Explaining Audio Hobby.............

larryderouin

I'm VERTICAL and Breathing...most of the time.
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I was going thru my files looking for pics of my Futura VI for the restoration thread on the Futura and found this. It's old, thought up by someone else but it's appropriate for the times and most of us who think nothing of having 10+ receivers, amps, pre-amps, integrateds, tuners, etc. So sit back, relax, put the drink of your choice out of reach (god knows you'll just blow it out your nose and on to the computer, making things worse.) and have some fun.


EXPLAINING MY AUDIO HOBBY!

From the relatives...

Q: So you collect old stereo equipment?
A: Yes.
Q: What do you do with it?
A: Fix it up if I can and listen to it.
Q: Why? Don't you have a TV?

Q: So I heard you have a bunch of old speakers.
A: Yes.
Q: What do you do with them?
A: I fix them up if I can. Recap them, refoam the edges, refinish the cabinets.
Q: Then you sell them?
A: No, I listen to them.
Q: But you could sell them, right?
A: No, not for what I put into them. Most people don't want old speakers.
Q: So why do you do it?
A: I like old speakers.
Q: Why?

Q: Your wife said you like 'tube amplifiers.'
A: Right.
Q: So what's that?
A: Old electronic equipment that used vacuum tubes instead of solid state components.
Q: What's solid state?
A: What came after vacuum tubes. Basically all electronics are solid state now.
Q: And you like these tubes?
A: Yes.
Q: Why?
A: I think they sound better than some modern equipment.
Q: I find that hard to believe.
A: ...Uh...

Q: So what's in a 'tube amplifier'?
A: Vacuum tubes, resistors, capacitors, transformers...
Q: Transformers? Like Optimus Prime?
A: ...Uh...Sure. Why not.

Q: So I was looking at your record collection and I noticed something.
A: Really, what's that?
Q: I have a lot of those too. On my iPod.
A: Great.
Q: So why do you need all of this?
A: I think it sounds better.
Q: No, it sounds the same. Here, listen!

Q: Is all this stuff going to be worth money someday?
A: Some of the tube stuff maybe. The rest, not so much.
Q: So what's the point of collecting it?
A: I like it.
Q: Why?

At this point, my head explodes...
 
Thanks for posting, I got a good chuckle out of that. Sad thing is it brought back memories of a conversation I had with my wife's uncle a few Christmases ago. :confused:
 
Great stuff, Larry! Unfortunately, it's not just that folks don't understand tube v. solid state, they don't even grasp the hi-fi concept anymore, what with earbuds and cell phones. I started into tube gear recently, but now realize that I kind of changed from "fix it up, learn about it, and sell it" to "fix it up, learn about it, can't part with it, keep it" mode of operation. My wife says I'm now a collector--maybe it's true.

Also, truer words were never spoke about the speakers. I have rehabbed and given away two sets of vintage speakers--one to each daughter. I have four remaining sets, two of which I really like and two of which are questionable. Still looking for a good set of AR-3x.......

Here's the current collection. I DID fix up and sell four other units!
Dave
 

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I've heard a lot of those over the years. I've used the Harley owners' line before, "If I have to explain, you wouldn't understand"
I also like this quote that I saw on another tube forum:

“What is a hobby anyway? Where is the line of demarcation between hobbies and ordinary normal pursuits? I have been unable to answer this question to my own satisfaction. At first blush I am tempted to conclude that a satisfactory hobby must be in large degree useless, inefficient, laborious, or irrelevant. Certainly many of our most satisfying avocations today consist of making something by hand which machines can usually make more quickly and cheaply, and sometimes better. Nevertheless I must in fairness admit that in a different age the mere fashioning of a machine might have been an excellent hobby... Today the invention of a new machine, however noteworthy to industry, would, as a hobby, be trite stuff. Perhaps we have here the real inwardness of our own question: A hobby is a defiance of the contemporary. It is an assertion of those permanent values which the momentary eddies of social evolution have contravened or overlooked. If this is true, then we may also say that every hobbyist is inherently a radical, and that his tribe is inherently a minority.

