Vintage VS New/ Is There A Herd Mentality on Audiokarma?

Yeah,that looks great! It's like an accomplishment of some sort to get the family back together. I figure I'm actually using the Accuphase e-303x (listening to some old Jazz on vinyl through it right now) so I can spare some of the stash in the closet, that doesn't get used, towards a trade-in, even if some of the stash is more desirable on paper. And my tube tuner doesn't have the best reception downtown, meaning that I hardly ever listen to our good Classical station anymore.

Spent some time over the holiday listening to an Elac/Miracord 50H I fixed up as a present to my dad a few years ago. Nice table. The sound of the changer mechanism reminds me of the one we had growing up. That is one thing that modern won't give me...I don't have any memories of nudging the 20+ lb platter of a VPI to get it spinning. Which is to say, I do understand the nostalgia aspect of much of this.
 
It's not so stupid.
I think most Akers know and will learn the difference between "good and bad gear". We'll let them know what's crap.
As far as "bias and needless barriers" for buying new gear, they don't exist other than economic barriers otherwise Akers would own the best of the best available new stuff.

I'll have to disagree with that last sentence. As a large group of individuals, we have a lot of different motivations and preferences and perspectives.

I may not be one of them, but I am sure there are plenty of AKers who choose vintage despite the ability to easily afford new. I also recognize that there are heavily biased vintage enthusiasts who will sometimes make pointedly antimodern comments. These are almost always fairly new members, or one of a few established members who are repeat offenders. This is the way I see it now. If you read older threads, it was more common a few years ago.

There are also a fairly prolific, but small number of modernists that make antivintage comments. These comments are rarely pointed, but instead tend toward the sly and backhanded. Similar to those above, if you go back a ways you can find more straightforward slurs, although it is very rare to see references to dumpster diving these days. These guys have biases of their own, but are interestingly often the ones that complain most bitterly about the "prevalent" antimodern bias.

I consider myself to be a mostly vintage guy since my newest pieces in regular use are from ~1993 and my oldest are ~1978, but the vintage guys probably wouldn't claim me since I have no silver faces in any of my current setups.

If I won the lotto tomorrow, (after paying more taxes than if I had won a month ago) I would definitely get some things like Yamaha's new 2000. I'd also be getting some of my better vintage stuff like the AU919 recapped and freshened up. Then I would see for myself which was more to my taste. I should mention that if I wished to audition the new stuff before buying it, I would likely spend as much in traveling expenses as I would on gear.

Now, if I won the Powerball, the difference in taxes could finance several nice Yammie based systems, but instead, I'd be checking out monstrously expensive stuff like those $90K turntables:D.

this thread needed pics it serves a purpose its like a screwdriver it serves the purpose of providing amplification to speakers for a party right now it's a sony str-7045

I kind of like how it looks but I'm sure the Jolida Tom mentioned would fit there equally as well My needs here are flat head not phillips 20 plus pages of never pulling thumbs out and realizing what they smell like f'ing amazing here's mine :thmbsp: and it certainly doesn't smell like a rose

Huh?
 
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Now, if I get my h/k 825 pre-amp rebuilt and upgraded with new, higher quality components, is it still vintage or not? :)
 
In all the ways that really count, vintage has the greater attraction for me due to my own age. Sure, those newer models may have prettier faces and a slimmer, sleeker chassis while vintage that remains in good shape and exhibit less signs of aging is harder to find. However, I am showing some pretty obvious aging issues, myself. Vintage that was around during most of my lifetime shared the Beatles and the Stones with me when they were young, fresh and new, saw the Kennedy assassinations with me, the first moon landing and shared all that has happened in the world since then with me right on up to this day. Therefore we relate to one another better, speak the same language, and just feel more comfortable together. Sure, the newer models do have their attractions, but I don't always understand them and they don't seem to 'get' where I'm coming from, either. That is why I have resisted becoming entangled with them over the years and choose to stay with my wife.

With audio equipment, OTOH...
 
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I'm listening to a '60s recording on a 2010 turntable through an integrated from 1983 and speakers from 2011, sitting on stands from the '70s, all sitting on a mono-hi-fi cabinet from the '50s.

