Your vintage hardware

pvsage · 2015-11-06 10:29:14

My 6SJ7s were also a gift from someone who saw far fewer years ahead of him than behind.

In a HiFi amp, any rectifier valve will contribute about as much to the tone as timber control knobs, but as I am fond of saying, fools and their money are meant to be parted. (ESP's pages are well worth a look for anyone interested in this technical junk.)

Sovteks are on par with practically all other valves manufactured today, and modern valves are made with tighter tolerances than the "magic components" of yesteryear. They're still critical to "instrument amplifiers" like guitar amps, where distortion characteristics are an integral part of the tone, but for hifi I'd recommend a decent class A/B or Tripath amp; much more energy efficient, less noise, lower distortion. Even a Cmoy will kick the drawers off of a 12AX7/EL84 headphones amp.

glittersloth · 2015-11-06 12:36:35

^ Hah. I'm full Class D now, bud... with op-amps, no less [/shame]. My listening rig has been downsized considerably so even Class A/B is a bit much output for my current needs. Forget the full Class A furnaces. Weather is like crap all year and the last thing I need is paying through my nose because of air-conditioning running all day.

I'd post a pic of my old headphone amp if I could find one (I took some back when I put it up for sale, just can't find em - it's a Leben CS300xs in case you're interested). As coloured as the sound was, it sounded fantastic with my headcans at the time. Other than that, the only reasonable experience I have with tubes are with mic preamps and as "stages" for various Korg playthings and mixers I mucked about with back when I was failing at producing music. Just somehow ended up with more tubes than I'd ever need.

[/off-topic] My apologies for the thread derailment, Panda.

Last edited by glittersloth (2015-11-06 12:45:28)

hhh · 2015-11-06 13:16:46

It's the off topic forum, we've already decided that thread derailment is mandatory here. Sweet rig, sloth! Even if those ear rapers look pretty... rapey. The sound of your heart thumping in your ears isn't distracting? I kid, I'm sure it all sounds fantastic.

Panda · 2015-11-06 16:38:02

@ glittersloth, you haven't derailed a single thing and I'm enjoying the conversation.

@ohnonot, I had an old Toshiba laptop like the one you mentioned. It was about as thick as a wall stud and weighed as much a concrete stepping stone.

@g33zr, that was a museum piece in the making. Original packaging, documentation and software? Wow!

Really great stuff everyone!

ohnonot · 2015-11-06 18:44:19

Sweet rig, sloth! Even if those ear rapers look pretty... rapey.

my first thought upon seeing this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWqHkYtREAE ]:D

nobody0 · 2015-11-06 22:12:10

There are guys, who still find some use from Elektronika-52, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhCEIzjgwg0

Panda · 2015-11-06 23:28:30

@ostrolek, they seem to make good use of it. It still fascinates me how far and how quickly tech has evolved.

nobody0 · 2015-11-07 08:31:39

^ I fondly remember using this very good editor those days, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA80uc4W0no It was called TAG. It needed a computer with min. configuration of hard disk - 800 Kb, RAM - 512 Kb, MS-DOS 3.30 or DR DOS, graphic card CGA, Hercules, EGA or VGA. TAG had dictionaries, thesaurus and all that in few Kbs. A write up about it (in Polish) http://www.computerworld.pl/news/307267/TAG.TAK.html

Last edited by nobody0 (2015-11-07 08:32:43)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-11-07 10:46:39

ostrolek wrote:

I fondly remember using this very good editor those days, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA80uc4W0no It was called TAG.

That's brilliant!

Panda · 2015-11-07 13:47:18

That really is pretty nifty, ostrolek

I think it's interesting how we refer to this bygone tech in such a nostalgic way.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-11-07 13:50:24

^ Nostalgia isn't what it used to be...

I will have to try and dig out the family Amiga A500 next time I'm $HOME

Speaking of which:
http://aros.sourceforge.net/

Panda · 2015-11-07 14:10:19

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

^ Nostalgia isn't what it used to be...
tongue

Oh man, isn't that the truth!

The Amiga 500, now there's another iconic machine I'd like to have sitting on a shelf. 8)

Temetka · 2015-11-07 23:19:59

I can understand owning vintage gear.

But why leave it sitting on a shelf? When I did my purge of gear it came down to this philosophy:

Unused gear is wasted gear.

There's tons of cool stuff out there, but with family / work / etc., when are {we} going to get time to play with it? And for what purpose? To experience it as was in it's heyday, memories, never used before so wanting to try it out, etc.

Panda · 2015-11-07 23:44:46

Temetka wrote:

But why leave it sitting on a shelf?

Just a figure of speech really. Throwing crap out can be refreshing, even invigorating but most people collect something and it's gotta be better than this..

http://www.baynews9.com/content/news/ba … dento.html

Temetka · 2015-11-08 11:02:27

OMG.

Cannot unsee.

/runs away

ohnonot · 2015-11-08 17:04:49

Panda wrote:

http://www.baynews9.com/content/news/ba … dento.html

i think this is pretty cool actually.

maybe i'm watching too much south park...

Panda · 2015-11-08 17:45:48

ohnonot wrote:

maybe i'm watching too much south park...

I thought of south part too. Hehehe!

KrunchTime · 2015-11-10 01:17:10

My first computer was a Gateway desktop with Windows 3.x, back when Gateway was really popular here in the U.S.

Last edited by KrunchTime (2015-11-10 01:18:58)

Panda · 2015-11-10 01:56:42

^ Gateway was an expensive computer back in the day. Pretty solidly built too, if I remember correctly.

486 processor?

KrunchTime · 2015-11-12 09:08:21

^I guess it depends on how one defines expensive. I didn't think it was expensive at the time. I actually purchased it when I was unemployed. I had left the military and bought it not long after moving into my wife's apartment. And yes, they were solidly built. I can't remember exactly what processor it had. Could have been a 386/486.

My second computer was also a Gateway. I purchased the anniversary edition tower with a 17-inch monitor. Both of them were monsters. I still remember picking them up from the UPS facility in the rain. They were too big to fit in my trunk, so I either placed them in the back seat or folded down the back seats and used the pass-through in the trunk.

#21 2015-11-06 10:29:14

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#22 2015-11-06 12:36:35

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