who is the oldest hifi audiophile in town

[admin_exported]

just wondering, no pun intended, who is the oldest audiophile out there
and do you find all the new stuff like downloading wireless networks streamin and all the new formats
very hard to understand,i say bring back shellac does anyone remember that 78rpm only kidding - - as i think
its become a bit to daunting all this tech stuff its has taken a lot of the enjoyment away from music..

 

[Anonymous]

Shellac, 78s,

Your just a mere boy, give me wax cylinders any day

 

[JoelSim]

It's John Duncan isn't it?

 

[RodhasGibson]

JoelSim:It's John Duncan isn't it? Close it"s Messiah

 

[chebby]

I am probably one of the oldest here (in my mid-late 40s) and I enjoy all the different ways of accessing music. (Except DAB)

Vinyl, CD, FM, Freeview radio, internet radio, BBC iPlayer, Spotify, iTunes all catered for here.

A little bit of wireless streaming betwixt living room and kitchen radio. Three computers (iMac, laptop and PC) all on a wireless network plugged into 10mbps cable broadband.

iPhone just starting to get 'useful' lately too as a remote for my iTunes and plugged into hifi as an iPod.

I am yet to get into Blu-Ray but that is not due to my age (I am upscaling DVD with HDMI though) just I am waiting for the right unit to come along (Bluray, DVD, Freeview+, HDD, recorder. NOT Freesat and around £500 or less and must be Panasonic) and waiting for Blu-Ray to come down in price and go up in choice. That could take a while.

As I get older I get less conservative about technology and enjoy it more.

Being able to point a phone at the speakers and have it tell you what music is playing is fantastic especially when there is some excellent music in a TV programme and you don't know what it is. (Thanks for that one John.)

 

[John Duncan]

JoelSim:It's John Duncan isn't it?

No it's not.

 

[Anonymous]

Surely mid-late 40's can't be the oldest here!?!??!

I'm about to turn 40, having got in to this hobby/love/whatever in my late teens ....

Just about to buy some true hi-end kit which I hope to keep for at least 10-15 years, so I'll still be around in my fifties for this stuff ....

Why does it matter though?

If it's too loud .... you're too old - as they say ....

 

[Thaiman]

JohnDuncan:JoelSim:It's John Duncan isn't it?

No it's not.

May be Mr. E?

 

[plastic penguin]

dvdaudio:just wondering, no pun intended, who is the oldest audiophile out there
and do you find all the new stuff like downloading wireless networks streamin and all the new formats
very hard to understand,i say bring back shellac does anyone remember that 78rpm only kidding - - as i think
its become a bit to daunting all this tech stuff its has taken a lot of the enjoyment away from music..

I'm a similar age to Chebby. And, yes, I find modtech very frustrating (albeit, sometimes it's self-inflicted), especially when it comes to PC's and the downloading thing....

 

[Anonymous]

Well I've notched up 58 years and the trouble and strife thinks I've lost my marbles. When I crank up Raconteurs, G n R etc it is a living nightmare to her (Bless) The best sessions occur when she goes out LOL

Not really a techy but love a wide variety of music and it is great to hear Jethro Tull and John Mayall in a way which wasn't possible for most people in the 60's

All the best

Mike

 

[Andrew Everard]

As I also work on a magazine with readers who phone and begin the conversation with "I've been a subscriber for over 50 years", I have the feeling there are a lot of older audiophiles out there...

 

[Anonymous]

This thread brings back memories of listening to Elvis,Cliff, Sam (Cooke),Tommy etc. on my Dansette Major.on 78's - then came 45's - fantastic. I can hear now the first LP (Elvis) that I bought from Woolworth's. Heady days!

With LP's you had a interesting cover plus lyrics and sleeve notes inside.

I prefer to own and listen to CD's rather than i-pods and MP3 players - it's the feeling of having something to hold (steady now) rather than something virtual you download.

 

[Ravey Gravey Davy]

Nooby:

and it is great to hear Jethro Tull and John Mayall in a way which wasn't possible for most people in the 60's

Mike

Would that be with a clear head?

Downloading in the 60's involved putting the mike against the TV speaker and sitting primed on the play/record buttons of the Ferguson tape to tape as "Heh you've got to hide your love away" comes on and making sure you stop it before Eleanor Bron starts talking.

