So What's The Attraction?
bobboyer -- Mon, 04/06/2009 - 21:26
He asks...
Got tired of the UNC blowout of Michigan State so I wandered into our living room (the petrified room as one of the kids used to refer to it) and turned on the vintage system. It's a pair of AR-4AXs driven by a Sherwood 7100 receiver with a pretty clean AR-XA turntable and a more modern cartridge, just what slips my recollecrtion at the moment. I'm listening to the local public classical station at a volume level a little above background; it is, after all, 11 pm and others are asleep.
Yet I find it an enjoyable musical experience.
In spite of the advertising copy in the Ebay ads, there's absolutely nothing accurate about any of this old stuff - especially with the ARs sitting horizontally on - and back about six inches from the edge of - seven foot tall display cabinets. Yet I find myself listening to classical music at low volume levels and enjoying it.
Is it the warm glow of the tuning dial? Perhaps the equipment just looks proper? A yearning for a more simple time? What's the attraction for you, reviewer and reader alike?
I know I find myself simplifying a lot in my life several yeasr after turning 50. As a photographer at one time I moved through multiple Nikons, Mamiyas and Sinar Xs and Ps...until some point where I had enough experience (and confidence) to be able to see light values with my eyes instead of a meter and the Sinars gave way to a Zone IV and three lenses, the Nikons and Mamiyas to a Contax G2 and three lenses. My back and my assistant thanked me.
And like that previous career in photography, I now find myself losing equipment in my primary system - I've shed large, heavily modified Counterpoint amps and preamps for an Exposure integrated amp and gone from floor standing to bookshelf/monitor speakers (no sub) in recent months. It sounds good to me and gets me close to the sounds I have stored in memory from listening to the local symphony or the acoustic performers in my own hall at the University, but I'm sure it's nowhere close to the absolute sound as others would judge it.
I find myself recoiling from Wilson MAXXs, $160,000 reference turntables, mega-sized amplifiers and such. Not on the basis of expense; I have no quibble with people chasing the last degree of truth - or those who can afford to fund the effort. Perhaps it is that most of these contraptions are just ugly to look at and this old stuff just looks like proper stereo equipment.
And I no more want to get into trading or upgrading my vintage system than I do my primary system. If a new set of SEAS woofers in my old JPW boxes don't float my boat, then I'll be in the market for a good set of new monitors, but beyond that I think I've got the final version of every other component I'll want to own in my primary system. And what would you upgrade in a vintage system anyway? So as I ponder what it might all mean to me - or if it even needs to mean anything - I'm curious what draws others to this newly developing niche of our audio hobby.
Thoughts anyone?
As someone rediscovering vintage tube gear via a stock Dyna Stereo 70, and has written about and owned a bewildering number of vintage components, I think that if you get the midrange right, your ears (and heart) will follow.
Simplistic? Yes, but that's the way I see it.
Steven Stone
Contributor to The Absolute Sound, EnjoytheMusic.com, Vintage Guitar Magazine, and other fine publications
I guess that, in many cases, the amount of obsession over the sound quality is proportional to the amount spent on the system and the music gets forgotten as a result. I do think that some audiophiles enjoy the sound more than the music, something which is corroborated by much of the 'audiophile' material out there.
I derive immense pleasure from my very expensive system, but if I was stuck on a desert island with nothing but an mp3 player and a car speaker, I would probably end up enjoying the music in the same way - after a week or two :)
Funny enough, I bought a new Bryston 14B SST amp and a pair of new Paradigm S8v2's. My preamp is a Rotel RC 5000 that I bought used (but it is mint with original box) for $4200. Nothing today at that price sounds as nice, looks as good, has the tone controls I love and has the overall robustness the unit has. I also have a vintage Rotel RA 1412 integrated amp that I would put up against anything today, especially in build quality and the companion RT 1024 tuner that puts out superb tuner sound and the build quality is equally impressive.
Equipment today is so simple, bland and "soulless". I find the gear from the 70's is especially good, sonically or otherwise and I am not alone in my view. In fact, I could keep the RC 5000 I have and sell it in 10 years for a healthy profit. The old addage "they don't make them like they use to" is absolutely true. And I like the big machined knobs, levers, dials... I suppose analogue camera fanatics can relate.
I am never getting rid of it for sure and it WILL be a part of my system, even if I do get around to affording Magico's or splurging tens of thousands more.
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