Realising Hi-Fi obsolescence – very sad
Discussion
My wife finally sold my old Hi-Fi system at a cash-converter type place, and now that it’s gone, I feel genuinely gutted!
It was a Kenwood separates system, which needed six plug sockets. I bought it back in the mid 90’s and cost about £1200 – I guess it was nothing special, just a more upmarket typical bog standard system of the time, with a 6 CD changer, amp, tape deck, receiver and graphic equaliser – along with beefy 5.1 speakers. It even had voice activation (which was a bit of a pain, TBH, as you only had to speak and it switched itself on!)
It came with us to Italy for three years, and was never used, and it came back to the UK last year, and has been in the attic ever since. However, after having new insulation, I realised just how much space it was taking up, so I decided to sell it or just ‘dump it in the skip’
However, when we changed the plugs and connected it all up, to make sure it all worked – and I see all the lights and graphics spring to life, pressed all the buttons and the various trays still have their smooth action, I felt a huge pang of guilt. Suddenly, I didn’t want to part with it – this was THE thing to have way back, and it is hard to shake that feeling for some of use of a certain age, I guess.
I tried desperately to convince myself that we still had a use for it – somewhere – even the wife was impressed with it and said we’d put it somewhere if I wanted to. I tried to convince myself it still had a purpose, but try as I might, I couldn’t get past the fact that it needed a lot of lounge ‘real-estate’ just to play CD’s and cassette tapes (the former are all boxed up in attic and we have no cassette tapes ant all). I have a new amp under the TV with HDMI connection for the SKY HD, PS3 and PC, the latter has a £160 dedicated Asus soundcard and now stores all film and music collections, and sound as good as the raw CD’s.
With a heavy heart, I consented to get rid of it – my ‘pride and joy’, realising it was simply obsolete, a relic of the pre digital age – but the feeling I got when we switched it on after all this time took me right back – it never let me down. Now that it’s gone, and despite not using it at all for the past 5 years, I regret selling it.
Is this normal!
It was a Kenwood separates system, which needed six plug sockets. I bought it back in the mid 90’s and cost about £1200 – I guess it was nothing special, just a more upmarket typical bog standard system of the time, with a 6 CD changer, amp, tape deck, receiver and graphic equaliser – along with beefy 5.1 speakers. It even had voice activation (which was a bit of a pain, TBH, as you only had to speak and it switched itself on!)
It came with us to Italy for three years, and was never used, and it came back to the UK last year, and has been in the attic ever since. However, after having new insulation, I realised just how much space it was taking up, so I decided to sell it or just ‘dump it in the skip’
However, when we changed the plugs and connected it all up, to make sure it all worked – and I see all the lights and graphics spring to life, pressed all the buttons and the various trays still have their smooth action, I felt a huge pang of guilt. Suddenly, I didn’t want to part with it – this was THE thing to have way back, and it is hard to shake that feeling for some of use of a certain age, I guess.
I tried desperately to convince myself that we still had a use for it – somewhere – even the wife was impressed with it and said we’d put it somewhere if I wanted to. I tried to convince myself it still had a purpose, but try as I might, I couldn’t get past the fact that it needed a lot of lounge ‘real-estate’ just to play CD’s and cassette tapes (the former are all boxed up in attic and we have no cassette tapes ant all). I have a new amp under the TV with HDMI connection for the SKY HD, PS3 and PC, the latter has a £160 dedicated Asus soundcard and now stores all film and music collections, and sound as good as the raw CD’s.
With a heavy heart, I consented to get rid of it – my ‘pride and joy’, realising it was simply obsolete, a relic of the pre digital age – but the feeling I got when we switched it on after all this time took me right back – it never let me down. Now that it’s gone, and despite not using it at all for the past 5 years, I regret selling it.
Is this normal!
I am pleased to report that my 20 year old separates system of NAD Amp, Dual Turntable, NAD tape Deck, Yamaha CD and JPW speakers has wowed my 15 year old music loving son to the extent that he wants to take ownership.
I am having non of it! he has cehecked ebay and the same set up in good nick as mine is) would still cost him over £500
I am having non of it! he has cehecked ebay and the same set up in good nick as mine is) would still cost him over £500
Yep it is normal.
You are stronger than me - I have an old 14" portable with nicam in the loft and an original widescreen super vhs player. I know they are useless but I got them for my 21st!
Trouble is if you keep then eventually you have a system like my dad's. Hardly used as it doesn't quite work properly.
You are stronger than me - I have an old 14" portable with nicam in the loft and an original widescreen super vhs player. I know they are useless but I got them for my 21st!