 

[fatboyslimfast]

'tis not me (a 70s child), but I still love the "traditional" ways of reproducing music as much as the modern.

I have a collection of 78s (and some 80rpms!) which I use a 60's garrard SP25 to listen to, through my reasonable vinyl collection right up to a Mac Mini playing lossless files through a Beresford.

For a listening "session" it has to be the LP12, but for general around-the-house, the Mac Mini with Remote on my iPhone is perfect...

 

[chebby]

Ravey Gravey Davy:
Downloading in the 60's involved putting the mike against the TV speaker and sitting primed on the play/record buttons of the Ferguson tape to tape as "Heh you've got to hide your love away" comes on and making sure you stop it before Eleanor Bron starts talking.

A bit like the "Bichette"? (The reel to reel NOT Eleanor Bron)....

Thank goodeness Philips invented the Compact Cassette. If Garrard had invented it then we would have had three decades of Compact Bichette players and - eventually - the Bichette Walkman. (Or the 'Walk-Biche' maybe?) Goodness only knows what they would have called CD. Laser Bichette?
(Google translator informs me Bichette = Darling)

 

[Ravey Gravey Davy]

A bit early that one - more like below-- why did they make buttons so big???

Ma petite biche is more normal.but it is still darling. MPB instead of BDP.

 

[8009514]

Nooby:

Well I've notched up 58 years and the trouble and strife thinks I've lost my marbles. When I crank up Raconteurs, G n R etc it is a living nightmare to her (Bless) The best sessions occur when she goes out LOL

Not really a techy but love a wide variety of music and it is great to hear Jethro Tull and John Mayall in a way which wasn't possible for most people in the 60's

All the best

Mike

I'm with Nooby on this. Same age, big Mayall and Tull fan. My signature is not a joke, I do indeed have a Dansette and a 78 wind up player.

I'm more than content with CDs, and as far as PC stuff goes I can rip/burn and am also quite happy to drop music files onto memory sticks and use them. But when it comes to topics about Streaming, FLAC, DACs, spotify etc. then my eyes glaze over and I quickly lose interest.

 

[margetti]

Oldest rocker in town

 

[jc.com]

dvdaudio:just wondering, no pun intended, who is the oldest audiophile out there
and do you find all the new stuff like downloading wireless networks streamin and all the new formats
very hard to understand,i say bring back shellac does anyone remember that 78rpm only kidding - - as i think
its become a bit to daunting all this tech stuff its has taken a lot of the enjoyment away from music..

What I find hard to understand ( as one in a similar age bracket to some of the other posters) is

a) why we are being swept along by the tide of mediocrity (mp3, reduced dynamic range) that is being driven largely by "yoof" and their inability to function without wires coming out of their ears, and

b) why the implied assumption that if it doesn't have a handle to wind it up, the older audiophile will not be able to cope.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Ravey Gravey Davy:A bit early that one - more like below-- why did they make buttons so big???

No central heating in those days, so you had to be able to work it in sheepskin mittens...

 

[Ravey Gravey Davy]

Andrew Everard:

Ravey Gravey Davy:A bit early that one - more like below-- why did they make buttons so big???

No central heating in those days, so you had to be able to work it in sheepskin mittens...

That'll be the undarned socks then.

(no 4 yorkshiremen continuation please)

 

[chebby]

jc.com:
What I find hard to understand ( as one in a similar age bracket to some of the other posters) is

a) why we are being swept along by the tide of mediocrity (mp3, reduced dynamic range) that is being driven largely by "yoof" and their inability to function without wires coming out of their ears, and

b) why the implied assumption that if it doesn't have a handle to wind it up, the older audiophile will not be able to cope.

25 years ago in the early 1980s you could have said....

"a) why we are being swept along by the tide of mediocrity (CD, clinical harsh sound) that is being driven largely by "yoof" and their inability to function without a remote control and a Sony Walkman hanging out of their ears?"

You are just suffering from "rosey tinted past" syndrome. I remember back then the market comprised 95 percent cheap 'tat' masquerading as stereo or hifi back in the 1970s and 80s. Only a small fraction of what people used was what we now think of as good classic gear and most 'yoof' could not afford the good stuff (as they cannot today).

