I'm curious if the readership - old and new - perceives AudioKarma as being Vintage Audio-based? MikE

MikE

AK started was more vintage because of it's origins, the vintage crowd from AU junping ship over here. Over time, the topics have grown and evolved over time which os natural and healthy.

Chris

I don't believe we could succeed without the vintage crowd since the vintage thread has over 3 times as many posts and threads as any other forum. The majority of AK is vintage but AK is growing and there is room for everyone.

I think we determined in the past that most just work from the new posts list and comment on whatever mets their fancy.

Certainly there is a large vintage component on this board but there seems to be room for all interests and I certainly like it that way.

People vote with there posts as far as which catagory is most popular but it's all about the mucsic, right? ;)

Lefty

I think there is a good balance here.
md

I would say that a good 95% or better are using vintage gear completelely and the rest when they go outside the stereo mode maybe 70% or better.
Just a feel, a guess but few HT. Lots of cabling and componants. Not many of us want or can afford 2 systems, so we build up and get one that can do everything extremly well. And stereo, the best and kick butt on new BPS!
Yes, we are vintage but poised to grab anything we can to get better sound.
My 300B amp is now at least 8 years old, could be older. So it is getting to be as old as some vintage gear. Terms mean less as you get better sound reproduction.
We sound good!!!!!

Is AudioKarma Vintage?

Who Cares!!!!!!


we are what we are and that's all that we are.

What GF said....

Well ya, but what are we, and or what direction are we headed? We began as vintage-based. Is that still true, or does the readership reflect an interest in something other than vintage audio? And to what degree is this the case? I ask this not to label who we are but to reaccess what we have become and the direction the forum is headed. Based on the broader activity amongst the various forums and just my casual perception it appears AK is moving away from the vintage dominated AU days with a number of the core members influenced by those "outside their circle". As for the importance of this trend or the motive for my question. If we identify the pulse of the readership we may better serve their needs.

MikE

I look at vintage as those items made prior to 1969 or so.

Surely the gear I use from the 70s isn't vintage yet, is it?

I, for one, am more into the best sound for the investment, be it on older or newer equipment. I was attracted to this forum more by the tone of the posts than by the era of the gear discussed.

Man, I hate to think that there are those who may think of my equipment as vintage- I was married with children when I bought it.

"No baby, you're not old, you're just vintage". Hey, maybe there's somthing to this vintage discussion...

Nah, the wife won't buy that line.

I was attracted to this forum more by the tone of the posts than by the era of the gear discussed.

What a positive endorsement for our Forum. MikE

I don't think that there is any one polorization in this site besides that we are all serious about getting great deals. There is not a money is no object attitude here and most of us take shelling out cash for our toys very seriously.
We are typically average income people that want what usually is a luxury item that the moderaratly wealthy get to indulge in. We can do it with help and networking and a collective knowledge that makes for much smarter consumers, and I think we are doing it well.
Attitude about what is good, how to use it best and where to get it cheapest in what can be an expensive hobby is what we have. My using a Marantz reciever I got for $5 as a preamp, while I shipped my preamp off in trade for a Sansui reciver that I can get lots of big noise out of my back channel speakers was a good choice.
Am I stuck with that setup? By no means. That is the attitude. I am always willing to trade up or sideways if it takes little $$ to do it. Sideways is only for a down the road possability in using it to trade up.
Vintage or not really has little to do with it as what we are doing is getting the very best we can for as little $$ as we can and that means things that are 25 to 50 years old or DIY.
For others it is having a budget and spending a lot of time in researching thingd to make sure they are getting something they can live with for many years. MikE and Angela are 2 such cases. You two are not vintage, doubt you would be satisfied with vintage everything but don't much care about labels.
The folks using older SS gear do so for many reasons, but first and foremost it is typically a good buy and in most cases sounds better than New gear in the same price range.
That is called being thrifty and cause you like the pretty lights.
Wow, look at the colors on that one!

Funny question. When it was started I remember that the vintage section was not included and only later added when early on we asked for it.

When IT was started...

Are you referring to my question/poll or the inception of the site itself? What "vintage section" are you talking about? The Vintage Forum has always been the most popular. The source of my question was to get a better feel for what the membership considers the current state of affairs on AK.

MikE

The vintage section on AK has been here since we started last year.

Most of us that left the other site, to begin this one, were village, ....scratch that, ... vintage people. p:

To me the 70's SS gear is definately vintage. Obviously pre 1970's is vintage.

But, by no means, is AK srtictly a "vintage" forum.

I wouldn't say AK is *only* vintage, but more like vintage-based. which IMO is a good thing, it is a one of a kind site, which is what I like about it. I just get tired of people talking about how their brand new HT receiver with like $500 in cables and stuff, while they look at vintage gear like it's nothing.

perhaps the vintage part of AK, and all the cool, funny and smart people here is the reason it is my #1 audio site....

I do think of it as primarily a vintage site, which is why I don't hang around here a lot. Don't get me wrong, I love the site. But I'm the kind of guy that considers any piece of gear that doesn't get upgraded w/in a year Vintage!