Trouble is if you keep then eventually you have a system like my dad's. Hardly used as it doesn't quite work properly.
I'm afraid my HiFi takes up even more space than yours did and it's going NOWHERE. Hi Fi no longer goes obsolete until you cannot get the media to play on it. I still have a Cassette deck, Turntable and Laserdisc Player and until I do not have the Tapes, Vinyl or Laserdisc's they are staying.
If you’re still using it, that’s great. However, we haven’t used mine for over half a decade – the convenience of new technology usurped it for me – but I still feel regret in selling it – more so when we switched all the components on and everything worked perfectly – but again, in the tug of war with my senses, I realised that my/our entire CD collection is now stored (in lossless format) on a 3.5” hard drive, safe in the knowledge that the originals are safe in the attic.
Strange, you don’t miss it if it spends years in the attic, half forgotten – but when it comes to deciding to sell it, it wasn’t an easy decision!
Strange, you don’t miss it if it spends years in the attic, half forgotten – but when it comes to deciding to sell it, it wasn’t an easy decision!
rsv gone! said:
Funny thing is, there has been a swing from quality to quantity of music.
Ipods etc can store thousands of tracks but the total harmonic distortion of the output will be a figure which would make a mid-seventies audiophile cringe.
I know - the kid's have thousands of songs (read-crap) on their ipods, and they only like but a few. Years ago I remember hearing something on the John Peel show, writing it down and catching the bus to Birmingham the following Saturday to buy it - and then listening to it over and over again. (I still do this now, ut with CD's instead of vinyl)Ipods etc can store thousands of tracks but the total harmonic distortion of the output will be a figure which would make a mid-seventies audiophile cringe.
I would not compromise the quality of the music I like to listen to – but the younger generation don’t appreciate it as much, I think.
I do find it funny though, that sometimes, I’ll put on a track, something like Wish you were Here, and they do listen to it intently – but after, when I asked if they liked it, they’ll say something along the lines of ‘it was Ok for olden day music I s’posse…” lol
chris watton said:
My wife finally sold my old Hi-Fi system at a cash-converter type place, and now that it’s gone, I feel genuinely gutted!
It was a Kenwood separates system,
I still have mine (and never use the voice activation). It is in my lounge for youngsters to laugh at, although it isn't used so much now.It was a Kenwood separates system,
How could you....
chris watton said:
rsv gone! said:
Funny thing is, there has been a swing from quality to quantity of music.
Ipods etc can store thousands of tracks but the total harmonic distortion of the output will be a figure which would make a mid-seventies audiophile cringe.
I know - the kid's have thousands of songs (read-crap) on their ipods, and they only like but a few. Years ago I remember hearing something on the John Peel show, writing it down and catching the bus to Birmingham the following Saturday to buy it - and then listening to it over and over again. (I still do this now, ut with CD's instead of vinyl)Ipods etc can store thousands of tracks but the total harmonic distortion of the output will be a figure which would make a mid-seventies audiophile cringe.
I would not compromise the quality of the music I like to listen to – but the younger generation don’t appreciate it as much, I think.
I do find it funny though, that sometimes, I’ll put on a track, something like Wish you were Here, and they do listen to it intently – but after, when I asked if they liked it, they’ll say something along the lines of ‘it was Ok for olden day music I s’posse…” lol
With albums taking 3.5GB - 4GB a few albums would soon fill an iPod
I still have my late uncle's hifi which he got in the early 70s it has a Sansui Au555 amp Rogers deck with SME2000 tone arm and a sure catridge, funnly enough I bought a Fidelity music centre in the late 70s and it had a Garrard SP25 Mk3 deck with a SME2000 tone arm and a sure catridge. I have a choice of speakers to use with my uncle's hifi either new-ish Mission or B&W floor standing speakers not sure on the model number tho. The system is still in my house in the UK and had a Marantz CD player added just before my uncle's death, he always said vinyl was much better than CD.
makes me wonder how long will it be until people no longer have "a music collection" as it is all a playlist on itunes or lastfm or the like. There will come a time when we no longer own anything physical to do with music and the rot of low quality MP3 will have taken over from CD quality. A sad day that will be and for most people under 30 I think its probably already here.