This, however, is serious: Becoming serious is a grievous fault in hobbyists. It is an axiom that no hobby should either seek or need rational justification. To wish to do it is reason enough. To find reasons why it is useful or beneficial converts it at once from an avocation into an industry–lowers it at once to the ignominious category of an 'exercise' undertaken for health, power, or profit. Lifting dumbbells is not a hobby. It is a confession of subservience, not an assertion of liberty.”
Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There
 
I have a friend who always finds a way to say, "You have so many records, why do you need so many records, why don't you sell some?"
Meanwhile he has more guns than the Canadian Army.
 
My usual end answer for stuff like this is "because I want to". Its a very 5 year old reply, but most of the time I really don't have a better one.

Depending on the company I might offer up that its cheaper than drugs or a shrink, that usually produces some odd looks.
 
Canada has an ARMY:naughty:?!?!?!??!?!?!? Is it like the Swiss Navy?!?!?!??! :D

Larry-that is the only thing you have ever said that has pissed me off.I'm sincerely hoping that that comment is nothing more than an undeserved wise-assed remark.

Otherwise,read some history books or talk to any of our former enemies.The latter may be difficult,as very few have ever survived an encounter with a Canadian Infantry unit.
And while our army may be small and rather ill-equipped,you don't ever want to be our enemy.

Your friend, (and a Canadian Light Infantryman,ret'd)

Art
 
Probably the only people who might understand the preference for tube sound would be musicians and anyone who is into serious music listening. Whether it is classical, jazz, pop or rock, music reproduced through tubes and good speakers will make modern iPod sound reproduction sound like they are anemic. I get pleasure from restoring equipment and in some cases making some improvements to enhance longevity or performance.

Those of us who also restore cabinets to any degree also appreciate the craft and workmanship exhibited by many old console radios and high fidelity/stereo equipment. The cabinets can be quite large and heavy, but are often works of art.

Joe
 
Arts'; I apologize for the crack. It was a bad attempt at humor. I've read a hell of a lot of WWI & WWII & Korea, plus other warzones histories over the last 45-50 years, and some of the best of the Empire's units were Canadians, even to the detriment of some Scot's and irish units.
 
Did he have the "most toys"? If so, he WON !!!
He started in the late 70s (I think he wanted to be prepared in case the red army invaded long island during the cold war.
By the late 80s I think if he had a fire in his garage, you'd see the fireworks from space.
Ironically, except for infrequent deer hunting trips ,he was an extremely mild mannered soul.
If his estate sold it off (he may have sold off much prior to passing. I had lost touch with him for 20 or more years before my brother found him on Facebook or something).
It would have hurt the resale firearms market prices (supply and demand:idea:)
 
EXPLAINING MY AUDIO HOBBY!

From the relatives...

Q: So you collect old stereo equipment?
A: Yes.
Q: What do you do with it?
A: Fix it up if I can and listen to it.
Q: Why? Don't you have a TV?

Q: So I heard you have a bunch of old speakers.
A: Yes.
Q: What do you do with them?
A: I fix them up if I can. Recap them, refoam the edges, refinish the cabinets.
Q: Then you sell them?
A: No, I listen to them.
Q: But you could sell them, right?
A: No, not for what I put into them. Most people don't want old speakers.
Q: So why do you do it?
A: I like old speakers.
Q: Why?

Q: Your wife said you like 'tube amplifiers.'
A: Right.
Q: So what's that?
A: Old electronic equipment that used vacuum tubes instead of solid state components.
Q: What's solid state?
A: What came after vacuum tubes. Basically all electronics are solid state now.
Q: And you like these tubes?
A: Yes.
Q: Why?
A: I think they sound better than some modern equipment.
Q: I find that hard to believe.
A: ...Uh...

Q: So what's in a 'tube amplifier'?
A: Vacuum tubes, resistors, capacitors, transformers...
Q: Transformers? Like Optimus Prime?
A: ...Uh...Sure. Why not.

Q: So I was looking at your record collection and I noticed something.
A: Really, what's that?
Q: I have a lot of those too. On my iPod.
A: Great.
Q: So why do you need all of this?
A: I think it sounds better.
Q: No, it sounds the same. Here, listen!

Q: Is all this stuff going to be worth money someday?
A: Some of the tube stuff maybe. The rest, not so much.
Q: So what's the point of collecting it?
A: I like it.
Q: Why?

At this point, my head explodes...
I used this to explain to my wife why I do what I do. Now I think she understands.
 
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