Taking the next BIG step…

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Packard

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Back in the late 1970s, I purchased the following the top-of-the-line from Radio Shack (which admittedly did not produce top-of-the-line hi-fi equipment):

A FM tuner
An amp
A cassette deck
Two 30” tall floor speakers

On Long Island, the tuner picked up more stations than I could imagine.

I moved up state, and only two stations came in clear.

Cassette tapes are history.

I have not used any of these items in the last 28 years.

They apparently have no intrinsic value. (A turntable might, though). 

There is no charity that will accept these.

So why am I having such a hard time throwing them out (beyond the size and weight of the speakers)?  They are all housed in a cheap cabinet with dark tinted glass doors.  So at least I don’t have to visually confront them every day.

My film camera were worthless, but I see they are now gaining value.  The same does not seem true of the audio equipment though.
 
Around here, there are organizations that can/will recycle old electronics.  You might have the same in your area.  [smile]
 
Packard there comes a time when making things go away right now overrides any value that you may or may not be able to get for them.

I have been cleaning out my late dad’s house recently and I’m at that point with most stuff there.

Our recycle center does accept electronics for drop off. Even old tube tvs.

Ron
 
Packard said:
Back in the late 1970s, I purchased the following the top-of-the-line from Radio Shack (which admittedly did not produce top-of-the-line hi-fi equipment):

A FM tuner
An amp
A cassette deck
Two 30” tall floor speakers

On Long Island, the tuner picked up more stations than I could imagine.

I moved up state, and only two stations came in clear.

Cassette tapes are history.

I have not used any of these items in the last 28 years.

They apparently have no intrinsic value. (A turntable might, though). 

There is no charity that will accept these.

So why am I having such a hard time throwing them out (beyond the size and weight of the speakers)?  They are all housed in a cheap cabinet with dark tinted glass doors.  So at least I don’t have to visually confront them every day.

My film camera were worthless, but I see they are now gaining value.  The same does not seem true of the audio equipment though.
Click to expand...

It depends on the equipment. Radio Shack probably not much interest. But other brands....................  yes. Sansui, Technics, Marantz, Nakamichi, HK, Crown, Pioneer, McIntosh and all the others. There are now people / businesses that specialize in vintage equipment.

I have been refurbing and adding to my mid 1980s system. Forgot how much I liked it and how good it still sounds. I know I could link a cellphone to all kinds of playback equipment, but it doesn't sound the same, or as good and isn't much fun.

Some vintage stuff is fetching more than it cost new if it has been rebuilt.

Seth
 
SRSemenza said:
My film camera were worthless, but I see they are now gaining value.  The same does not seem true of the audio equipment though.

Some vintage stuff is fetching more than it cost new if it has been rebuilt.

Seth
Click to expand...

I bought a Thorens TD160 manual turntable with a Stanton 681EE stylus back in 1972.  It cost me $200 back then.  Just checked on E-bay and they sell for $500 to $1000 today.    My better half wanted me to clear some stuff out a few years ago so I gave this turntable and all of my records to my son. 

I had an Uncle that collected cameras.  After he died and everyone else had gone through everything, I was looking through the remaining cameras and pulled out an Leica. 

My In-laws were moving and I noticed a WWII Japanese flag in the trash.  (he was in South Pacific the whole war).  I asked for it, and he told me there was another in the same trash can. 

When I die, my kids will need more than one dumpster.   
 
I have a set of Left-Center-Right home theatre speakers from Cerwin Vega that also probably weren't top-of-the-line when I got them, but did the job for a college dorm room, especially when most people only had the speakers on their TV.

One is significantly cosmetically damaged from taking a fall during a firefighting intervention, but otherwise they all work just fine.

I think the hardest part of getting rid of speakers, for me, is that they just do their job without anyone asking much of them until or unless the cones or foams deteriorate.

And some speakers have a better tone for certain things than others do.

