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Thu 28 Feb, 2008 11:31 am
Back in the 70's, I considered myself a bit of an audiophile. Well, an audiophile on a budget. Slowly, I acquired a sound system that I thought was pretty top notch and it sounded great. This was in the days of high-end tube amps, exotic turntables and ridicuoulsly expensive speakers (although I always preferred my Advents.) Time went by, the family came, the thousands of LPs were ignored and eventually vanished into memory as I assumed the mantle of father and bread winner. Today, my sound system consists of two tiny speakers and a subwoofer running off the sound card of my computer. My Ipod sits in my Jeep plugged into the factory radio. Wow, where the Hell did the good times go?
While I wonder at how far the technology has progressed in terms of ease of use and storage, I believe the process of reproducing music in the home has lost the magic it once held for me. Maybe it's my age, maybe it's my grandson, maybe it's my kids who've never heard of an LP. I dunno.
Is anybody still making the great old tube amps, preamps, speakers and turntables? Can LPs still be had other than the used dreck on Ebay?
I realize that technology has changed everything forever but my sense of nostalgia keeps bringing me back to the days when names like Denon, Nakamichi, Dual, Teac, Marantz, Advent and Sansui meant something.
Geez...is there anybody out there who feels this pang?
Well, Sansui still means plenty to me. I have an AU-505 amplifier which must be 35 years old. I bought it for £15 ($30) in 1990 from a guy who thought it was junk because it looked old fashioned. I used it with some Richard Allan Pavane bookshelf speakers for about 15 years but now I have some Eltax Silverstone floor standing speakers and I still love that amplifier dearly. I use it with a Philips CD723 cd player and the whole setup impresses friends with much more impressive paper specs.
Thanks, contrex. I really miss the warmth of sound that the digital revolution seems to have let pass by. I wonder if anybody makes new stuff or are we just going to have to keep the old jewels around?
I still have my TEAC X-1000R reel-to-reel recorder and a handy-dandy 8-track tape player floating around as well as my old Yamaha turntable.
There are still some companies that survive off of the audiophile market.
Galbrier Design makes some kick-ass turntables and
Signature Technologies also makes some very nice tube amps/preamps.
There are lots of others as well.
Like you, that era has passed for me but I remember it with fond memories. I just don't have the time or money to get back into it.
Lots of audiophiles are still out there. I made my last audiophile equip't purchase when times were better in 2001.
I own a McIntosh power amp, 2 Conrad Johnson preamps (one just for my Rega Turntable), 2 coffin-sized speakers, A Sony Elite 508-ESD CD player. There are tons of audiophile afficianado links I can pass on to you. If you would like to see them, just let me know.
Yes, and I still do buy vinyl now and then.
At one time, Mr. P. had about 6,000 vinyl recordings. When we were going to move, we realized that we had to cull the collection. We put an ad in the paper. At the time, we lived in NY.
A man called us from Ohio, and came down with a truck. He was interested in our collection of Mercury Living Presence classical records, which were in pristine condition. He gave us an average of $15- per record. One particular recording fetched $350-. He said that he had that record already presold............for $900-. He did most of his business in Germany and Japan.
I still have about 1000 albums and some stacks of 45s, which I still listen to. My equipment is not the best, but, you don't need truly great sound for most of what I play on there. I bought many of them as far back as 1958.
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