Vintage Solid State is now Solid State

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Umm... Wasn't it always solid state? Electrons don't care much about the substrate, or its age. They're gonna wherever Mr. EMF pushes them.
 
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.

Basically, I felt, the AK VSS forum was a special place--one of a kind really.
 
Oh no!! Now we can not have all those threads asking what defines "vintage".


You know, even though your post was tongue in cheek, I think you hit on something there.

In comic books and cars there are clear breaks that delineate eras. In cars it's antique (40's and earlier) classic (50's) muscle and so on. Comics have golden age, silver age, etc.

Why not have categories like Classic Solid State, maybe say up to 1979 or whatever (82?) then Dark Age Solid State (you guys know...83 to 92-3) then Modern SS or whatever. That way the guys that like gear from each era can have a place.

No A/V gear allowed. That should have its own forum.

Just my 2centa


Sent from my galafreyan transdimensional communicator 100 years from now. G
 
Musing here... I kind of like the previous post mentioning "Classic" as opposed to vintage, not bad, instead of plain vanilla Solid State.

When visit AK now, I see "Solid State" and "Tubes". Really?

The "modern" forum here isn't really about modern (e.g. class D/DACs) it's about how much money one can spend and talk about it. Break it into modern "bang for your buck" and modern "i need to brag about my system".

Then again I'm not a subscriber, so what do I know.
 
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.


The above I can relate to,perhaps separate vintage 60's,70's,and 80's solid state categories would be a good idea.. Then 90's vintage solid state could be added but only after 25 years which would be in 2015 (next year).
After all,even cars are considered antique after 25 years and often the term "vintage" relates to certain styles,tastes,and build from that period such as 70's vintage,60's vintage etc.
 
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I do, however, realize that there is solid state gear built today which far outperforms vintage gear.


That's all a matter of opinion and price comparisons.. There's also vintage solid state 70's gear that far outperforms modern gear.. And as for actual build quality I won't even go there! But this hasn't anything to do with this thread topic.
 
No offenses, sir. They won't help either.

..

No offense intended. Just tongue-in-cheek comment. I am currently sitting in Austin TX wearing a striped tank-top and cut off jean shorts. You might see catch me riding around town on my fixed-gear with a u-lock tucked in my belt. Hipster bashing is a hipster's favorite pastime because no hipster will admit to being one.

But let it be known that I was into vintage audio before it was cool... :D
 
But let it be known that I was into vintage audio before it was cool... :D


Haha. I was into vintage audio before it was cool too. Because it was NEW!

Even my "new" gear is old. My '95 vintage a/v gear is now old. My B&K Reference 30 and 50 are old. My Outlaw 750 is old. My Def Tech speakers.... Old. My Music Hall MMF-5 is almost 15! My Hornshoppe horns are old too!

BUT and here is the important part, it's all way to new to be vintage as per the definition here. It's also not 2channel although that's what I'm using it for.

My (very long winded) point is that having only one forum for solid state would be a whole mish mash of largely unrelated gear. I think. Probably.


Sent from my galafreyan transdimensional communicator 100 years from now. G
 
If we were talking about wine, vintage would mean something else entirely. Simply: the year the grapes were picked. So, in that context, *all* audio gear is the vintage of the year it was made. ;)

I'm still relatively new around here, but I immediately knew what was meant by "Vintage solid state". If I were just coming to the site for the first time, I might have skipped over "solid state" at first, but would probably eventually figure out that's what I was looking for.
 
No big deal with the name change. General Audio has been the "vintage" section for many years.
 
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