I know that an iPod Nano sounds 10 times better than the average Sony Walkman from 30 years ago. (And I am not talking about the Walkman Professional) and a decent pair of active PC speakers will sound light years better than a 1970s Amstrad or Fidelity 'rack system' and probably won't set fire to themselves either!

It is false to compare really great classic hifi from another era to what kids are buying today. You have to compare with what kids were buying back then and it was (mostly) pretty dire stuff.

For every Thorens/SME/Quad system there were 100s of people using something like a cheap Sanyo music-centre with an arm only tracking it's worn stylus courtesy of a 2p coin blu-tacked to the headshell and radio reception from a wire hanging down the back of the 'sideboard'. 'Yoof' would be using something like this.

 

[Greenwich_Man]

8009514:Nooby:

Well I've notched up 58 years and the trouble and strife thinks I've lost my marbles. When I crank up Raconteurs, G n R etc it is a living nightmare to her (Bless) The best sessions occur when she goes out LOL

Not really a techy but love a wide variety of music and it is great to hear Jethro Tull and John Mayall in a way which wasn't possible for most people in the 60's

All the best

Mike

I'm with Nooby on this. Same age, big Mayall and Tull fan. My signature is not a joke, I do indeed have a Dansette and a 78 wind up player.

I'm more than content with CDs, and as far as PC stuff goes I can rip/burn and am also quite happy to drop music files onto memory sticks and use them. But when it comes to topics about Streaming, FLAC, DACs, spotify etc. then my eyes glaze over and I quickly lose interest.

Me too - I'm 59 and next summer I get the bus pass - I like LPs, have a wind up 78 player, can downoad and burn, and I do do Spotify - but prefer the quality of LPs and CDs - I bought my 1st LP 46 years ago when I was 13 (it was "With the Beatles") - but I don't know as much as many of the people here - My best sessions are also when the wife goes out and I listen to Mayel, Peter Green, The Beatles etc etc.

 

[matthewpiano]

chebby:jc.com:
What I find hard to understand ( as one in a similar age bracket to some of the other posters) is

a) why we are being swept along by the tide of mediocrity (mp3, reduced dynamic range) that is being driven largely by "yoof" and their inability to function without wires coming out of their ears, and

b) why the implied assumption that if it doesn't have a handle to wind it up, the older audiophile will not be able to cope.

25 years ago in the early 1980s you could have said....

"a) why we are being swept along by the tide of mediocrity (CD, clinical harsh sound) that is being driven largely by "yoof" and their inability to function without a remote control and a Sony Walkman hanging out of their ears?"

You are just suffering from "rosey tinted past" syndrome. I remember back then the market comprised 95 percent cheap 'tat' masquerading as stereo or hifi back in the 1970s and 80s. Only a small fraction of what people used was what we now think of as good classic gear and most 'yoof' could not afford the good stuff (as they cannot today).

I know that an iPod Nano sounds 10 times better than the average Sony Walkman from 30 years ago. (And I am not talking about the Walkman Professional) and a decent pair of active PC speakers will sound light years better than a 1970s Amstrad or Fidelity 'rack system' and probably won't set fire to themselves either!

It is false to compare really great classic hifi from another era to what kids are buying today. You have to compare with what kids were buying back then and it was (mostly) pretty dire stuff.

For every Thorens/SME/Quad system there were 100s of people using something like a cheap Sanyo music-centre with an arm only tracking it's worn stylus courtesy of a 2p coin blu-tacked to the headshell and radio reception from a wire hanging down the back of the 'sideboard'. 'Yoof' would be using something like this.

When I was growing up (80s/early90s) most of my contemporaries were listening on Bush midi systems, Sharp ghetto blasters, and a variety of tape based personal stereos, many of those also made by Bush, Alba and the like. A few managed to have a better quality Sony Walkman or Panasonic personal stereo (they made some cracking ones) but only one or two had anything you could possibly refer to as decent.

I would agree that things have probably got better in many ways. An iPod or Sony Walkman can sound pretty good through a decent pair of ear/headphones, and some of the active desktop speakers out there are not at all bad either.

What has definitely got worse is the standard of engineering and production in recording studios, but that is another story.

I'm 31 by the way.

 

[JoelSim]

John Duncan isn't it?