An Homage to Long Term Ownership


I have been an audio hobbyist for many decades. It seems that every 6 years I make a major upgrade to my 2 channel system. Upgrade an amp, six years later the speakers, six years later source equipment, then back to a new amp and so on. The one piece of equipment that I have held onto for 21 years is my Velodyne SPL 1000 sub. I bought the sub in 2000 for the princely sum of $800 when I had very little spare cash for anything. It is a small-ish sealed box with a 650 watt class D amp. The 10" driver has a huge butyl rubber surround and something like a six pound magnet. I have used this amp in various HT and 2 channel applications. It has never quit, bottomed out, clipped  or made a bad blooming or boomy note. It still works and looks fine. I hope their Lidar products work this well when autonomous driving is a real thiing.
motown-l
My longest running piece was a Sota Sapphire that I used from 1992 to 2020.  Next was my Pass Labs X350- from 2002 to 2021.  Now it sits in my son's house.  I have had my Thiel CS6 speakers since 2005.  The one thing in common is that these were very large purchases for me at the time and also were, and still are very satisfying components.  The only piece I have left going back to the 1980s is my VPI Magic Brick.  It now sits on my Power Conditioner- just because.
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Come to think of it I still have and use the AT record weight that I bought around the same time!
I still have the Ariston RD11S in use that I bought way back in 1977 for $270 new. Present tonearm is a Grace 707 with a Denon 103. Original belt gets an occasional wipe down with Armor All - still works fine! Bearing gets a few drops of oil every now and then. 
I've owned some of my components for decades. I have no plans to upgrade my Infinity IRS Betas or my Mac MR-80 tuner, for example.
I did have a Sota Sapphire for 40 years. It is now happily spinning in someone else's system.
I have a Velodyn. It's foam surround disintegrated. It is now or was at last sighting, a fish tank stand. 
My longest held component is a Decca Super Gold. 34 years! Bought it in 1987 and had it retired three times. As long as records are kept very clean, the stylus is good for years.
@whart I run ESL57s with tubes and love them.
I have equipment here, some in use, that I've owned since the early '70s including a Technics SP-10 table and a pair of original Quad ESLs ('57) (all sympathetically restored), other stuff that just needs a little attention but playable (ARC Dual 75a that I bought new; have fresh tubes that I bought from ARC well over a decade ago-probably needs a recap after 15 years since last tune up) and some stuff (my old Decca ribbons) that will need more serious attention to come back into play. 
I can rationalize my attachment to these pieces beyond sentimental value, but you gotta respect a product that is still delivering what it did new some decades later. Even if those products have been bettered for the most part. I have a special fondness for the original Quad Loudspeaker, currently running with restored Quad IIs using GEC 66s. While not the "last word" there is something special about these even by today's standards.

My story sounds like yours. After a very hectic first six or eight years I slowly migrated into 7 or so year cycles between upgrades. Makes for great enjoyment in between.
I have a SPL800. It's on it's second amp board and according to Velodyne that's the last one. I love the little thing and it sounds great in most systems. Good stuff.