Most enduring audio purchase

VPI HW-16. Serial number 15. One of the first and still
going strong over 30 years later. It's cleaned thousands and
thousands of records. Never a problem.

My Basis Ovation turntable, bought used in 1992 (I did upgrade it with the Debut's platter, bearing and vacuum system at some point in the early 2000s), my HW-16.5 RCM, bought a little earlier, and my Merrill Stable Table rack on which the turntable has been sitting for all those years.

My Great American Sound Thoebe preamp and Son of Ampzilla. These were my first high end equipment purchase and I have held onto to them after going through many different preamps and amplifiers, not to mention speakers. I have recently had them updated and upgraded and the GAS house sound is still there but in a more refined way. They hold their own against present day equipment. Besides, I like having meters on the amp even though they are meaningless.

My McIntosh 2105 amplifier. No longer my primary, but still sounds great, and I will be hooking it up tonight while I wait for a replacement tube or a tube that failed in my main amp to arrive.

I bought a pair of black Klipsch Heresy in 1978 and still have them. I no longer use them as my primary speakers but have decided to pass them down to my son just as my Dad did with his 1959 JBL C38 cabinets with D130s 15 inch extended range mid/woofers and 075 tweeters, And yes they still sound pretty good.

Magnepan MGIIIa speakers! Purchased in 1987 for $1995 and still in use in my home theater. My main speaker up to 2004 when I bought Magnepan 3.6's.

Deep, clean sound from 30 Hz to 40 Khz. Sounded best with GAS Son of Ampzilla, Audio Research D125, and Spread Spectrum Son Of Ampzilla 2000 power amps.

Beautiful 3D, clear, natural sound.

Best sound per dollar I ever spent!

Aerial 10T. They sound very natural and strong. So far I keep them near decade already without no upgrade plans whatsoever.

Meadowlark Audio Kestrels; one of my earliest purchases when this whole internet buying spree, merry-go-round began for me. They will be given away when my hearing goes.

Van Alstine Super PAS4i preamp about 20 years old with 2 Amperex 12AX7's in line stage and 2 RCA cleartops in phono stage.
About 20 years old, brought in into Frank about 2 years ago and said make it as good as you can, which he did.
MUCH better than my Bryston BP-6 and save a tad in bass the equal of my EE Avant.
Only 11 inches wide which I like.

VPI HW19 Mark II bought in 1988 with SME IV arm. Recently upgraded the bearing and platter with Mark V. Think it's competitive with many new tables.

Oh, and still have my Oracle carbon fiber record cleaning brush. Will it ever wear out?

The body of my Grace F9E phono cartridge, with various replacements and upgrades of the stylus assembly over the years, has been my primary cartridge ever since I purchased it in 1979.

Regards,
-- Al

I bought both the same year, the rest of the system has, and continues, to evolve as I see fit BUT....my Linn Lingo LP12 and my Spendor S100's have been with me since 1990!

Tandberg TCD440A. Bought it new in 1981 and it still sounds as good now as it did then. Had to throw repairs at it a few times, but after 33 years, that's a great track record. Next up are my Rogers Studio 1s from 1983 and my Sota Sapphire in 1984. Still going strong. For accessories, I have 2 original D3 Discwasher brushes from before the Tandberg, and still use them, too.

Fried A/3s bought in 1992 and my little NAD 7225PE from 1991…still rock the house and as strong as ever.

Stax Headphones.

Verity Audio Parsifals, new in 2003. Upgraded the isolation with the ovation divider and Stillpoint feet. Still love the speakers.

Equipment owned for 29 years -
Marantz 7 tube preamp
Eminent Technology ET2 tonearm
MIT750 Shotgun speaker cable

Equipment owned for 25 years -
Final Audio Labs VTT1 turntable
Dynavector 501
Dynavector Karat Nova 13D

Final Audio Labs VTT1 turntable blows away my Platine Verdier and everything else I've tried. Will never be sold.
Marantz 7 (modded) has blown away my Jadis & Klyne System 7 preamps and will never be sold ( I own 2 of them ).

Other vintage equipment staying in the house :
Tannoy GRF Professional speakers
Tannoy Belvedere Senior speakers

My Berning zh270, it sounds better than ever which is to say that as I have refined and fine tuned over the years it continues to be the strongest component I have and without any question the best purchase I've made in audio. Kudos to David Berning. Aside from that I still own a pair of McIntosh MC-60s that I purchased in 1989 that I don't use. Enduring in that I don't want to part with them just yet!

Celestion SL700 - bought in 2000 for a NYC apartment and now in use in my bedroom in DC.

Thiel CS6 speakers. For the past ten years, these have been with me and I have absolutely no inclination to make a change or upgrade.

Speakers...Dynaudio's, Ive had them over 12 years and I love them.

.
Audio Research Reference 3...it was a game changer for me.

Infinity Kappa 9 ... amp-killing power hogs hold their own
on the high end arena if bi-amped with good power.
.

VPI HW 19 MK3 with SME 309 tonearm,working fine since 1995.

Both my Deja Vu power amp and my JMlbabs Micro-Utopia speakers have been with me since 2006 and I plan to keep both for a very long time.

Quad old ESL's.

