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Your feelings on vintage audio.

Harkening back to the days of my youth.....my neighbor owned a console with a Scott fm tuner, Fisher amp and a TT. I loved playing with and listening to music through it.

And with the resurgence of interest in older equipment in the market, its' impression of quality sound reproduction and build, perhaps nostalgic feelings and wanting to dabble in tubes on my part, I've gone ahead and purchased a Scott 350B tuner.

I'm also looking at another 350 and Scott intergrated.
I know they'll need some work. But for the price it seems like a fun way to step into tubes, satisfy this urge and you gotta admit some of that gear is absolutely stunning looking!

So...What do you guys and gals think? Worth the admission price plus repairs? Waste of time and cash? Could do better DIY or newer used equipment?

Sound Quality? From reading sounds like I might be getting mids but poor highs and poor bass!
Build Quality?

How does CD sound through the gear? Are there difficulties using CD with this older gear?

Maybe some speaker recommendations. Sat/Sub (problems with subs?), monitor, full range or single driver? The integrateds I'm looking at run anywhere from 15 to 30 watts RMS.

Thought this might be a fun pastime; I look forward to your input.

Best
corazon
t_bone
1,182 posts
 
Dave,
I think the answers to your original questions about vintage gear will be along the lines of 'it will sound good, provides excellent value for money, can be made even better with some updated parts, etc, but even then may not be the best that money can buy. But if you enjoy it, why not?'
My speakers are about 15yrs old. Everything else I am using is ~30yrs old. I like it. And value for money is great!
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
my ideal system, back in 1967, was 2 pair of stacked quads, a mac c 22 preamp, 2 pair of quad 15/watt per channel mono blocks, a thorens td 124, with ortofon arm and cartridge.

i found that system so timbrally accurate that i have not heard anything available today, which approaches the sound i had in 1967.

i think the problem stems from the design criteria of current manufacturers which focus upon resolution but is lacking in listenability.

many of the products in production are fatiguing after long term listening.
ebm
5,165 posts
 
Its way cool.
jedinite24's avatar
jedinite24
1,502 posts
 
Can be very cool and worth it but it will depend on a lot of things IMO. Cost to get the vintage item, parts and repair costs to name a few. If you are a DIYer vintage gear is great. For me not being a DIYer repair and parts costs have been a pain. In some cases I overpaid to acquire the vintage gear but that fault was mine.

That being said I do enjoy the older pieces gear that I have. I just found a majority of the repair receipts and was thinking to myself DAMN!
tbg
5,263 posts
 
Having been in this hobby since the early 1960s, I have owned much classic equipment. After years with tube equipment and harsh solid state gear, I no longer own any tube components. I sold my stash of about a thousand tubes also.

There are outstanding tube components today, such as the Ypsilons, but they are very expensive and are hardly classic gear.
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