gone.

    Default

    You've been talking to your offspring too much.

    Vinyls.
    Aaaaaargh.
    .

  7. #7
    Join Date: Jun 2014

    Location: Chorley Lancs

    Posts: 14,590
    I'm Steve.

    Default

    When it gets so I can't blow the fluff off the stylus without going into a coughing fit, I'll be ready to embrace streaming.
    I just dropped in, to see what condition my condition was in

    T/T: Inspire Monarch, X200 tonearm, Ortofon Quintet Blue. Phono: Project Tube Box CD: Marantz CD6006 (UK Edition); Amp: Musical Fidelity A5 Integrated.
    Speakers: Zu Omen Def, REL T9i subwoofer. Cables: Atlas Equator interconnects, Atlas Hyper 3.0 speaker cables

    T'other system:
    Echo Dot, Amptastic Mini One,Arcam A75 integrated, Celestion 5's, BK XLS-200 DF

    A/V:
    LG 55" OLED, Panasonic Blu Ray, Sony a/v amp, MA Radius speakers, REL Storm sub

    Forget the past, it's gone. And don't worry about the future, it doesn't exist. There is only NOW.

    KICKSTARTER: ENABLING SCAMMERS SINCE 2009

  8. #8
    Join Date: Oct 2011

    Location: Charente, France

    Posts: 3,531
    I'm Nodrog.

    Default

    Another age thing! Streaming

    The cloud in general leaves me cold. As we are talking about possessions, it seems pertinent. What happens when it goes down or disappears? No music, no documents, no photos!

    I'll have a few possessions left ta!

  9. #9
    Join Date: Jan 2008

    Location: gone

    Posts: 11,519
    I'm gone.

    Default

    Old fogies.
    Streaming is fab.

    Says Jerry aged sixty two and a half
    .

  10. #10
    Join Date: Feb 2013

    Location: W Lothian

    Posts: 99,005
    I'm Grant.

    Default

    Fortunately ive always bought cds as well as vinyl, so will always have those, and they are all ripped for convenience of listening. Vinyl will be going as i cant use the medium much now and the way things are going, it wont be at all soon alas. I do want to keep them of course but also need to use the cash raised to buy some adaptations for my geriatric old age my hearing is decent tho, but i do have tinitus plus due to cervical sponolosis i now hear my blood pumping; quite loud sometimes and irritating.
    I still have far too much gear(mostly cd players and speakers upstairs that need to go sometime)the rest all went to keep me in food etc.

    might add, i use tidal more than anything.
    Last edited by struth; 14-10-2018 at 11:00.
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