[JLM]

Much of audio, right now with digital amps, is the excitement associated with "first kid on the block" syndrome.  

Equipment geeks (and geeking is half of being an audiophile) resist patience.  Vendors have us well conditioned to needing to buy the latest by convincing us that its (always) better than last year's best.

Result?  Audiogon, reviews on equipment prior to full break in, and overall confusion in the rush towards the cliff in the nearly blind pursuit of audio nivana (audiophiles on such lemings, aren't we?).  I'd even suggest that there's a degree (maybe more than just a degree) of envy amoungst us who can't afford monthly equipment purchases.

So, what's your favorite piece of "classic" audio equipment?  (Anything more than 1 or 2 year old.)

And perhaps it would be useful and/or interesting to know what the average age of your equipment is.

[JohnR]

Too true!

My oldest piece of equipment dates from about 1953/4, altho it doesn't work (yet)

Oldest working was first sold in 1957 altho mine were made (probably) in the 70s, and updated with 1990's (?) circuitry. That's a pair of Dynaco Mk IIIs.

I also have a pair of ESL57s but untested so far. Have high (ish) hopes, within their limits.

[doug s.]

pretty-much my whole system is my fave classic gear!     30-yr-old harmon kardon tuna, almost 25-yr-old oracle turntable, almost 10 year old melos preamp & mesa baron amp; 10 year old electrocompaniet sub amps, almost 10 year old vmps larger subs, almost 10 year old marchand x-over...  my almost 10-yr-old meret re monitors are on "sabbatical", at a friends' as i am presently enjpying the relative newbies - proac reference 8 signatures.  

my di/o dac, now approaching 2 years, may be considered vintage in the digital world, along w/the aiwa xc37m transport i'm using...

i still haven't broken out the 40-yr-old mac mr65b tuna, recently hot-rodded by stephen sank - this should also be a treat....

other vintage gear resides in secondary systems - thiel 3.5's, alchemist kraken amp/pre (fed from main system); jbl l-77 speakers, audio innovations integrated, onix bwd-1 tuna, panasonic xlp1a portable cdp; more jbl l-77's, adcom gfa555, electrocompaniet ec1a pre, nad cdp, revox b261 tuna...

doug s.

[Marbles]

In order for me.

Sansui TU-X1 tuner

Sansui SP-X9000 Speakers

Sansui AU-20000 integrated amp

Sansui 9900 Tuner

Sansui AU-X1 integrated

[BWentler]

I have a Kenwood 600t turner and a Proton 440 turner that have been updated, modified, and very much loved!  Everything else is fairly new.

[Dmason]

Me, I LOVE the old stuff. Just less practical;

Dynaco 70, Harman Kardon stereo, Marshall, Leslie instrument tube amps.
Marantz tuners from the 70's
Ohm Walsh, Altec Voice of the Theater, JBL diffraction horns, Pioneer HPM series speakers, pre Dynaudio -Ortofon  (all still sound great)
Nakamichi "Big Nak" cassette deck (the wedge shaped one)

[mcrespo71]

I don't own these, but they are my favorite classic pieces:

Linn LP 12
Quad ESL 57

[Oxia]

Museatex Bidat. To this day, it's the best Redbook DAC I've ever heard.

[warnerwh]

The Kenwood KT-7500 tuner I had modded by Jim Rivers is easily my favorite.  The classic stereo in the garage is made of a Pioneer integrated, Pioneer 7500 tuner and Kenwood 777 speakers with the wood lattice grills. They sound like shit but for the garage it's fine.

[PeteG]

One of my fav in the late 70's was Klipsch horn speakers, I loved their sound but could never afford them.

[cjr888]

Majority of my equipment is recent stuff, and includes a bit of everything -- SS Amps / Class D Amp / 2A3 SET Amp, Scanspeak Studio's / Hybrid Planars / Vintage Nordmende's / Klipsch Cornwalls / Old Optimus/Tannoy's, etc..

Oldest items I have are probably the Nordmende/Telefunken speakers from the 50's, then the Kipsch Cornwalls that are about 25 years old, then the Optimus/Tannoys...  Everything else, amps, preamps, digital, etc is within 5 years old I'd say.

Really do like the Cornwalls...

[_scotty_]

My 2 favorites are my Fisher FM 100B FM tuner and my Maplenoll Ariadne
TT. I had fun restoring and updating the tube FM tuner. I also enjoyed designing and building the regulated air supply for the TT, it was an interesting challenge.

[DVV]

My oldest are my favorites (obviously). The first is my Dual CS604 turntable, in my view, one of the very few direct drives made the way they should have been made all along, despite definite shortcomings in the actual case (plastic bottom, el cheapo particle wood around. Coupled to Ortofon LM30, it can work some magic, albeit with some mods of mine.

The second is my Philips N4520 open reel deck. This is a monster, 62 lbs of it, but has an 8 lb flywheel belt driven by a Hall generator motor and quartz controlled by a tachogenerator. 3 head, 4 track, big reels, switchable VU/peak meters with independent +3 and +6 LEDs, three speeds (3 3/4, 7.5 and 15 ips), switchable NAB/IEC eq on 15 ips, external controls for bias, winding speed, two separate stereo line inputs with master volume slider, electro-magnetic tape tensioning, in short, everything but the kitchen sink. Most important, that machine can do music, do it well, and then some, even today (though I service it myself regularly, I actually managed to get hold of its service manual, so there, drop dead Philips! ).

And I'm not selling my Harman/Kardon 6550 (1993) integrated amp, either. I just installed brand new filter caps inside. I don't want my son, who is using it, to get used to bad sound.

Cheers,
DVV

[sfpepper]

Long since sold, but 'when it worked' a Paragon 12a tupe preamp.
Something inherently wrong/unstable with the design, but what sound
when all was well.  Anyone know what has become of Mark Deneen?
The last I heard he (owner/designer of Paragon) was working for
ADC.