What's the oldest piece of gear in your system?


This site is here for the buying and selling of Audio equipment. This causes me to wonder if most of us have relatively new equipment. If most of it is new, what is the oldest piece of equipment still in use, and why are you still using it?

My oldest piece is a Sota Star Sapphire, but it has been upgraded. It was originally purchased as a Sapphire in the 80's, but was upgraded to a Star Sapphire about two or three years ago.

What's your story?
128x128nrchy
Yamaha Laser Disc player - 18 years (not being used)
Onkyo Cassette deck - 18 years (not being used)
Dunlavy V speakers - 11 years and no sign of slowing down
I've three tube FM stereo tuners - a McIntosh MR17, a Sherwood S-3000V, and a Fisher KM-60. All circa 1963 or so.

All I need is a Scott 310E or similar and I'll have a nice representative of the four major brands selling tube FM tuners in the US.

They all sound great through my Thiel 3.6s driven by Sony ES pre/main amps.
Mod Squad (threaded) tip toes. 1986. The points are still so sharp as to be hazardous.
my j.a.michell hydraulic reference turntable w/fluid arm & my original 1st edition win strain uage cartridge(over 30 years old). i also run L09 300 watt kenwood monolocks thru my Maggie IIIa's upgraded o 3.5's w/o the different crossover. my second table is a DD pioneer pl530 w/auto liftoff, litz arm wires & denon carbon fiber headshell housing a signet tk7e cartridge. all items sounding wonderful & still in spared use. oh yes, also running a magus mfa preamp + cal audio tercet III cd player.
Kingmacaw, ah the memories! I had all of these components except the Pioneer tt. But I had the Win tt later.
Three Technics SP-10MKII turntables, all dating from somewhere between late 1970s and early 1980s.

A Grace 707-II tonearm dating from early 1980s.

A Signet XK50 tonearm (early 1980s).

Meitner PA6i preamp and MTR101 mono amps, all from circa 1988-92, but rebuilt by manufacturer between 2004-2008.

Tuners from the 1980s: Perreaux TU3, Luxman T117, Onkyo T9090-II.

Quad 520f power amp (late 1980s).
A hammertone Garrard 301 which I believe was manufactured in 1954. It could be 1955....either way it's pretty old.

Dave (also pretty old)
Probably my Rek-O-Kut Rondine B-12H turntable (1956 I think), though I might have a tube which is older than that...
1959 Electrohome PA 100MK1 mono amp.
Partridge transformer,tube rectified, chokes and 39 pounds of Williamson design, and about 10 watts of power.

The amp is not a Public Address amp.
It came inside a console box and was the "companion" to another box that held the pre and rest of the system.

Now the oldest piece of gear in my system are my 60 year old ears.
I'm gonna say that it is the Carver C9 holographic unit that works magic between the x-fm radio and the preamp. Seems it was made in the '70s. Both are at the 'low end' of my system, but are listenable this way.
1974 Sansui sp-5500 Horn speakers (non x series) made in Japan. Even compared to speakers made today these sansui speakers are some of the best sounding speakers that I've ever heard and always looking for more of them on the used market but they are very very very rare now !..
Happy New Year! (to me)

January 01/2011 my friend gave me a spare Garrard for parts. No parts table here - it was a grey hammertone Garrard 301 in strong 7/10ths condition. Very old serial #2074. This came from his brother's music store in Ft. McMurray Ab. I sold a mint hammerite earlier this year and I hated to see it go. Thought I would never own one again. What a great gift from a very good friend. Call it Karma, or whatever - but I have to smile when I think about how this table came to me.

As an aside, I lost all of my old Garrard articles in a computer crash. One such article dated Garrards by their serial numbers. I lost many other documents of historical interest. If you have some of this information kicking around, would you please forward it to my Audiogon account. Thanks to all and have a great New Year!
A Sansui FR-D25 direct drive TT, at 30 years or more in my system. It outlasted the receiver and cassette deck that I had with it at one time.