I wouldn't have it any other way.
 
That would be newtage.

Which for some reason brought this guy to mind:

Big_Fig_James_Hardy_Fig_Newtons_1970s-500x386.jpg
 
I'd also be getting some of my better vintage stuff like the AU919 recapped and freshened up.

Well, well another fan of this very fine amp.

Sansui really went to bat for the 919.

This one can sit with any amp from any era.....an amp for all seasons. :thmbsp:
 
Well, well another fan of this very fine amp.

Sansui really went to bat for the 919.

This one can sit with any amp from any era.....an amp for all seasons. :thmbsp:

That's what much of the vintage camp comes down to for me. What drives me up the wall is the notion that something is good BECAUSE it is vintage. As if, just being old, makes something great. When in fact what makes something good...has nothing to do with that. There's old crap and new crap. The Au-919 is not crap of any sort.

My take, however, would be that the amp section could stand up to most anything, but I'm not sure about the preamp. Trends have changed and much of what I consider to be "transparency" seems to be taking place in the preamp section of modern gear, or a modern preamp. Even the later AU-x901 is a completely different beast with the preamp bypassed. Even better than in "source direct", running balanced directly into the amp.

That is the same as wheat I've noticed in my Accuphase e303x. Its fantastic, but a better preamp takes the amp section to new heights. As is, integrated it is good enough for me and better still than a lot of new gear I've heard. Just not as good as the best.

I'm currently running a vintage amp on my Kefs in system 2. A Luxman M12. But with a thoroughly modern preamp (NAD M51). The best "sounding" stand-alone amp I have here, a tweaked Stereo 70, is down due to failure. It was totally rebuilt, recapped...and still something went south on it.
 
I'm listening to a '60s recording on a 2010 turntable through an integrated from 1983 and speakers from 2011, sitting on stands from the '70s, all sitting on a mono-hi-fi cabinet from the '50s.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

But how can this be John? Everyone knows how you hate all that vintage gear.
Seriously the opinions in this debate that I value most come from those who run both modern and vintage in their systems. I know then they have no bias and I can trust their product evaluation. That's a slight generaliztion but close to the truth.

cubdog
 
When I started researching vintage gear, I post on another forum and they pretty much said check audiokarma they know all about vintage gear. Glad they did cause I have learned a lot of good stuff hear regarding vintage and new.

For the most part I take what I read here and on other forums with a grain of salt. In the end we all have the samething in common love of music and trying to reproduce it the best way we can. This issue is every forum's problem just look at a CPU forum and get in to video cards and processor comparisons :D.

I know it tweaks management to say so, and it's a pretty broad brush to paint AKers with, but of the major audio forums, Audiokarma is the ghetto where vintage-lovers, especially cheapskate vintage-lovers, congregate.

I'm okay with this and, as somebody who is interested in vintage gear, and generally pretty broke, I'm glad the forum has turned out this way.
 
John, I'm concerned about that "mono hi-fi cabinet." I think you should probably upgrade to a stereo cabinet, but I'm trying to figure out what a mono hi-fi cabinet would look like. Maybe legs on only one side? Certainly wouldn't help tracking on the turntable.
 
John, I'm concerned about that "mono hi-fi cabinet." I think you should probably upgrade to a stereo cabinet, but I'm trying to figure out what a mono hi-fi cabinet would look like. Maybe legs on only one side? Certainly wouldn't help tracking on the turntable.

Mono gives more room for the gear and less room taken up by another JBL D-130 speaker that only manages to sound good when I connect my guitar and guitar amp to it :music:

IMG_2548.jpg
 
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I wondered for a minute if there might be a built-in speaker involved, but then I said "nahhh." My mistake. That truly is a vintage cabinet.
 
Now, if I get my h/k 825 pre-amp rebuilt and upgraded with new, higher quality components, is it still vintage or not? :)

What do you call a vintage amp that's been gutted of everything but the contols, switches, input and output connectors, and fitted with a new power supply and Class-D amp? :scratch2:

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