They had to stop calling it "vintage" because the hipsters were starting to catch on.
Circa '05, when I joined Audiokarma,
Oh no!! Now we can not have all those threads asking what defines "vintage".
Circa '05, when I joined Audiokarma, the Vintage SS forum was a major part of my participation here. Suddenly, underrated gems of the 70s and 80s were recognized and appreciated for their overbuilt construction and quality sonic character. To call these pieces just "solid-state", in my mind, invites a plethora of later BPC/"video-oriented" gear which puts high-quality (2 channel) sonics on the back-burner.
I do, however, realize that there is solid state gear built today which far outperforms vintage gear.
No offenses, sir. They won't help either.
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But let it be known that I was into vintage audio before it was cool...