What's up with the price of Vintage equipment?
The reason I am asking is, I sold stereo equipment in the 1970's and 1980's and some of the stuff I see selling for big bucks today were not well thought of during the 70's and 80's and lots of it sounded pretty mediocre (think Class D amps with amazingly low specs like .00007% distortion or other such nonsense). I won't get into brand names, but just by the era you should be able to tell.
As a quick aside, it annoys the hell out of me that I'm at an age that 1970's and 1980's equipment is considered Vintage. Was it really that long ago? Rats.
Anyway, again there were some really good sounding stuff back then, and the price today may be high, but it's still good sounding stuff and worth it. But I see prices today for 40-60 year old equipment that I sold back then because it was heavily advertised, popular/known name and design (and sometimes gave me a good commission), but not because it sounded good.
So I am assuming some of this high price vintage stuff is due only to nostalgia (both in looks and sound) and collecting fun, not for listening compared to today's stuff.
I'm open to hearing other opinions, especially from someone who does like vintage (mostly 1970-80's) stuff, listens to it, and what brands they have.
@deadhead1000 ...Exactly... I often see vintage equipment that was subpar "back then" sell for ungodly amounts. Good call on Not Naming Names... it wasn't Cool to do so "on the sales floor" then and best not to now. Too many sensitive egos... The oniy "vintage" stuff I kept from the Good Old days are an Early Edition Zeta tone arm and Luxman PD 300 turntable from 1982 (updated all replaceable electronic parts, reconditioned vacuum system etc...) Both used today in my main system. |
I think that's overpriced for the Jap gear. But some high-end stuff like Audio Research and Krell still holds up for SQ, although not on an exact par. Perhaps lovers of vintage gear feel nostalgic for the higher levels of distortion and somewhat lower SQ that pertained in the 70s-80s. Rather like vinyl perhaps. But how some can say an idler wheel Garrard 301 is as good as a modern TT perplexes me. |
@speedthrills man there sure is a lot of that |
I can say that the vintage equipment I have purchased is on par with some of todays components. Certain vintage pieces have sound qualities that are only available in some of todays high end components. Yes, I was there in the 70s and what I’m collecting today I longed for back then, but could not afford. Maybe that’s the attraction, but in any case it’s what you enjoy that counts. As for prices, it’s become more expensive to sell on sites like ebay and shipping has gone up exponentially. In addition, the costs with refurbishing and finding someone to do repairs on vintage gear has become increasing more difficult and you can easily spend what you initially paid for on a piece on subsequent repairs and refurbishing costs. It’s expensive, but everything thing in this hobby is and this is only one part of it. I enjoy it and feel I’m also helping to preserve a little bit of hifi history. That’s my perspective. |
I have some late 70s vintage gear that I purchased years ago. I spent the time and $$$ to go through the tuner and amp to make sure that it was within factory spec and any concerns I had electrically was replaced with high end components. The stuff sounds wonderful and it looks incredible. As long as you like silver faced vintage components, VU meters, big knobs, switches and dials. Being 48 years old, the equipment I have is just short of my own in years. So is this nostalgic for me? I don't think so. I just love the looks and the mechanical feel of it. Nostalgic for me would be the early 90s and nothing of that era really tickles my fancy. I was lucky enough to buy my vintage components around 2015 and sit on the stuff until I had time to really give it the attention I wanted too. I didn't pay ridiculous prices for it but the $$$ I put into it afterwards caught me up! I also have some 300B tube equipment, some newer AB monoblocks I run my digital and analog audio through and a bunch of DACs, streamers, turntables, phono amps and a small box full of cartridges I've run. I can say with absolute certainty that my vintage gear holds it own with the rest of my gear. It's just different. Everything has it's own sound and I keep the stuff I really like. The vintage gear is going nowhere! To be honest, at any given time, I never have more than about $10K worth of gear playing at the same time. I like my gear but I haven't second mortgaged my home to buy any of it. I'm not comparing my vintage gear to a stack of audio equipment worth $75K. That would just be ridiculous! |
