HiFi & History & Technical Wojtek on 22 Nov 2006 11:22 pm
Vintage HiFi - supplement
OK, this won’t exactly be a “part 2″ of my previous post, that’s why I call it a supplement. I simply thought about some things related to the subject, which I forgot to write about. I won’t lie to you, this will mostly be another set of vintage audio gear benefits… simply couldn’t think of any downsides which I haven’t already mentioned before. Let’s continue…
Another aspect of difference between “yesterday’s” and today’s audio systems (especially amplifiers and tuners) is the magnitude of features available for the former one, even in the medium price range. To name a few: midrange tone control, at least two inputs/outputs for tape recorders, amplituners had high quality tuner sections (not like today’s home cinema amplituners - the whole section is reduced to the size of a couple of computer chips), 4 speaker hook-up capabilities were a standard (and for some brands, a 6 speaker capability was the most common option), built-in phono preamps (well that’s not so unique, because vinyl was the most popular music medium back then, but nowadays a built-in quality preamp is pretty rare), subsonic and high filters, tone control turnover settings, etc. You may argue if one needs all of those features, but I guess that in this department it’s better to have more than less right ? (Well, except for so called audio minimalists, to whom it’s the other way around).
The technical specs for older gear were also very extravagant. Especially the power ratings (in contrary to today’s common practices) were in most cases underrated, despite still being considerably higher in comparison to today’ standards. That’s why integrated amplifiers and amplituners had been rated for example at 60 watts (RMS) for 8ohm impedance, while in reality they could pump out even 100 watts. That’s why most people, while comparing old and new audio gear and saying that “they are equal in power, because the rating’s the same (or similar)” are countered by the fact that in case of the vintage gear, we’re talking about the so called “old wattage”, meaning more or less that although it’s similar, in reality the older one is more powerful.
Another thing I accidently omitted by the DIY factors is that today people simply throw away their modern equipment if it’s broken. Back in the good old days, almost everything was fixable, even by a local technician (if presented the service manual or schematic) and if you had some talent, you could do it yourself DIY style. Try to do some DIY tweaking for instance on today’s mass-market gear full of microchips and digital gizmos.
Last, but not least I should also mention that one of the goals of audio companies back in the 70’s was not only to make the best gear quality-wise, but also the prettiest. Design was a major factor back then and most vintage audio equipment (especially those from the 70’s) are simply gorgeous pieces of engineering genius (check out Audiokarma.org’s photo galleries and also some vintage ads @ classicaudio.com’s gallery).
For the finishing touch, as an appendix to my ramblings about vintage gear having superior build quality, I’d like you to check-out this sincere and honest Marantz ad from 1974 and decide for yourself when was audio equipment better made (click on the thumbnail to see it fullsize):
That’s all for today. I guess that I have finally covered the most notable aspects of owning old audio gear (and if not then look out for another supplemential or a more serious “Vintage HiFi - part 2″ post).One thing about the site: Google AdSense has returned ! I decided to put a small banner, consisting of 2 ad’s, at the bottom of each single post page (just between the end of the post and the comments box). I guess that this solution won’t be as cumbersome as my former idea of putting the ad’s on the blog’s sidebar. Why do I bother with ads anyway ? Well, I guess that everybody knows that domains and especially quality web hosting ain’t free so I thought that such small ads could support me a little bit in maintaining the blog from the financial side, but know that I’m a realist and so I’m not hoping that it could cover all of the costs.
PS: You don’t know this, but for the past 2 days I’ve had several takes on a new post … Why didn’t I complete a single one in that time ? Answer: probably the so called “writer’s block” and also out of lack of ideas. I’ve come up with several things to write about during lectures at my college and later at home (also doing some other stuff), but I simply forgot most of them at the time I sat down at my computer. I’ve tried to put things together by writing a few sentences, but then everything collapsed and I had to take on another topic, but to no avail. I guess that my memory got an “idea overload” of some sort. That’s why since yesterday I’m carrying a small notepad and a pen by my side, simply in order to note everything related to audio that I could write about on the blog, so that I won’t forget anything again. So simple, yet so smart and useful :)