There's a lot of older stuff I still like, although I'm not sure how old it must be to qualify as vintage here. I'm thinking of the Carver Amazing's & Silver 7 mono amps, old Onk TT's, anything without a digital input, er, I mean, uh, stuff like that!

I may as well fess up that I ditched my TT in '90 and I've never looked back. CD, SACD, DVD-A, DVD, DAD, gimme more!

My HS physics teacher (circa 1987) was a major CD hater and vinyl connoseur. He indeed had what would now be called a sweet vintage rig; dual subs, onk int amp & tt. And, I think, about 5000 LPs, back then. I will admit that with 180 gr virgin vinyl & 1/2 spd masters, it sounded good. But not as good as a nice digital rig. At least not to me.

I haven't seem him in about 13 years, and I often wonder if he ever caved and bought a CD player. I mean, this is planet earth, and here most new music isn't out on LP (at least up until the recent "bounce at the bottom"/"vinyl renassiance"- depending on your point of view!). Maybe someday I'll get to ask him.

I am amazed at how much posting the TV forums get. I don't understand it, but I am amazed just the same...of course I am also amazed at how jello gets jiggly in the fridge, as well..so maybe it isn't that amazing :p:

You would be even more amazed if it was Jello shots!

Yep :drunk: :beer:

I would suggest that the impetus behind Kam's creation of AudioKarma came from his experience with the 'vintage' crowd over at the late, unlamented AU.
I discovered a bunch of y'all back at AR, and it was "wow" guys like me that like good solid state gear! When Norb got pushed out/went quits with AR, the comment was "hey, Norb's got a new site," and away we went (much to Norb's chagrin, I'm sure, but what the hey?).
My view of what is 'vintage' is very broad. But, like most of the 'vintage' aficianados that gather here, the 'golden age' was the decade of the 70s. But, I don't limit the idea to those few years. Mind, the 70s (especially the mid-70s to oh, 1980) were great for *receivers*. For ss amps, stereo amps, I'd include about everything from the late-70s to today (amps made with real discrete 'pieces-parts'). (Hey, somebody has to buy 'em new so we can get the value later, eh?)
Tube gear presents a special case. Yeah, tube gear may be vintage, but it is tube gear. Tube design matured LONG ago, and new tube gear is just new. Designers 50 years ago weren't stupid jus' 'cause they happened to have been born long before we were.
So, here 'we' consider vintage to refer to solid state gear from its inception up to, but not limited to, the beginnings of the dread BPC (but not black metal big power amplifiers such as I have ;) )
Yup, I don't know what to think about our vintage TV guys, but if Kam wants to add a vintage vacuum cleaner forum, well, OK.

Well, the reason for TV was that I've been a TV guy long before I was an audio guy. I never would have guessed we'd grab such a crowd! :)

RobTV and I go back about 6 years or so.....long before I ever had an internet connection. In fact as odd as this is, my very first system was wayyyyy back in October of 2001! :eek:

I was only on AU for less than 6 months with you guys.

Talk about a fast learning curve, huh? :D

..........AR........AU..........now AK.....man I remember it all.....boy does time fly.......

I joined AK mainly because i have a wide variety of interests in audio, tv and music. I have yet to find another site that i can give me everything that AK offers. Whether being vintage or not i dont think it really matters as where else are you going to get such a variety of topics in one forum? Speaking for myself, i'm glad its here and hope it goes strong for a long time. I've learned alot in the short time of being a member here and to be with others that share the same interests that i have.
Tony

Dang, why didn't *I* say that?
That's it, in a nutshell.

Another thing that helped shape what this site is, is the fact that I've basically built my auto accessories business with the help of online forums. I've been a part of every style forum there is, as far as software goes. The software we use here, vBulletin, seems to be about the best as far as features and versatility.

The old stuff that we used on AU was YaBB Gold, which is shareware/freebie stuff, and not quite as good. I could never get used to clicking each response on a forum to see what the next person said, myself.

When we were all over at AU, everyone pretty much stuck to their own forums, while here, the "view new posts" feature sort of brought everyone together to talk about various different aspects of the hobby.

So is AK vintage? Well, it is what it is I guess. I will say that I doubt that there are many of the active people here that can say that their systems haven't improved because of the interaction that we've enjoyed, maybe trying things they had no interest in, or learning from the experiences of others.

And that's what it's all about :guitar:

PS- I don't think we'll have a vacuum forum anytime soon ;)

I have a couple vintage 20th century CD-rom drives :D

This place rocks!

The site, the people, the forums, the lack of attitude, the feeling that most everyone here is not full of B.S.!

My favorite music sounds great by tube, ss or digital/MP3

I like it all, and there is a good mix of people here that makes it interesting.

After 1980 or so, Quantity over Quality it seems is the direction a majority of manufacturers went.

I doubt that much of anything made today will be around in 25 years and if so, I know I wont care :)

But a lot of gear from the 50's to the late 70's, even if it's not operable will still look good just sitting there.

Yes, I think that AK is most strongly supported by the vintage crowd, although there is also a very strong DIY presence here.

