why vintage?

edwin

Active Member
Are vintage gear better than the new models particularly for amps/speakers (assuming same specs) or are we buying because they are cheaper than buying new? Based on your experiences, are old stuff really better? tks
 
My take is this, when my Fisher RS-1080 can consume the electricity of a vacuum cleaner, has capacitors as big as a can of beer and weighs more than 3 modern recievers you gotta know that this was serious stuff. On the downside you could end up deaf in a short period of time. ;)
 
why vintage?
Why not?


A good deal of us are old enough to have drooled over this stuff when it was new and we had no freaking hope in hell of affording it. Now, we can (for the most part).

It is seriously-built, kick-ass sounding gear that (generally...) can be easily repaired, and stomps a sonic mudhole in the face of 95% of the new consumer gear available.

The only real problem is age, so repairs are commonly needed.
 
Bear in mind that the HIGH END gears of today are equally or better than what was ever produced in the past.....buf only a handfull of us can buy these today.....hehehe

In the Future, our kids would eventually buy these HIGH END gears of today and form a vintage group on their cell phones ..AUDIOKARMA JR....they wont be discussing Pioneers/Sansui/Kenwoods...but they would be discussing KRELL, BRYSTON, CARVERS , REVEL etc...hehehe

I can just imagine a post...

"Guess what I saw in the dumpster.. a KRELL Power amp....my dad use to drool on these monsters ages ago.....Can't wait to show him...too bad he cant hear any more"

:D

Originally posted by EchoWars
Why not?


stomps a sonic mudhole in the face of 95% of the new consumer gear available.

 
On one end of the spectrum, sound for the dollar - you'd have to spend well over $2000 for something built like a TOTL Plinius or Krell in todays dollars, where $200 - $500 will get you that same level of build quality with vintage. Spend another $200 - $300 getting the unit recapped and serviced, and you're still way ahead of the game.

On the other end of the spectrum, nothing salves a mid-life crisis better than scoring the vintage piece of McIntosh, Marantz, Sansui, etc. that you've wanted since you popped your first zit. :p:
 
These are all great answers, but they avoid revealing the REAL truth: You just can't do the monorail in front of a black receiver face and feel right about it.
 
There is also another way to look at this.
Take a look at all of the equipment sitting
on the shelf of your local electronics store.
Then once you get a good look then ask
yourself this question. Where will most
of this stuff be sitting 30 years from now?
Verses the equipment we see from 30 years ago.
 
Copy on the dumpster!!!!!!!


qguy...that was great!!!!I loved that!!!

Most of the stuff...(junk)..that is put out today ..is made for Home Theater..so audio purity isnt reely required...just the ..THUMP..or BOOM...BOOM... .BOOM .....the rest of the spectrum is irelivent!!!!! BOOM
 
I don't know if $200-500 will get you vintage that has been built like Plinius or Krell. That stuff is overbuilt plain and simple.

I know that between $200-500, and a little perserverance, you can get Carver stuff. It doesn't have Plinius or Krell build quality either. Unless you're planning to throw the stuff down the stairs, it doesn't need to.



Toasted Almond
 
You find me ONE new amp capable of 120+ wpc stereo and 300+ watts mono that "I" can afford, let alone afford SIX of them ;) :D

Oh and two matching pre amps ;)
 
With the proper choices, which are many, vintage gear provides an exceptional cost-benefit ratio to the world of QUALITY sound.
I have today (my 'Saturday,' I get to work the weekend at the library) been listening to my two 'small' stereos, my unabashed vintage set-ups. I have, again, been tickled at the SOUND quality they provide. Not ne plus ultra, but by-golly listenable, toe-tapping sound on the verge of 'whatever else' is out there.
The stereo up here is the Nikko NR-1015, a fine 85 wpc receiver driving two pair of speakers: the Advent Loudspeaker and the Marantz DS-900. Down in the family room is the Kenwood KA-9100/KT-7500 with the JBL L100 Century's.
I was just downstairs listening, and it is only the FM, but I was in the sweet spot and I was taken away by the discreet imaging and the sound quality of that old stereo. I've heard the complaints made about the L100's, but they're sounding awfully clean and accurate down in my family room!
The three big stereos I have set-up are separates, and while I consider them vintage they may just be 'old.' I will put them against most anything, though, within reason, for their quality of sound provided in my listening environment.
The two audio salons in town here may not have SOTA gear, but I have not been tempted with their admittedly great sounding gear-- what I have is just as good to my old ears. I'm looking for that 'order of magnitude,' I guess, and that difference is NOT there.
Heck, once you've got the speaker systems set you're more than half-way to great sound. I especially like my separates (which makes my enjoyment of the little stereos something special itself) with the open, spacious sound BIG power provides.
But, yeah, I would like a pair of Carver's AMazing Platinums! Oh, hey, THEY'RE old, too!
 
I think the thing is that if one of todays receivers broke down, you just toss it. You don't see the kind of build quality in the mainstream stuff like you did before. I'm not talking the $5,000.00 TOTL of today, which I'm sure is very fine stuff. I'm talking the level of equipment that you see on Best Buy shelves. The similiar type of shelves that housed the Marantz, Kenwood, Sansui, Pioneer of back then. You find a 100 wpc receiver today, and open the cover, and compare it to a 100 wpc receiver built then, not to mention the weight, the strength of the chassis and the overall quality, there is no comparison. I just bought a 100wpc Kenwood AR-304 for $5.00 at a garage sale. The relay was loose and it kept shutting off. Well I had the case off, the whole bottom is one thin stamped steel piece, no "frame" to speak of, and the circuit was one large PCB board. The "tuner" if you call it that, looked more like a computer PCI card. It was that small. The output chips were about the size of thumbnails.
 
If you keep your eyes open you can get good build quality for $200. In fact the most I spent for any of my vintage receivers was in fact $202, that being the Fisher RS-1080. I probably could have had it for less with some persistence but I waited two years for it. I paid much less for some excellent stuff, my Sansui 990DB, my GTE 2600, my Marantz Model 30 amp, the list goes on. In fact I have about a dozen receivers that cost less than the combined total of one Circuit City modern receiver. What can $200 get you? 72lbs of power with some luck! :D
 
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