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Why don't companies go retro??

Lets not forget, that some brands ARE still making some VERY VERY capable kit which stands up-to, and sometimes surpasses, the vintage stuff.

Look at the Marantz PM7001 - a beautifully designed and finished amp - or the latest Denon products. Rotel are also making some superb kit - my RA01 amp is awesome, and I believe its recent replacement (RA04) is even better. Then there is the current Harman Kardon range. Okay, so its not hewn from brushed steel etc. but items like the HD790 CD player are examples of good, contemporary design to package extremely high quality and capable products. All of this gear is, relatively, at the budget end of the market but does its job to astonishingly high standards. Then there are the superb half-width components by TEAC - beautifully designed and built with superb sound for the money.

Progress to more expensive kit and there is a huge range of brands engineering hi-fi, 2-channel gear to top class standards. Look at products like Roksan's Kandy range, the brilliant Naim range, Cyrus components, Musical Fidelity, Shanling, McIntosh, Linn, Esoteric etc. etc.

The speaker market is more alive than ever. When in the past could you get bookshelf speakers with real wood veneer and 7 layers of hand applied piano lacquer for £380? (Quad 11L). There are beautiful, wonderful speakers being produced by many manufacturers - Castle, Quad, KEF, Mordaunt-Short, Wharfedale, Celestion, Mission, B&W, Q-Acoustics.....

The gear IS out there but who could blame the audio companies for thinking that the audience for it is shrinking? The market has been dictated for too long by big electronics chains and dominant hi-fi press like What Hi-Fi Sound & Vision and its time those of us that really care supported the active hi-fi industry of today.

I recently went into my local branch of a conglomorate - Currys Digital - in search of seperates CD players. I was informed that Currys had made the decision to stop stocking seperates a couple of years ago. The store manager said he wished they did stock seperates because people are always asking for 'real hi-fi'.........
 
Consider this, if a company markets a high quality retro amp or receiver comparable to the hi-end of the 70s it would easily cost anywhere between $4000-8000+ today. How many of those do you think the average AKer would buy in a course of 10 years?
 
I have seen the products from Rotel, Roksan, etc. They do seem impressive... I would pony up big dollars for a "brand new" Marantz 125wpc 2 channel receiver with brushed aluminum, meters, gyro tuch tuning, big analog tuning dial...etc....and make sure it weighs a ton! And I think if this sort of stuff graced the shelves at our local "better" audio stores, many people would buy it! I do agree that the speaker market is strong, mainly due to the demand for the high end home theater market. And don't get me wrong, HT stuff is very cool as well! I have a Denon AVR-3802 that has (I think) 130wpc X 7! It was expensive at the time and performs very well! But if I was walking people through my house to show off equipment, my vintage system would be shown first, then the HT!
 
Also consider - it wouldn't need 4,000+ dollars to achieve the sound quality of 70s high end. After a great deal of listening to all sorts of gear I would say the best budget amps of today sound just as convincing as the high end of 30 years ago. I recently got to compare my Rotel with a Sansui 9090DB and the Rotel was by far the better amp........

Surely, sound quality is the ultimate goal?????
 
I think that companies are making gear that has a retro look but with a modern feel. Examples are the recent Outlaw audio receiver, Conrad Johnson gear, Magnum Dynalabs receiver from 5 years ago, and all of the other tube amplification availible (Cary, MacIntosh, Yamamoto A-08) just to name a few.

The Beetle and other 'retro' designs are not exact copies but a modern or fresh look at classic design. I believe that the above equipment mentioned is along the same lines, a fresh design using a retro starting point.

I just think that we see it as modern because it is, and do not look at the process or inspiration used to achive the final design. As mentioned before your $10 yard sale receiver could cost several thousand dollars if manufactured today. In 20 years that $2500 amp may be only $50 ($10 in todays dollars :) )
 
I should add that I think the companies mentioned in the original post, Marantz and Pioneer, probably do not design retro because of cost and their current customer base. How many are looking for a High-End $5,000 Pioneer amp. Plus another $2000 for a Preamp. Same with Marantz.
I do recall Marantz re-releasing a few items about 8 - 10 years ago, some of their classic stuff
 
yeah...I agree you don't need to spend awhole lot these days to get great sound.

But if you want a new, cool, retro design and workmanship, real wood veneer, VU meters, glass and back lit tuner section, bulbs instead of leds, lots of solid metal knobs and switches, and lots of polished silver and weighs 70 pounds it's gonna cost ya.

If I were blind I'd be happy listening to a black box from the 80s.

Cheers
 
The most ironic thing is that the iPod, itself a large reason why people are further moving away from stereo components, is itself very retro looking. The iPod has a very Bauhaus/1930s modern (every age has its "modern") look to it. Of course nothing electronic of that time was so small.
 
It doesn't just need to be the high end stuff... Why can't you take a lower priced unit, put a brushed aluminum face on it, wrap it in a real wood veneer, and sell it for just a few bucks more? My first receiver was a Realistic STA-52B when I was 12yo....this was definately lower in the line at RS, but it still had the beautiful brushed aluminum and real wood veneer case! If you took my HT Denon AVR-3802 and wrapped it in a beautiful walnut veneer, it would be displayed prominently in my family room as opposed to being somewhere in the rack with the other equipment...
 
Forgot to say before....

