An Homage to Long Term Ownership


I have been an audio hobbyist for many decades. It seems that every 6 years I make a major upgrade to my 2 channel system. Upgrade an amp, six years later the speakers, six years later source equipment, then back to a new amp and so on. The one piece of equipment that I have held onto for 21 years is my Velodyne SPL 1000 sub. I bought the sub in 2000 for the princely sum of $800 when I had very little spare cash for anything. It is a small-ish sealed box with a 650 watt class D amp. The 10" driver has a huge butyl rubber surround and something like a six pound magnet. I have used this amp in various HT and 2 channel applications. It has never quit, bottomed out, clipped  or made a bad blooming or boomy note. It still works and looks fine. I hope their Lidar products work this well when autonomous driving is a real thiing.
motown-l
My longest held component is a Decca Super Gold. 34 years! Bought it in 1987 and had it retired three times. As long as records are kept very clean, the stylus is good for years.
@whart I run ESL57s with tubes and love them.
I have a Velodyn. It's foam surround disintegrated. It is now or was at last sighting, a fish tank stand. 
I did have a Sota Sapphire for 40 years. It is now happily spinning in someone else's system.
I've owned some of my components for decades. I have no plans to upgrade my Infinity IRS Betas or my Mac MR-80 tuner, for example.