Next would be a Yamaha dual cassette deck at about 15 years.
I have an early model Empire turntable, made by Dyna- Empire of Garden City, NY, in early 1961. It still works great! I also have a pair of AR (Acoustic Research) 2A speakers that still sound pretty good.
hi guys,
newbie from uk,
dipping my toe in the water after 15 years of hifi abstinence,

oldest item is a thorens td124 mk2 with an sme arm (1966 i believe),
nowadays equipment is made by accountants not engineers!

my old listening room was built in 1672, but now i live in a 'modern' house (1895)
I Use a McIntosh MR-71 tube FM tuner that dates from 1968...
Its been worked on a couple of times and sounds very nice.
They don't make them like this ..anymore.
Well, i can say the oldest pieces on my gear are my vintage Pioneer hp's. They have more than 20 yrs.
All my equip is vintage. But how bout 1979ish DBX 3BX expander.1980 ess eclipse M102 (hiel tweeter) speakers.also 1983 polk RTA 12Bs speakers.an old think 90's parasound HCA 1200 amp.benched @ 286w @ 8 olms I estamite around 400w @ 4 olms
My original Stax SRM1 Mk2, Lambda Pros with ED-1 Equalizer. I upgraded to a tube Stax driver with Signature phones, but I keep the old Stax as back up. Also, my three Nak cassette decks probably pre-date the Stax but are relatively new in my system in the last few years.
Yeah, other than my ears, the Linn Axis table.

I bought it back in the 80s to avoid having to replace all my albums with CDs. Still going strong. A fantastic investment.
The TungSol round plate 6SN7GT and tall bottle Sylvania 6SN7W tubes, used as phase splitters and drivers in my Cary monoblocks, were manufactured in the early 1940's.
2002........ Basis Audio 2500 plinth and platter with an upgraded Vector 3 arm and Signature motor.
1965......... McIntosh MR-71 FM tuner not officially in the system .....yet
The oldest piece in my system is the carver c-4000 preamp, 1.5t and m-400 amps including c-9 sonic holography, all made in 1980-1981 era!
I seem to be caught in some sort of weird time machine--it has been getting older at a much higher rate than the progression of time. The newest addition to the system is a newly built custom preamp that has a lot of parts that are were manufactured prior to 1950. The next newest purchase is a midrange driver/horn that was built somewhere around 1939.

I am in the process of getting a digital music server--that is one item for which truly old examples will be hard to find.
Basis Ovation turntable, which I bought used around 1990. Had it upgraded to incorporate the Debut's platter, bearing and vacuum hold-down system, but the basic turntable is still a beauty, exceedingly well-designed and built and has served me (and the music) superbly.
A Musical Fidelity made in UK CD player that is 9 years old and just wouldn't give up playing around 5 hours a day, every day
My Vandersteen 2Cs were bought new in 1987 and have been in continuous use until yesterday, when my new Salks arrived. Whichever one of my kids (17 and 21) show the maturity to handle them gets them, although they don't know that yet. I can't bear to box them up and sell them for the few hundred they're worth at this point.
What Salks did you get. I am thinking of getting some SongTowers. How do you like them so far.
These are in storage, along with an EV Centurion. Not possible to get a shot of the EV at this time. Sorry these are not assembled, but they date to 1927-1928 if I have my story straight. I'll put another shot of the manufacturers badges up too. Follow the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/levelwind/466565792/in/photostream
Not sure but I have ADS 1590's with PA1- Naim cdx- Naim 82 with hicap. Also ADS 1290'S.Still sounds pretty darn good!
I have a Sony TC580 Reel to Reel Tape Deck purchased in 1973.

It recently had a tune up by Kevin Kaas in Seminole, FL. It's playing like new. 1/4" Audiotape still is the purest sound in my system loaded with McIntosh components (Amps and Sources).

EBAY Sellers with verified quality tapes are my newest fans.
The lid of my Rega Planar II turntable - 32 years and counting.

Upgraded everything else on that TT, including the plinth.

Oh - I still have the original power switch also

It's served me well :-)

Happy listening