2. vintage
  3. 161823-2319

Is there any merit in former SOTA gear,

In cars a 356 Porsche is an outdated car, but highly collectable.  Many cars could run circles around a TR-6, MGB, heck even a 250 GTO Ferrari.  But still these are highly collectable.....not bad cars at all and many "cool" looking but not SOTA.  It seems that audio gear that is old, is often just seen as old.   There are people that collect old radios, old cameras...etc.  Do former state of the art audio units have any collector value, or are audiophiles in the "what have you done for me lately" group?  I would guess you could say "it is all about the sound", true...but in cars it could be said it is all about the performance and there are current somewhat ordinary cars that will out perform older classics.  The Hudson's that won at Daytona in the early fifties are mainly in junk yards. 

Do any of you have a collection or system of older/former SOTA components?  I no longer have it, but the original CJ ART pre-amp would be fun to listen with again.  I have considered putting together a 2nd "retro" system....kind of thinking out loud here. 

Sorry, slow night.....just waiting for the Andy Griffith reruns to come on. 


whatjd
erik_squires
16,212 posts
 
Audio gear, like most watches and most cars, is a really bad financial investment.  I'm having a very hard time thinking of any audio gear that has even kept up with inflation, let alone appreciated.

In terms of gear to keep around, I accumulated a lot of junk and eventually sol it off as a lot. None of it held up particularly well, except for the Theta Casanova.
What got me off that merry go round was having exceptional end of the road speakers. That forced my hand in investing in a solid modern amp.

Now though, if I had the space and money I think it would be nice to have a collection of mid to small integrated amps, swapping them out every month or so for fun.
whatjd OP
1,139 posts
 
So if old gear is not outdated or useless....perhaps there is hope for me as a person?

erik_squires
16,212 posts
 
PS - I meant tubes. :)
erik_squires
16,212 posts
 
I don't think old gear is outdated or useless, but I do think old DAC's (before 2015) are severely outclassed by most modern equivalents.

In terms of amplification, tubes hold up a little better than solid state in terms of sound quality differences. 
audio2design
1,351 posts
 
Old cars are nice to look at, fun to drive occasionally, but if you are going to compete at the track, you are going to go new, and that new "daily driver" is more comfortable, handles better, faster, and is better on gas or at least 3 out of 4

The difference with audio equipment is that it is personal preference and having a personal preference for "old" equipment does not necessarily confer a loss or detriment to any of the other aspects of the experience like an old car.  Definitely digital is far more user friendly than vinyl, and I would have a really hard time giving up remote volume control, but other than that, an old amp or new amp, old turntable/new, etc. takes the same effort.

On DACs, there is a following that is essentially going back 30 years in tech, and they are happy about it. Others like Erik lean towards a different preference.

Oh collection?  About 5 or 6 years ago, I came to the conclusion I had too much stuff in my life that was just "there" but not really making me happy and taking up space and time.  I scaled back to what I use and got rid of the rest. I can't say I miss it at all. I had a collector mentality in the past. I don't any more.
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