How long do you or should you keep your gear.

I have my Harmon Kardon 730 which i bought in 1978. My speakers have been with me 20 yrs. But the article talks about advertising pointed at us to make us uncomfortable with last years model. Nothing new at all. The Stones had a major hit in the mid 60's which spoke of the same thing

When I'm watchin' my tv and a man comes on and tell me
How white my shirts can be
But, he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke
The same cigarettes as me

Satisfaction

then you have the propensity of hunger, they loved to eat tapes, a form of self-canibalism now that I think about it

That is the attribute I mostly think of when 8 track is mentioned. I got pretty good at splicing them using scotch tape. Always worked fine, til it broke elsewhere. I lost a lot of music during that time. But I love driving and listening to music and don't remember any recorder for 8 track. Thank God for cassette. I could buy the vinyl and record to cassette for the car/truck