The Allure of Vintage Audio Gear

Vintage is nostalgia. It sounded good when it came out. Today's advance in technology has greatly surpassed anything vintage. I got rid of my last 70s vintage Marantz in the 80s. Looking forward ever since.

Given most of our ages on this forum, most of us started out with today's 'vintage' equipment.

Like most things, if you owned top of the line equipment from the better known companies, your equipment sounded good and would sound at least decent by today's standards.  For those of us that didn't own TOTL equipment, what we did own sounded fine, until you heard something that sounded appreciably better.

The big difference back then was attitudinal.  The tendency was to use what you had until it fell apart or became too expensive to repair.  Lots of reasons for this, including strict enforcement of MSRP in the 60's & 70's by dealers and manufacturers.

With the 80's came stores that offered discounts like Tech Hi Fi and Crazy Eddie's and so, buying new components became more common.

For myself, I started out with a used Philco/ Voice of Music suitcase style system (tubes) that lasted 5 years until I purchased a SONY HP 161 compact phono system (solid state) that got me through college to when I purchased a Pioneer 636 / EPI 100/ Dual 1228 set-up (solid state).

Sound quality wise, it sounded fine.  On rare occasions, I thought it sounded excellent.  But there were limitations that I would just look past.  I could only get so excited when listening to the music.  

Things changed when I started to spend more and went with separates (ADCOM) and better speakers (KEF Q55).

About 20 years back, I went through a vintage phase and refurbished two Marantz receivers (2216 and 2240).   Expensive proposition.  I had genuinely lusted for the Marantz receivers as a teenager.  Bit of a let down ultimately.  Very warm sounding, hit all the nostalgic notes, enjoyable, but they did not match up to the more modern components I had.  Used one of the receivers as a tuner in my main system, where it really shone nicely.  Now, if only there were decent FM stations to listen to.  The other receiver I gifted to Les Paul, who was a Marantz collector himself.  

I do love the look of vintage equipment and every so often, I get tempted to chase something, but I stop myself because better sounding components are out there for the same money as tracking a vintage piece down and restoring it.  There's also less vintage equipment (60's & 70's) out there.  

I've been in the audio sphere for over 50 years. I have equipment that is vintage, used and modern. The only vintage equipment that engages me are turntables.  What I like about many, slightly elevated quality, vintage TT's is that they are frequently semi or fully automatic and still have decent tonearms 

The only vintage thing around my gear is me. I dragged a pair of A7s around for 15 years in the olden days, and they sounded astonishingly good as stereo speakers when used for that, but generally too big for any living room I had then. Also used a KLH compact system for home audio back in the day. That thing sounded better than most anything around in the 70s...that was when all my audio bucks went for pro gear so the stereo was somewhat underfunded. No more. I love newer stuff as it's quiet (even my tube amps), very well built and sounds beautiful. Keep yer Sansuis and old Macs...have fun...I certainly am.

I listen to my main system, Pass Labs, VPI, Monitor Audio Platinum Two speakers and yet I have just this past week received my completely restored Fisher 450T receiver and previously restored AR 2AX speakers. Receiver is so recent I haven’t listened to this system yet.  These gems were purchased in 1969 and my memories of their sound remain dear to me. I may end up passing this system to my grandchildren, but at this point their mother, my daughter doesn’t want these mint items placed in their home.  They are young but are greatly interested in music, Listening mainly to 60’s 70’s music in a CD format.