What's the oldest piece of gear in your system?


This site is here for the buying and selling of Audio equipment. This causes me to wonder if most of us have relatively new equipment. If most of it is new, what is the oldest piece of equipment still in use, and why are you still using it?

My oldest piece is a Sota Star Sapphire, but it has been upgraded. It was originally purchased as a Sapphire in the 80's, but was upgraded to a Star Sapphire about two or three years ago.

What's your story?
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I buy a lot of vintage stuff, so I always have old stuff. I guess the oldest item I have that I have kept, is a Marantz 8b. It has been in my family since 1963, and is the item that got me interested in audio in the frist place. I keep it for sentimental reasons: My father purchased it new. Yet, every now and then I like to hook it up and listen to it. It never stops amazing me how this little box with glowing orange lights can create such wonderfull sound. It always brings me back to my childhood when I listen to it. It is a fine instrament, like the great violins of Europe, the Guarneri and Stratavarius. That is how it think of it, as a great work of art.
I think its the UTC A-20 600/600 ohm bridging transformer (1940's?) I use to convert my cheap jogging cd player to mono before feeding it to the 50's Grommes Little Gem int. amp driving a 1954 Klipschorn. 5Hz to 50KHz BW and seperate 150 ohm windings makes it a very useful stereo to mono converter!
This is an easy one. In my two channel system I have a pair of Dynaco MKIII's that have all the Curcio mods installed. They are driving a pair of Magnepan SMGa's.
From my late Grandad's collection....Series 80 "The Fisher" tuner-pre amp in superb looking condition from about the mid to late 50's I believe. Still works, although I have it placed in the last open shelf of the rack just as a sentimental conversation piece. I smile as I look at it next to my more modern Wadia and ARC gears! A nice mix of old and new.