I can't bring myself to get rid of perfectly serviceable surround sound receivers, either.  Hook up a used $40 Airport Express and you can turn some old receivers into an Airplay-capable device, to boot.

Most of these things end up living and doing duty in a garage or shop until they give up the ghost, but even that takes a long time, if ever.

I ended up taking almost a dozen old truck/car speakers/boxes to recycling back in 2018 or 2019 (they were originally part of a 5-subwoofer setup, again, in a dorm room).  Worked perfectly, had no complaints, but nobody wanted to take them off of my hands.

I have a pair of vintage speakers that were reclaimed from a gun cabinet that I still haven't built cabinets for.  Not sure anyone would want them even if I made a nice enough cabinet, so they may end up getting recycled before too long as well.

Speakers are my nemesis as far as "able to get rid of it", mostly because of their analog, hard-to-kill nature.
 
The controls all scream “quality” on those old pieces. The knobs turn with just the right amount of smooth resistance.  We don’t find that on modern pieces.

And all the parts that look like metal, are metal.

But that hardly explains my resistance with parting company with it.
 
It really depends on what it is …

The Dual amp & tuner my Dad bought back in the day no one wanted/ were worthless when he upgraded. The Revox B77 MkII on the other hand, that now lives with me, … everyone wants one these days and they easily fetch 2k and above - especially in “plug and play” condition like mine, since I had it serviced. Only issue, the tapes I have are “dissolving” when one tries to play them. After that the whole machine needs a thorough cleaning of heads and literally everything that made contact with the tapes.

Then there is the Amstrad/Schneider CPC, it’s the mass produced mid 80s model, so no value. Would it have been one of those produced in limited quantities, entirely different story.

I only keep select pieces these days, to much clutter doesn’t help with anything - no matter the personal age.

Kind regards,
Oliver
 
I still have a couple tuners and amps + some old Bose 301s and AR-18s and a Polk 12" sub that I can't part with, I keep saying "someday". We went with Sonos nearly 20 years ago, now all that gear is incompatible with their new standard.

MP3s were so great when they first hit the scene alongside the early iPods, then everything morphed into phones then streaming. Slowly audio became more available with less fidelity until I became numb.

A couple winters ago I spent countless evenings ripping all my CDs to FLAC, then switched to an Android phone with 500G so I could download the best of it and listen with good headphones or in the car. Can't replace thumbing through a stack of albums, extracting one, running the walnut handled Diskwasher over it and cueing up the best side.

RMW
 
Richard/RMW said:
Can't replace thumbing through a stack of albums, extracting one, running the walnut handled Diskwasher over it and cueing up the best side.
Click to expand...

Now that's funny Richard...as I thought I owned the only living specimen still alive.

I'll just name drop for the sake of name dropping.  [smile] This will bring back some memories for a few folks.

C35

MC7270

MR78

MCD7005

L100 Century

TD125 MK II

SME Series II

Sheffield direct to disc

 
Packed away in bubble wrap I also have a Thorens TD125 Mk II with an SME 3009 series 2 tone arm. Tricked out with a Shure V15 Super Track Plus Shibata stylus :)

I still love the sound of the needle drop but I've modernised the landscape with a Project turntable and valve phono pre-amp feeding into a streamer that has optical out triggering a pair of Devialet Phantom Golds.

Tucked away with the Thorens are multiple amps, receivers, tuners, cassette decks and VHS players .. along with various bookshelf speakers but I've let all of the big speakers go.

I need more physical space to play but when I do achieve such I plan to find a nice reel to reel and dust off all of the old gear. Imagine the shabby leather chair and the whiskey glass sitting in a room full of 70's & 80's audio kit. I'm deffo going through a sentimental / nostalgic phase :)
 
Kev said:
Imagine the shabby leather chair and the whiskey glass sitting in a room full of 70's & 80's audio kit. I'm deffo going through a sentimental / nostalgic phase :)
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Just sayin'...

