Vintage Audio

Is vintage audio gear a meme? I am currently looking for a stereo receiver and speakers and a lot of article states that one should look for used vintage gear instead. Could something that was manufactured in the '70-'80 compete with modern gear?

I'm not an expert but I have an old Akai receiver and a set of mission speakers and they sound incredible. You can definitely get yourself a good deal buying quality vintage equipment which will have cost far more new

I'm using 80's technics gear and it's solid.

What seperates a good preamp from a cheap one

That is the only argument I can make supporting vintage gear too. You can only say it is good, if you get something that is incredible on the value/price scale. If you compare the '70s $1200 amp to today's $1200 amp the newer should obliterate the older. Also, most of the time vintage stuff needs to be refurbished, which could also cost a lot of money.

If it doesn't have tubes it's literally garbage. That should be what informs your decision.

Most amp have no tubes... That is something that cost too much money.

>old but good sounding late 80s kenwood amp
>it doesn't say anywhere on the amp whether the aux has a pre-amp or not

accidentally daisy chaining your record player through two pre-amps would noticeably sound like aids right? or would it sound fine?

it is absolutely a meme, total moneypit. just pit something that is decent, not broken, and sounds good to you. learn how to properly tweak an equalizer if you need to.

nearly anything labeled as an auxiliary input would never have a phono preamp

If it doesn't have tubes it's literally garbage. Do not waste your money.

Vintage gear not only competes with modern gear. It's better. Back then things were powered by vacuum tubes that gives everything a warm analogue sound and adds a lot of flavor to the music. Modern gear is mostly solid state, electronic, or programming, which doesn't add any character to the music and inexplicably sounds worse or like a cheap immitation. It's the reason why vintage gear like the Fairchild compressor costs $40,000 and is seen as the holy grail even though it was made in the 30's. Just walk into any studio and they'll tell you the pride and joy of the studio is their old LA-2A compressor or similar piece of vintage gear. Since the tubes inside the gear itself are somewhat "living" pieces of machinery, the resulting sound is always more human than a record made all digital.

This is my MW Airline from 59 I think. Tubes, stereophonic and it works w chromecast audio. Warmest most comfy sound I've ever heard.

fuck me, that is in nice condition. if you obtained this in any other way than from your family then you are a next level faggot

>Could something that was manufactured in the '70-'80 compete with modern gear?
Not really, but you can get it for cheap at garage sales if you're lucky.

Is this copypasta?

So between 150-200 $ a used, old receiver would be better choice? I could buy a Marantz Model 1060 for 160$ right now.

You could go cheaper than that if you look around a lot. I know a guy who regularly gets hi-fi gear for like $25 because he goes to estate sales. The time investment probably isn't worthwhile for sane people though.

Music sounded like music back then and people demanded a certain standard of lifelike fidelity

Now everything is synthesized and digitized and cheap Chinese integrated garbage and verisimilitude just doesn't matter any more; people have forgotten how good their music used to sound (until their kids pull out their old record collections)

This was my first record player. ( I'm not memeing One exactly like pictured was my first record player in the late 60's)

Tubes are a meme
Silver plate solid state is where it's at
When stereo systems went black plate, it all fell apart

My current turntable i bought new in 1980 Pioneer PL-400. Still works and sounds great/
(picture not of my actual turntable)

All you have to do is find gear of any age with a low noise floor then learn to equalize it properly and it'll sound better than you ever thought music could sound.

I bought it with my high school graduation gift money along with a Pioneer SX-780 Receiver as the one pictured (Receiver power supply went south in 1995 so I no longer have the receiver.)

I've got a turntable from 1975 and a receiver from 1981. Both solid hardware that do everything that they should do, plus they look nice to boot

Worst post on Sup Forums right now. Tubes should only be used for guitar amps. When it comes to music reproduction, tube amps are almost always less accurate than solid state and in the few cases they're not, they're way more expensive and require more maintenance. Tube amps are objectively inferior and antiquated technology for anything but intentional overdriven instrument tones.

>Implying the crisp precision and cool, characterless fidelity of classic high end Japanese 80s early blackplate gear isn't the true pinnacle of stereo amplification

>muh placebo
>muh subjectivity
>muh fairy magic and unicorn hair tube filaments

Can the equipment produce accurate measurements reliably? Yes? It's good. No? It's shit.

It's really fucking simple. The role of audio equipment is to accurately reproduce audio.

Here's what I've found with vintage audio.
Generally, it's not as good as their modern equivalents. They have more hiss, less channel separation, less power, and all the other common issues that come with age.
However, because of depreciation, you can sometimes get high end older equipment at a price comparable to modern entry level stuff. In that case, it may be worth it.
Either way, getting into old Hi-Fi takes a lot more research.

t. poorfag

Enjoy your leftover 70s jap crap

>ad hominem
Not an argument.

Tubes cannot be beat
70s /80s Japanese components do not hold up and produce substandard sound
There is literally no reason to purchase and attempt to maintain older components other than muh vintage
I will admit they look cool but that's the extent of it

Show me a tube amplifier that contains the following characteristics:
- Is demonstrably accurate through credible measurements;
- Is demonstrably equally as or more accurate than the most accurate equivalently priced solid state amp.
I'm quite sure you cannot.

What 70s Akai can do those things?

I am not nor have I at any point in this thread advocated vintage gear. Stop assuming that one anonymous post is the same poster as another.

That's the entire point of this thread friendo

Sure, but the very first post in the thread should have been as following:
>Is vintage audio gear a meme?
Yes. Buy demonstrably accurate modern solid state gear.

Is this a joke or are you really that stupid?

nice set up
don't know if you're in canada (from the ad), but there is a guy on that website that updates certain parts in those receivers to make them truly great sounding

I hope you got good speaker senpai

I did. I don't remember the exact model of the speakers but they had 15 " woofers and were 1980 model Pioneer floor speakers. They were very heavy. The foam around the woofers surcomed to being mauled by a pet ferret.in the early 90's The receiver was only 45 watts RMS but it had very clean sound and a really decent bottomend.

you are a joke

Depending on what you're looking for, yes. You can buy lots of vintage audio equipment that could still compete in the arena of quality audio equipment today used, provided you know what to look for. I have a Technics record player and a set of Audio Technica AT-705 electrostat headphones that I prefer to a lot of expensive modern equipment I own.

Electret != "electrostat."
Do you ever worry about those ATs losing their charge?

I know audio gear took a shit in the 80 and 90s compared to the 70s but how about headphones? Also what would it be like listening to 320kbps MP3 on this?

This is my current receiver. Aside from a few breakdowns here and there it sounds like great.

Generally the reason you can get vintage gear that is "better" than new stuff is down more to the fact that you're buying used, rather than brand new. Obviously you can find better value for your money going the used route in a lot of cases.