Vintage equipment you wish you never parted with

[mbain]

Interested in hearing about those pieces of vintage equipment that you wish you never parted with.   What pieces would you still be using today, not keeping for the sake of nostalgia.  I should never have parted with my Quad ESL 57's.

[realhifi]

A couple of things.  A perfect pair of Rogers LS3/5a's and a Conrad Johnson MV50 for starters.

A beautiful pair of Spendor SP1's would make the list too.  Too many others.......

[wwaldmanfan]

I had a H.H. Scott 299c integrated amp that my dad bought in 1961. I got decades of use out of it, but eventually it needed a complete rebuild. 7591 power tubes are nearly impossible to find nowadays, especially a matched quad. I sold it on ebay years ago, but now I regret that.

 

[jcn3]

Snell E/II -- didn't know what i had at the time . . .

 

http://www.snell.no/the_archives_type_E.htm

[Norton]

Garrard 301.

[flummoxe]

Pink Triangle Anniversary with SME V

 

I sold it in 2003 and regret it to this day. Plonker!!!!!

[bgoc]

5 hours ago, mbain said:

Interested in hearing about those pieces of vintage equipment that you wish you never parted with.   What pieces would you still be using today, not keeping for the sake of nostalgia.  I should never have parted with my Quad ESL 57's.

A Sansui  SD7000 reel to reel

[GregWormald]

While my major speakers (and the built-in amps) are back at the manufacturer being upgraded and modified to current drive, I wish I'd hung on the the AR2ax speakers so I'd have something decent to listen to.

 

I still have the Hafler 101/200 that's being used to drive the bedroom speakers now sitting in the living room.

 

Greg

[mourip]

51 minutes ago, GregWormald said:

While my major speakers (and the built-in amps) are back at the manufacturer being upgraded and modified to current drive, I wish I'd hung on the the AR2ax speakers so I'd have something decent to listen to.

 

I still have the Hafler 101/200 that's being used to drive the bedroom speakers now sitting in the living room.

 

Greg

 

I used to have a Conrad Johnson PV3, a Hafler 220, and some Spica speakers. Loved it.

[TubeLover]

My Teac 7300 reel to reel, and all those tapes

 

JC

 

[mbain]

12 hours ago, GregWormald said:

While my major speakers (and the built-in amps) are back at the manufacturer being upgraded and modified to current drive, I wish I'd hung on the the AR2ax speakers so I'd have something decent to listen to.

 

I still have the Hafler 101/200 that's being used to drive the bedroom speakers now sitting in the living room.

 

Greg

Thumbs up regarding the regret over the AR2ax speakers.  As a young buck with no money I drooled over these but had to settle for the AR 4x's.

[zackthedog]

A pair of Marantz Model One preamps my college radio station was throwing out way back when.  I imagine I traded them in on something, but I wish I still had them.

[Solstice380]

My 1968 Triumph Bonneville 650cc.   Oh, and a Mark Levinson 28 preamp with outboard power supply and Camac single ended connectors. 

[esldude]

Well I owned some ESL 57 Quads.  Probably better than people who haven't heard them expect.  I can only imagine what people in the 1960s though if they got to hear them.  WOW would probably be an understatement. Yet, the ESL-63 is simply in every way a better speaker.  I owned those for 10 years.  CJ MV50 has been mentioned and I owned those and MV45s.  Very nice, superb build quality.  Of course a VTL 75/75 blew them out of the water.  I do mean no comparison the gig is up blown away.  A person might struggle to do much better than some ESL63s driven by VTL 75/75 and any decent modern source DAC/pre.  Way back when I had a Wadia 25 for that.  Of course depending upon your predilections you might prefer to drop in a Spectral DMA50 in place of the VTL.  It was basically designed for the ESL63.  No tubes to worry with. With megahertz bandwidth it would do justice to your 384khz digital signals (though the ESL63 will let you down on that a bit).  Was using my CJ PV5 (again superb build quality) for phono and other analog sources which included a Studer/Revox RTR, Nakamichi cassette and McInstosh MX110 pre/tuner for FM.  Talk about your build quality .......jesus the MX110 was something special.  The phono section nearly equalled the CJ.  I eventually sold the CJ and used the MX110 for phono and FM.  And because it simply was a pleasure to use plus beautiful to behold. 

 

I have had other very nice vintage stuff.  Yet out of all of it I really can't say I wish I still had it.  If I did it would be nice, but gear now is better for listening to really.  And of it all, perhaps the one thing I might wish to have for performance is the Spectral DMA50.  The ESL63 Quads would have a special place too.  They are odd in that all their shortcomings can simply be ignored because everything else they in fact do are so well done you don't care.  It is like taking the middle 80% of what is possible and doing that 80% at the 98% level so that what is missed at the 10% of each end of the frequency spectrum seems not worth trying to get.  If you can get it good.  If doing so compromises the middle 80% well you have messed up. 

[rodrigaj]

Harmon Kardon 630 receiver. 

 

Large Advent speakers.

 

Celestion SL600 speakers.

 

Linn Sondek TT w/ Ittok arm.

[gmgraves]

On 4/6/2017 at 7:17 AM, mbain said:

Interested in hearing about those pieces of vintage equipment that you wish you never parted with.   What pieces would you still be using today, not keeping for the sake of nostalgia.  I should never have parted with my Quad ESL 57's.

 

I have two: The first was an Audio Empire 598 "Troubadour" turntable/arm and the second was my J.A. Michell GyroDeck S.E. with the JELCO SA-750 tone-arm and Grado Master Reference Cartridge. Oh, yes, I mustn't forget my Audio Research SP-11 preamp or my two Otari MX-5050 R to R pro tape decks. 

[TubeLover]

16 hours ago, rodrigaj said:

Harmon Kardon 630 receiver. 

 

Large Advent speakers.

 

Celestion SL600 speakers.

 

Linn Sondek TT w/ Ittok arm.

I also had the Large Advent and the SL600's. Those were wonderful things back in their day!

 

JC