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When Does Vintage Become Vintage?

Justen

Justen

Send Lawyers,Guns & Money
Subtitle: Am I still allowed to hang out here?

So when does vintage become vintage? I realized the other day that my main audio rig was almost all newer gear. Not exactly BPC but hardly vintage...

JBL 4430's (late 80's)
Adcom 5800 GFA (late 90's)
Krell CDP (early 2000)
Dual 1229 (70's)- and I thinking about a Pro-ject
Dynaco PAS 3 preamp (soon to be changed to something new)

Not that I don't like the old stuff, it all looks pretty and sounds good. I just happened to slowly, unintentionally, modernize. First it was the great deal on the JBL's, but I didn't have anything that would really drive them well. So I picked up the Adcom so I had something big enough to drive the JBL's, then I got a good deal on the Krell. The Dynaco is okay, but I was thinking a newer tube preamp would warm up the Adcom. The Dual works well and is the least likely to be swapped for new anytime soon. Eventually all the vintage Pioneer and Marantz got sold off and here I am in the semi-modern audio world. Heck, I even found myself buying Stereophile last night and looking at all the cool gear and thinking "hey, that might be neat to get"

Of course my mono rig is from 1959, but that isn't my daily listener... but will that let me stay here and hang out?
 
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Being vintage is almost a state of mind. I have a Sansui 8080db since new and to me it's just old. Which makes me old(er) and hopefully not vintage.

The core of my "vintage stuff" is from the 70s. I have some stuff that's from the 50-60s, but my collection of gear has been creeping into the 80 - 90s, especially the speakers and CD players. Some newer technology does sound better.

I think any shinny, 50 pound audio gear before the 80s could qualifiy as vintage.
 
A car is eligible for "Antique" plates here when it gets to be 25...Maybe 25 is a good rule of thumb, but Jeez...1981 don't sound like it was THAT long ago...
 
Of course my mono rig is from 1959, but that isn't my daily listener... but will that let me stay here and hang out?
Click to expand...

I think you can stay here no matter what.

As to when it becomes vintage, I think it's when someone comes to your home, sees it and smarts off about it.

My latest from this weekend in reference to my McIntosh amp ..."for what you paid for that, you could have gone to Best Buy and gotten something new".

Now that is vinatge..............
 
Vintage may be a state of mind.
Basically, "vintage audio" brings to mind the late-60s up through maybe 1982, especially during that period 1974 though the end of the 70s when many of the manufacturers were waging the great "watt war" among receivers.
I am also the owner of mid-80s amps and mid-90s preamps and I think of them as solid state that I will sometimes talk about in a thread in the vintage solid state forum.
As far as I'm concerned, any solid state gear is welcome to post in the Vintage Solid State forum.
 
While the prime focus of AK seems to be vintage, I see plenty of members with newer gear. Out of all the equipment in my signature, only the amp and the TT are "vintage", and I have no qualms about hanging here. It also goes by what you contribute, Justen, am I right?
It's audio. Not just vintage, not just BPC, not just new stuff. Anything that makes music.
Tom
 
I’ve always thought of vintage as referring to stuff that is “old but still valuable/functional”. It also seems to vary between manufactures. With some stuff such as JBL speakers I consider anything up until the L100T and XPL200 models to be vintage even though that extends into the early 90’s. Those were sort of “end of an era” type speakers, as in still the same era just at the end of it – make sense?

If you go to some of the forums like avsforum, home theater forum, etc anything that is more than a few years old is hardly even talked about anymore. What do you call all the stuff that isn’t “new” but isn’t “vintage” yet?
 
To me, Vintage refers to what I consider the golden age of stereo. To me, that age was the period before black plastic gear, with labels I can't read, took over the market. It was the time that the major players were putting out equipment that would last tens of years and sound great.

I'm not saying you can't get good stuff at affordable prices today such as the $49.99/pair Insignia speakers. I'm using them in my living room right now, but they are being driven by my Kenwood KA-6100 integrated amp and the sound is perfect to my ears. There is something special to me about an amp that is over 30 years old and can still sound beautiful, and it looks great too!
 
Another common theme that runs through these threads is that the owners of gear on here tend to take better care of their equipment so that it will last long enough to become vintage. Plus have a better understanding of what it is that they have and what it is for.
 
I too have noticed a lot of vintage owners, but I have vintage and modern gear as well. Love them both for different reasons. Just like cars. There's a certain amount of design style in addition to the sound that makes them a lot of fun to own.

Not to mention the cost!! It's a lot easier to get some of that stuff now than it was back in the day.
 
i like to think of vintage gear as that which was made UP to a standard and not DOWN to a price...regardless of era..:scratch2:
 
From "The Oxford Desk Dictionary and Thesaurus": :nerd: I prefer the use as an adjective,
"...1 choice, superior, select, classic...":beatnik:
As opposed to:"...2 antiquated...over the hill.":drool:
 
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