I'm really not interested in what any visitors to my home think of my hi-fi. If the slimline modern boxes I'm using create the best sound, I don't care whether they look 'impressive' to other people.

At the end of the day, Pioneer et al made some superb kit in the 1970s and much of it is still giving pleasure today. It does not, however, generally compete with modern kit for all-out sound quality. I've listened extensively and carefully to come to this conclusion and, to me, it is inescapable. Technology HAS moved on incredibly and if losing the brushed steel fascia and attractive lights is the trade off for better sound, then I'm happy to make it.

The 2-channel market is VERY competitive at the moment, but its competing on the basis of SOUND QUALITY first and foremost. 2-channel has become more of a niche market and there is too much competition from the specialist companies for the big corporations to have runaway successes like they did. Marantz continue to do well because they have kept the focus on sound quality but I'm sure products such as the new Creek EVO range cause panic. A £500.00 amp and £500.00 CD player which, married with some nice Epos or Quad standmounts for about £400.00, will wipe the floor with most of what has come out of the Jap brands......... I know which I'd opt for.
 
What can I say...I'm an artist and designer.

I like real wood, shinny buttons, blinking lights and dancing meters. The more the better and it better sound great too!
 
Technics did it a few years ago. . .It was nice stuff too but it died on the vine. . .

The trouble today is diversity. . .You got to remember back then there was only stereo. . .Today the stereo money is buying MP3 players, computers, surround sound systems, high dollar HDTV displays all specialized gear that if it wasn't here the market would be much different.

Pioneer , Marantz , Sansui et al weren't silver faced beauties because we wanted silver faced beauties but because that was just the way they were.

If all the great audio gear was black boxes back then and they were as reliable as the old silver we would be buying black boxes today. . .We associate big heavy silver faced gear with good quality only because they were good quality.

We bought gear back then for no other reason than how it worked and how it sounded. . .It could have been pink with blue polka dots but if it worked we would have bought it. . .

Look at Sound Craftsman, Sony ES, Optonica, early Onkyo, Denon, Yamaha. .among others they all had plain black well made boxes that we still want today. . .

Regardless of what it looks like we still buy quality today, if we can afford it. . .You take that new HK stereo receiver that can be had for 200 bucks or less. It is damned good for double or triple its price. . .That 500 dollar vintage receiver would cost you 3 grand minimum today. Some are buying those 3 grand pieces.

The high end stereo gear is still here, it never left actually got better and a whole lot more expensive. . .I would bet that nice silver face made from billit and engraved, silk screened to look the part would tear up a hundred dollar bill. . .and when we can buy that 200 dollar HK that works as well or we can still find the real 30 year old monsters as cheap as they are it dont leave very much room for new retro/. . .


pardon the rant. . .or semi-rant. . . :scratch2:
 
"What can I say...I'm an artist and designer.

I like real wood, shinny buttons, blinking lights and dancing meters. The more the better and it better sound great too!"


Amen brother!
 
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. Think about what happened to Allied Radio, Pacific Stereo, Tech HiFi, Flanner and Hafsoos, Hi Fi Fo Fum, Team Electronics, Port O' Sound, Olson Electronics, Heathkit, 1812 Overture Records, Peaches Records, NMC Discount Records, ( I guess my Milwaukee roots are showing, but I'm sure most can paint similar pictures for their hometowns) and on a global scale AR, KLH, Akai, High Fidelity and Stereo Review magazines, etc, etc,.[/QUOTE

You forgot to mention Radio Doctors and Schaak Electronics!!!!!!!!!....Quite the fupa for a guy from Milw..... :nono:
 
The total sale number of re-issues and new versions of the MC275 passed the quantity of originals sold in the 1960s a year or so ago. 6000 were sold from the early sixties until 1971. We are at about 14,000 all versions total sold now. Maybe the good old days were not as big as we remember. Niche market then and now.

Thanks,
Ron-C
 
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...if equipment in the 70's was pink with blue polka dots, I wouldn't have gotten interested in audio at all! When I was just a young pup before I even listened to music, I was mesmerized by the beauty of the stereo components my dad had in the living room...some older HK tube stuff! It's not only function but also design! In fact they should put a Pioneer SX-1980 on display in the Smithsonian! I'm not saying that there isn't good equipment built today, but would it kill them to wrap it in a wood veneer at least?
 
gunut said:
You forgot to mention Radio Doctors and Schaak Electronics!!!!!!!!!....Quite the fupa for a guy from Milw..... :nono:
Click to expand...

Really!!!!!

I bought my JBL L-88+'s from Schaak in 1976!! :bash: :bash: :bash:

Never hit Radio Doctor's downtown though. wasn't much into Soul music back then................
 
I think there is still a lot of great looking and beautiful sounding stuff made by the so called "mainstream" companies even today... Except that we don't get to see it here in North America and if we want to buy some decent 2-channel gear we need to rely on boutique brands with their boutique prices... therefore love for vintage here is so much more evident this side of the big pond.

What's offered here in BestBuy is NOT what the whole world has to settle for. The earth does not revolve around America and what we know as Denon or Marantz over here has nothing to do what these companies are actually up to.

Sadly, most if not all of their BPC is being sold over here, while in Japan or Europe these same companies continue their proud tradition by offering excellent quality gear that we never get to see.
Kris
 
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