How old to qualify for vintage?

Quilted Northern Rustic Weave

I'm almost disappointed it's not real. 

But what about, "Heirloom" gear?

Lessee -
my Hafler DH-200 built in 1979 (from a kit)
my Soundcraftsman rp-2240 eq (circa 1979)
my Bryston 1b-mc preamp 1979
my carver tl-3200 cd player from 1989
my infinity 6Kappas (1995)
my jvc ql-a2 furntable from 1984

all pieces work, but the carver is soon to be replaced as it has an annoying skip that costs more to repair then the thing is worth. But still, these are all classic, solid pieces that have served me well for a long, long time.

I know I’ll get a lot of grief over this.

But vintage audio really does have a cutoff year.

in the US, there is a specific term for “Muscle Car” as well. It is a car from 1955-1971. The Arab oil embargo killed the American Muscle Car in 1973. Fuel efficiency was the rule after that. But there is a rule with a reason for Muscle Car.

Same for vintage audio. But this rule seems wasted on those who aren’t Boomers. They largely don’t get it, don’t understand it, because they didn’t live through it. Instead, for non-Boomers, “vintage audio” is a term gleaned from Google, Webster’s Dictionary, or Wikipedia.

The coming of the CD is to audio what the 1973 Arab oil embargo was to the American Muscle Car. That year is widely agreed on to be 1985. From that year on, off-the-shelf building block ICs spelled the end of proprietary discrete device circuit designs and manufacturing. To make CD players mass-produced and thereby affordable, mass miniaturization became the rule. SMDs. Turntables became cheaper, receivers incorporated more licensed features, “Digital Ready” became the new buzzword.

After 1985 came the advent of cheap VCRs, WALKMAN, DVRs, and cassettes outsold Vinyl LPs. The new DISCMAN, cheap CD players. BPC became the norm.

1985.