My Jadis JA30s.

I bought a K&K phono preamp in 2003. I just sent it back last week for the latest updates (maxxed out status). I have upgraded everything else in the system at least five times since then (speakers many times that). It is the one component that I see no need to change out.

Shakey

I'll add some more- but my Zerostat still rules.

LP12 1st bought in 1998 and in its present form (Ekos, Lingo, Arkiv B) since 2000

Revel F30- owned since 2000. I do have aftermarket jumpers between the bi wire binding posts (Zu)

Those are 2nd tier most enduring

I also bought my tuner in 2000 but it was significantly modified by the factory in 2012 so that doesn't exactly count.

Nice to se others no aren't searchers and flippers

I'm kind of thinking that if a product has been updated since purchase, it's not exactly been an enduring purchase. That's why I do not consider my tuner enduring- it was updated. I would think enduring would best be understood as 1- bought long time ago, and 2- is in its original form since purchased. For me the Zerostat is still the king of the hill for me.

11-07-14: Zavato
I'm kind of thinking that if a product has been updated since purchase, it's not exactly been an enduring purchase. That's why I do not consider my tuner enduring- it was updated. I would think enduring would best be understood as 1- bought long time ago, and 2- is in its original form since purchased.

I suppose that rules out my earlier mention of the body of my Grace F9E cartridge, since its associated stylus assembly has been replaced and updated multiple times. If so, next in line for me would be my SOTA Sapphire turntable and Magnepan Unitrac tonearm. Those have never been updated, modified, or repaired in any way, and still work as well as when I purchased them in 1983.

I see in Effischer's post that he has had similarly good luck with his 1984 SOTA.

Regards,
-- Al

My Yamaha NS 1000 Monitor speakers. Paid the amazing sum of $1,100.00 for them in 1978. I still have them and my 26 year old son listens to them every day.

Triplanar! Its so nice to know that no matter what I throw at the system, the tone arm will track it perfectly and reliably year in and year out.

I've had my Linn Axis table since 1986 and still going strong.

Next after that is Stax "ear speakers" since early 90's, and Triangle Titus XS monitors since soon after that.

I've owned OHM speakers in one form or another since 1978. I still have those (OHM Ls) but I refurbed them myself a few years back.

Also NAD 7020 receiver running currently as pre-amp only in my second system since about 1986. BOught it in a pawn shop for $20 back then. Still more than holds its own. The Dual 1264 in there does not get much use these days but still runs good. Got that in 1981.

Most enduring? I can still remember my roommate Doug relentlessly squeezing my Zerostat as if it was one of those hand grip strength exercise spring things. I kept yelling at him to knock it off that things expensive while at the same time wondering what there was to wear out. The year was 1976. The Zerostat is still holding up just fine. 

zerostat for sure, from college days in the late 70's!

but for more significant equipment, i would say my CJ premier LS162... they will bury me with that box LOL

My BAT VK-3i preamp. It's been with me for 17 years through changes in speakers, power amps, interconnects, speaker cables, and power cords.

I'll second Aerial 10T's, closely followed by my Parasound JC1's.

Since this old thread has been resurrected I'll say the JMlabs Micro-Utopias are a couple years gone now but the Deja Vu Audio amp is here to stay.

Now that my Talon Khorus speakers are gone, and not counting tweaks like the Zerostat and BDR Cones, that leaves me with my most enduring component being my Miller Carbon Turntable. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367
Born early 2003 and still going strong.

Vandersteen 3A Signatures. 

Although, they are not currently active, but occasionally get used for one reason or another, my Polk 5 Jr’s I bought in 79-80...can’t remember exactly. I have none of the old equipment from that time except the Polks, and will probably have them til I die.

I get 'The Nervosa' from time to time, but whether it's just because speakers are a pain in the balls to sell, move & change or it's even harder to find the right speaker, I find it's the speakers that last longest, followed by amps.
It takes me a longtime to both research & find the *right* speakers and a very long time to commit to changing them.
My Vandersteen 2Ci's, Thiel 3.5's, Maggie 3.6's and B&W 802 Matrix's over have seen *dozens* of luscious and a few not so luscious preamps over the last 30ish years. I'm a preamp whore. Love a few different sounds. Love tubes, then I love leaving a nice, hot SS on 24/7 again- it's shameful.
I've probably had a half dozen preamp switches in the last three years. I'm in the middle of one right now.
Amps, again, less than a half dozen- that's another thing. When you get a good one, you just stick with it and dick around elsewhere. Same for DAC's. I hung on to my CAL Sigma 2, which was so 12AX7 tube rolling responsive, for a very long time. I still think about how much pleasing music I used to get through that beauty. I might even retro digi-fit a new one. That was a lovely DAC.

I bought a pair of Proac Studio 1s back in the mid-90s and have had no reason to part with them - amazing high end from my admittedly limited near-field monitor experience...

26+ years ago I searched daily for 3 months (Im a realtor) looking for the right house. My living room is 19 x 35 X 12ft peak with open beam ceilings
While not ideal for hi-end stereo (non-existent unless you build it, one of my friends did just that)  I could work with it, AND, I love open living spaces. TV system on the long way, audio on the 'short' wall