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What are your thoughts on young people (teenagers/children) taking interest in vintage electronics?

gadget73 said:
Breaking things is IMO the best way to learn how to not break things. Also can't learn to fix things that are not broken.
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Oh, I understand about breaking things to not break things. I work closely with Engineering and Product Validation re. product development.

But, I think that's not really the point in this case.
 
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seanserafini said:
For what it’s worth I’m early-mid 20s, so not the youngest but younger than most. I found this site when I was trying to fix my dad’s old Sony receiver that I wanted to take to my new apartment. When I was a kid that receiver and my dad’s Bose model 141’s and acoustimass surround system would shake the floors in our house.

I never got the receiver fixed but I did find a new hobby. I’ve snagged all my gear at Salvation Army for a grand total of maybe $100. Brand new klipsch icon bookshelf speakers, a Design Acoustics speaker set (PS-9’s and a matching PS-SW sub), and a like new JVC R-X500 receiver. I also just picked up a Sony ES CD player for $9. My dad gave me all his CDs as he was frustrated with the format so I’ve put together a half decent system for really cheap.

My uncle is giving me a pair of massive JBL speakers that I’m going to pick up this weekend. I’ve got my heart set on something like the Sony GX9ES to power them.

I love old stuff though so maybe I’m an outlier. My other hobby is fixing up my 68 mustang (which come to think of it badly needs new speakers!).
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You’re not an outlier. It takes all kinds, all ages, and to each their own.

to all:

Agism, that is often exhibited in such threads is as old as time. Let us all embrace those who love what we love, and if they don’t love what we love… love them anyway and embrace them still.
Or
Find an infinite number of things that separate us and demean others for their differences, and charge them with being “lesser”.
 
Anytime a kid has a facination or curiosity with something I like, it's good. Vintage audio is a great hobby because the equipment doesn't care what music you play on it, old or new, it's all good and can sound amazing. There's also the different groups that get into audio for various reason, personally I listen to a radio all day long and have for years but my background is in design and engineering and I love how this stuff is put together and looks, a lot of love was put into most of it. I have shelves stuffed with display equipment.

Some other benefits is a grasp of math and electronics if you get into repairs and maybe even some tool room knowledge. Working on this kind of equipment is good brain exercise and trust me, not enough people work their brains. I do a lot of math problems, most in my head or on paper, just to exercise my brain, sure I have a calculator but math gets all of those neurons firing. There's nothing better than sitting down with a soldering iron and fixing a board if you have some free time.

There's also a potential financial benefit, if you can repair audio, there's a huge need for repair techs, there's no real downside.
 
OBMG74 said:
I'm 67 and I really don't understand the negative responses.

We should encourage young people to pursue the hobby.
So a few "valuable vintage pieces" get wrecked "because there are no more being manufactured"?

There are plenty of hoards of the stuff around.
Not like a young person is going to buy a $500-$1,000 unit and take it apart to see how it works.

If they experiment with a $30 BPC from Goodwill and ruin it, so what?

I was encouraged by a couple of adults when I was in 4th grade or so. (shortwave radio)
Without that encouragement, I might not even be in the hobby, let alone get a degree in Electronics and earn a living in that field during my early working career.
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I agree with @OBMG74.

What’s not to like or disagree with?

The more the merrier. Let all see, understand and appreciate the value and quality of vintage hifi.

The advantage to this POV is that the passion, history and tribal knowledge has a real chance of living on well past our lifetimes.
 
SB12345 said:
I'm all for it unless:
I was lurking in one of our used record shops here in town last year when I notice three local university students paying for a half-dozen classic rock albums. As this transaction progressed the clerk was trying to explain to them that their purchases were guaranteed to satisfy and if there was any problems with the LP's when they got them home the store would exchange them for credit of equal value, but the student with the money said something along the lines that they didn't give a damn about the condition of the vinyl, they were just looking for some interesting rock album covers to staple to their living room wall for decoration!

I would love to see young music lovers getting into vintage gear, but I've yet to meet any :dunno:
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I have met a few ,one way to keep the vintage audio going is not to gouge on equipment ! And if a younger person has a real interest in the hobby I try to help them get set up . I have passed some equipment on ussaully at break even prices to young people to keep the good audio karma going!
 
brian222 said:
Wish my grandson (15) would show a spark of interest in music first.
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One way is to put a Bluetooth reciever on the stereo so they can use their phone to send music to the system ,they never put down their phones! The only other way is to have the phone surgically removed from thier hand!
 
I hooked one of my neighbors with a modest 2.1 system. Like many of the younger generations, he owns practically no hard copies of any music. He uses Bluetooth and his phone for a musical source. He has since said more than once how much better music sounds on a stereo system.

His wife told me he plays it too loud.:)
 
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