Alicatt1 said:
I've taken to downloading Hi def flac and burning them to DVD-A when I can't get SACDs. I still have thousands of "crap" tracks on my iPod for the car tho
With albums taking 3.5GB - 4GB a few albums would soon fill an iPod
I still have my late uncle's hifi which he got in the early 70s it has a Sansui Au555 amp Rogers deck with SME2000 tone arm and a sure catridge, funnly enough I bought a Fidelity music centre in the late 70s and it had a Garrard SP25 Mk3 deck with a SME2000 tone arm and a sure catridge. I have a choice of speakers to use with my uncle's hifi either new-ish Mission or B&W floor standing speakers not sure on the model number tho. The system is still in my house in the UK and had a Marantz CD player added just before my uncle's death, he always said vinyl was much better than CD.
My dad used to work for a small hi-fi firm called Rogers - who are still trading. He was always into his hi-fi and used to repair them in the evenings for pin money.With albums taking 3.5GB - 4GB a few albums would soon fill an iPod
I still have my late uncle's hifi which he got in the early 70s it has a Sansui Au555 amp Rogers deck with SME2000 tone arm and a sure catridge, funnly enough I bought a Fidelity music centre in the late 70s and it had a Garrard SP25 Mk3 deck with a SME2000 tone arm and a sure catridge. I have a choice of speakers to use with my uncle's hifi either new-ish Mission or B&W floor standing speakers not sure on the model number tho. The system is still in my house in the UK and had a Marantz CD player added just before my uncle's death, he always said vinyl was much better than CD.
He still has a Marantz PM-500 amp and a Thorens TD160 turntable.
He has a set of AR48s in the loft. Current Speakers (I think) might also be B&Ws.
rsv gone! said:
My dad used to work for a small hi-fi firm called Rogers - who are still trading. He was always into his hi-fi and used to repair them in the evenings for pin money.
He still has a Marantz PM-500 amp and a Thorens TD160 turntable.
He has a set of AR48s in the loft. Current Speakers (I think) might also be B&Ws.
Small world He still has a Marantz PM-500 amp and a Thorens TD160 turntable.
He has a set of AR48s in the loft. Current Speakers (I think) might also be B&Ws.
When I'm back home next month I'll take some pics of his hifi
Perfectly normal, OP. It's just nostalgia The idea that something that was so cutting edge/aspirational can be rendered obsolete even though it hasn't changed (still works) is enough to give anyone a pang. The world has moved on and so should you, unless you want to be known as the local fuddy duddy. Sad but true. And it only gets worse as you get older (I imagine).
PS the key to surviving these episodes is to make a conscious effort to decide ahead of time which things you will keep and which you will let go. Hopefully the keepers will be small and easy to store. So says the man with a pinball machine in his garage, lol.
The idea that something that was so cutting edge/aspirational can be rendered obsolete even though it hasn't changed (still works) is enough to give anyone a pang. The world has moved on and so should you, unless you want to be known as the local fuddy duddy. Sad but true. And it only gets worse as you get older (I imagine).PS the key to surviving these episodes is to make a conscious effort to decide ahead of time which things you will keep and which you will let go. Hopefully the keepers will be small and easy to store. So says the man with a pinball machine in his garage, lol.
Edited by FarmyardPants on Thursday 18th August 15:11
I'm embarassed to say that CD convenience & laziness has stopped me using the old vinyl system in my dining room for the last 4~5 years. This thread is just what I need to dust off the 33's (and maybe archive them). The system ( STD305M turntable, Audio Analogue Bellini Pre Amp and Cyrus XPA power amp driving a pair of Impulse 2 horn speakers ) was stunning back in the day.
Edited by Crackie on Thursday 18th August 18:56
Crackie said:
I'm embarassed to say that CD convenience & laziness has stopped me using the old vinyl system in my dining room for the last 4~5 years. This thread is just what I need to dust off the 33's (and maybe archive them). The system ( STD305M turntable, Audio Analogue Bellini Pre Amp and Cyrus XPA power amp driving a pair of Impulse 2 horn speakers ) was stunning back in the day.
The Impulse Speakers are very sought after. I have the H6/Lali and they are an awesome listen. I'm Surprised you used a Cyrus Amp though most Impulse speakers are on Valve systems and H2's are usually paired with Single Ended Triode amps.Edited by Crackie on Thursday 18th August 18:56
telecat said:
The Impulse Speakers are very sought after. I have the H6/Lali and they are an awesome listen. I'm Surprised you used a Cyrus Amp though most Impulse speakers are on Valve systems and H2's are usually paired with Single Ended Triode amps.
Understood regarding valve amps 
. I've measured the Impulse's and valve amps work with the H2's tricky load to help flatten their response. Really beefy Solid state amps that work well into low impedances don't suit them; I've made some small mods to the crossovers on mine to compensate. The original Kevlar Focal tweeters have been changed to titanium versions as well 
Edited by Crackie on Friday 19th August 10:53
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