Disposable gizmos vs. high-end audio
You see it every day, a passing parade of new-tech gizmos crowding the market.
From phones to mobile Internet devices, digital cameras, music players, and mini notebooks--and on the home theater side--formats that whither and die just a couple of years after their much ballyhooed introductions. Every day there's more junk.
Most of this glittering assortment of wowie-zowie tech trinkets are destined to take up landfill space in five years or less. That's apparently OK; nobody expects to keep an iPhone all that long, and besides there's always something new, jam-packed with the latest tech to buy. Why would anyone expect to just buy something good enough to use for a decade or more?
Audio is the exception to that mindset. It seems like I've met a gazillion baby boomers still using the hi-fis they bought around the time of the first Woodstock. One Audiophiliac reader bemoaned the fact that his 20-year-old $600 speakers were now beyond repair. He got 20-something years of use out of the speakers--and that's not enough.
Woodstock-era audio, still going strong.
(Credit: McIntosh Labs)When it comes to audio people think it should last forever, though some of the best stuff comes close. For example, the "other" McIntosh, the audio company, still factory services amplifiers built when Nixon was president. Gee, I wonder if Apple would fix your dad's Apple II?
I covered some of this in my The 30 Year Old iPod blog a few months ago. But when I see all of this techno junk grabbing headlines day after day I stop and wonder: how many of you still use your first cell phone? I wonder why buyers aren't rising up to complain about their $1,000 notebooks crapping out before their time.
That's why investing in quality audio gear makes sense. Sure, it may seem wildly expensive, but when you stop and realize just how long you'll own a great, two-channel music system, it isn't all that outlandish. For example, those $1,875 a pair Magnepan 1.6/QR speakers I raved about the other day are an incredible value--even if they'll "only" last 20-plus years. How much do you think you'll spend on computers over that time period?
Steve Guttenberg is a frequent contributor to magazines and Web sites including Home Entertainment, Playback, and Ultimate AV. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. 
I owned a mid-range pair of B&W speakers for over 2 years when I added a new used amp to my set up and it fried the speakers. I called B&W and then drove the speakers 200 miles where they were fixed with new parts no questions asked and took them home all for free. It was the dealers fault for selling me an amp he had not checked out but B&W fixed the speakers without a question and ever since they have made large sales off me and my friends. Oh and they sound really good as well.
I only buy Seagate hard drives because they stand behind them and I pick all other tech gear with quality first and foremost the most important thing. I mean why would anyone want to replace a Pentium 4 computer with a new one if you only do email and surf the web on it? Instead of buying stock holder a new yacht why not buy one for yourself or at least a tube preamp from CJ that will last 30 years at least and bring thousands of hours of joy.
Tube amp may look like a great thing, but the reality is that for vast majority of people is doesn't sound any better than a $300 DVD home theater, which also plays CDs and DVDs, AND gives surround sound. And that's all that matters.
Of course, such specialty items as tube amps and high-end speakers carry an enormous profit margin, making it possibly for the manufacturer to unconditionally support its customers.
No such luck for mass electronics.
And why would one want a turntable that lasts 30 years, if CD frees you from that cleaning/pickup adjustment/replacement hassle, AND keeps sound at its highest quality no matter how many times you play the disk. Even if you scratch or smear it.
I have useable speakers and an amplifier dating from 1953. Not stereo, of course.
My phonograph requires special record. They are tin-covered cylinders used to record vibrations of sound that is focused by a horn-like device onto a diaphragm. The diaphragm vibrates and transmits the vibrations to a stylus (needle), which etches a helical groove onto a rotating cylinder covered with tin foil.
My system sounds better than God's stereo. I paid about $48,000 in '77 and it still sounds better than anything that can possibly be made today with modern technology, especially your stereo. Electricity doesn't even touch it, I peddle it with my feet and this is the true way to obtain audio.
My life is so sad that I must overwhelm you with your vinyl records and "vintage" Russian-made tube technology (bleh... so 1900s!) so that I don't cry myself to sleep every night. But I still do most nights.
Thank you.
DON
Well one reason why I would want my turntable to last is that I have a considerable amount of vinyl that never made the transition to cd. Not only that but more than a few recordings have had really miserable remasterings when transferred to cd. If I didn't have a working turntable this music would be lost to me. I love cd's, but I'm not giving up some of my favorite recordings just because they're only available on vinyl.
When you have time, you can try to clean those WAV files from noise and clicks, if you want. Make sure always keep the original copy!
It isn't fancy, but it all still sounds pretty darned good.
And they cost me, oh, $250 for the set. (Cambridge Soundworks Home Theater IV)
- by DaveOCP August 21, 2008 12:49 PM PDT
- I have Dahlquist DQ-20is from the mid '80s that still sound excellent. If you're looking to buy new electronics today that will outlast you, your kids, and probably your grand kids, buy a Bryston. They aren't the best sounding components in the world, but they are unquestionably the best built. Tanks have nothing on a Bryston amp.
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