RMW
 

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Kev said:
Packed away in bubble wrap I also have a Thorens TD125 Mk II with an SME 3009 series 2 tone arm. Tricked out with a Shure V15 Super Track Plus Shibata stylus :)

I still love the sound of the needle drop but I've modernised the landscape with a Project turntable and valve phono pre-amp feeding into a streamer that has optical out triggering a pair of Devialet Phantom Golds.

Tucked away with the Thorens are multiple amps, receivers, tuners, cassette decks and VHS players .. along with various bookshelf speakers but I've let all of the big speakers go.

I need more physical space to play but when I do achieve such I plan to find a nice reel to reel and dust off all of the old gear. Imagine the shabby leather chair and the whiskey glass sitting in a room full of 70's & 80's audio kit. I'm deffo going through a sentimental / nostalgic phase :)
Click to expand...

Glad to see you posting again Kev... [smile]

Wish I still had my Shure V15 with Shibata...traded it for a Denon something-in-other...yawn.

My audio thoughts started earlier with Seth's post about audio equipment. And of the manufacturers he mentioned, I noticed he forgot to mention Revox. I was about to fill in that void, but then Oliver mentioned it instead. Good stuff, no stone is unturned on this forum and that's the way it should be.

We really should start a thread on how to integrate current digital media with old analog devices.

 
Many, many years ago we bought what was the top of the line Technics systems which while probably not great at all compared to the better systems, but we found sensational in sound quality. Just this year we got the turntable playing for the first time in probably 20 years, unfortunately the cd stacker isn't getting any sound out and I can't see anything obvious so it's probably the some of the mosfet stages blown at a guess. Not sure it's worth repairing though. It's very old, and the few local ones we found were really expensive, so I'm still pondering which way to go.

Was really awesome showing the kids how those "LP things" work though, they were pretty blown away with the sound reproduction!
 
Cheese said:
We really should start a thread on how to integrate current digital media with old analog devices.
Click to expand...

One for home audio and one for in car :) I've gone bonkers recently buying car kit but all that's gone in so far is a new head unit and I have a mountain of kit sitting on the floor behind me waiting for me to get off my bum and install it.
 
Kev said:
I have a mountain of kit sitting on the floor behind me waiting for me to get off my bum and install it.
Click to expand...

Well just ship that stuff over here, I'll install it and I'll let you know how good it sounds.  [smile]  [poke]
 
Cheese said:
Richard/RMW said:
Can't replace thumbing through a stack of albums, extracting one, running the walnut handled Diskwasher over it and cueing up the best side.
Click to expand...

Now that's funny Richard...as I thought I owned the only living specimen still alive.

I'll just name drop for the sake of name dropping.  [smile] This will bring back some memories for a few folks.

C35

MC7270

MR78

MCD7005

L100 Century

TD125 MK II

SME Series II

Sheffield direct to disc
Click to expand...

  Nope, I also have a walnut handled Disc Washer  [big grin]

    MY CD player was  a McIntosh MCD7000. A predecessor to the 7005 and the first one they made. That was the first item that went to a repair shop for rehab. It wasn't playing back. Needed a complete new laser unit. Only way to get that was from another old 7000 series. Too costly, risky, and would probably have the same issue in a short time. A new Mac was not happening at about $6K.

    After auditioning about six new players that ranged from $700 - $2,800. Ended up with a Marantz CD60. I liked the sound the best. Some of the others had incredibly good strengths in certain sound aspects, but some weaknesses. The CD60 beat them when it came to a broad range of music types.

    Seth

 
Packard said:
The controls all scream “quality” on those old pieces. The knobs turn with just the right amount of smooth resistance.  We don’t find that on modern pieces.

And all the parts that look like metal, are metal.

But that hardly explains my resistance with parting company with it.
Click to expand...

Absolutely, and the perfect feel to the click detents.  [smile]  [thumbs up]

Seth
 
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