Given this, some of my fellow "high-end" dealers have asked why I like this site so much. And my answer is simple: AK is much more honest - and much more fun - than any of the other online audiophile forums. (And yes, if you profess to be a fan of vintage hi-fi gear, then you are most definitely an audiophile!)

And no matter what your personal preferences are, you can learn a lot by hanging out at this site.

Happy listening, everyone!

I am new here and do Know about the "other site" but found you thru them. I liked the tone of this board as others have said.

I do own a modern "HT" set up but do not listen to music on it.
I went thru $$$ of Polks and Paradigms (after selling my SMG's) trying to get a balance between Stereo and HT and was never happy with it.

Currently working on a Dipolar/Bipolar with both dynamic and planar drivers.

Im here for both the new and old

I have just found the AudioKarma site and have been here around a fortnight now.

Personally, I perceive AK to be a predominantly vintage based site. To me that doesn't make it a bad site. On the contrary, who in all honesty can afford to have the lastest gear all the time. There will come a time when our 2002 edition CDP's / TT are considered vintage.

Vintage doesn't necessary mean crap. Some people automatically assume that old=crap but that is just not so. Some of the most popular TT's around today are 1970s designs that have survived through the years.

Having said all that, there are some vintage components that are best forgotten as well as some from the 80s, 90s and 00s.



So where do I stand on vintage? I like it. To quote Duke Ellington "If it sounds good, then it is good". Personally i'd kill for an all 1970's Pioneer lineup. CT-F1000 et al..

Personally ..I'm glad there is a vintage portion to this forum...

I came over from the Klipsch forum, but it seems like all they talk about there is 'tubes'... or pro-medias' takin' a dump on them. I don't do tubes and after all the stuff I heard about them PM's quiting all the time ...well anyway...I still have my Klipsch Fortes' and Harman Kardon HK-695...for the computer

I got into audio back in the 70s..when the equipment had style...big meters...big knobs...lites blinking..rack mount handles...and the stuff rocked!!..casette tapes..reel to reel..turntables

Now all you get (for the most part) is a black box with a couple pushbuttons and a LCD display ..that you have to be within 2 feet to read..and a remote control...you can't tell them apart anymore (kinda like the cars today too)..and you really dont make contact with the equipment and that takes all the FUN out of it...:twak:

I'll take old 'vintage ' anyday :yes:

the people here are more fun too!!!:banana:


I wanna thank Kamakiri,and wardsweb and everybodyelse involved for such a nice place to hang out:ntwrthy:

I'd forgotten all about this thread... thanks for contributing. It's great that you like the balance of interest in the forums and appreciate our great group of guys.

The motive for my original question wasn't to rehash the origins of this forum but where we're headed. And as the membership continues to grow that is still a fair question.

I realize that "AK" began as [or morphed into] a vintage dominated forum. But look at the forums today and the activity is much more evenly spread. We have people with all types of systems and interests. Personally, I do not own [or use] any vintage equipment. Discounting NOS tubes or my amps design origins. Instead, I prefer current production, though admire vintage gear as well.

"If it sounds good, then it is good." That sums it up nicely! MikE

Vintage discussions are what are getting me hooked on this site.

It's not that I won't read other currrent equipment discussions, I will. I'll also talk music, HT, movies, etc, but I do that on other sites as well. Vintage is my primary reason for spending time here.

And why not? Afterall I'm vintage...

I originally came to this forum because I was looking for information on some old Pioneer speakers that were given to me by one of my friends. I found exactly what I was looking for, plus some.

I used to be one of the types that used to though, what the heck am I going to do with that old out-dated piece of junk. It probably does not work anymore anyways. In fact, I had an old Technics tape deck dated from the earily 80's that I found at a yard sale for 10 bucks. The thing turned out to be a piece of junk.

However, at the same time, these old Pioneer CS-99A speakers, which I'll admit, I was pretty skeptical about, turned out to be quite a beautiful set of speakers that sounded very nice, in my opinion.

Also, having spent some time in the Klipsch forums, and getting to hear some of the older Heritage models, I started to really feel that Vintage gear does have its place and can indeed be very good. Of course, most likely, the "good" stuff was also considered "good" even in the day, and are more than likely to still be enjoyed as much today as then. Look at all the cars. There are plenty of old classics that are still around that were considered nice even when brand new. On the flip side, there were plenty of old junkers that are probably best off left at the scrap yard.

I've become fascinated with Vintage gear just recently and I certainly would like to learn more. So far the only thing I have that could be considered "vintage" are those Pioneer speakers. Also, to me, being only 34 years old, basically anything from about the early 80's and before is considered "vintage". Also, I would not mind setting up a 2-channel system based on mostly vintage gear, using a dedicated CD-player and even a turn-table for source (I'll listen to SACD and DVD-A in my HT setup).

I do have a very modern, state-of-the-art home-theater setup, though, which I pretty much bought brand new. For the modern digital formats, I'd rather have the modern gear, at least for the source components (DVD player, etc). However, most likely the speakers (Klipsch Reference 7) and the amp (B&K Reference 200.7) will be with me probably for the rest of my life, provided nothing truly catastrophic happens to me or them (i.e., house burns down, etc). In about 20 years, those will most probably be considered "vintage".

Welcome and well put Steven.