h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I know there are at least one or two people on here who may describe themselves as 'audiophiles', but don't think I have ever seen a dedicated thread where general discussions on issues and opinions of the hobby can be had. In my experience it's actually pretty rare for two human beings with this interest to be in the same room; I can only get a face to face 'hit' of discourse when I sell a component to someone and we have a chat over the transaction!

Now it's a multi-million pound/dollay/yen, etc industry so there must be plenty of us out there!

Anyway I started this thread with one topic currently in mind;

Is it ever worth buying old amplifiers?

I ask, because I've been through a few 'classics' recently via ebay/gumtree and have for the most part been disappointed in how poorly they compare to modern, cheap mass produced amplifiers.

One specific example I have is where I was listening to B+W 602 speakers via a NAD 3130 (a classic, loved in its day with hifi press plaudits and awards). The sound today was dull, muffled and congested sounding. I swapped it with a Cambridge A1 Mk3 (about £100 new; I got it free via freecycle) and it totally blew the NAD out of the water with a punchy well defined bass and clear vocals. I also tried an original Cyrus One with the same speakers and it sounded pleasant enough but nowhere near as good as a cheap modern amp.

One exception so far has been my Pioneer A400 which makes my old (2nd hand) Castles sound very good indeed with a proper 'hifi' sound.

So in the hope that this conversation doesn't sink without a trace, does anyone else have any opinions agree/disagree with my 'old V new' amplifier observations?

I agree with you. I recently had my old amplifier (a Harmon-Kardon thingumy, I forget the actual model - HK310?) die on me and I replaced it with a Marantz entry level (250 poundish) amp and that absolutely blew the old one out of the water. Amazing sound. And it can do all sorts of snazzy things like blue tooth from my iphone so I need not rummage around the back of the sofa for my CDs any more.

That's a sample of 1 of course but digital technology marches on I think. When I first got my hi-fi bits and bobs back in the 90s the real top-end stuff was all valves as the digital thing was still looked down upon and possibly was inferior still. I'm not sure that's the case any more.
Though of course vinyl sound has resurged again recently...

So, I suppose one possibility for this observation may be that the actual components degrade over time - I know capacitors do and often need replaced after 20-30 years or so, but I'm not sure if re-capping improves the sound or just stops the buzzing sound that leaky caps usually produce.

So maybe these amps *did* sound brilliant in the 70's/80's and could hold their own with today's amps? or is it that a very well regarded amp from the 70's sounds today much as it did when new; but technology really has improved what can be made for a given amount of money ?

Maybe we need a time machine to find out. Or I know there are some enthusiasts out there who rebuild old designs with new components. That would be interesting to hear the results of (but kind of hard to do an A/B comparison with

I've also got an old Pioneer amp, well, not anchientl; 1980's I think, which has an amazing sound, for the £40 it cost second hand, comparable to my Arcam in the front room (which is itself probably late 90s), and my very very old arcam still sounded good the last time I had it running (arcam 1 amp I think it was /is, but that developed a fault).

The one very old bit of kit I have that blows everything new out of the water, is the 1960s set of handbuilt speakers in the front room, with 18" bass drive units, tannoy gold I think, that W's late civil partner built years ago, they need some switch fluid on the passive front controls, but I've not heard any modern speakers that have the same dispersal of sound, and can give a base response that goes as low (yes, we do need bass below 10 Hz ) and they work equally well on more recent music as well as older matterial - I must admit though I've not heard any really really new HiFi gear for a few years, but was impressed with the cambridge audio stuff, certainly at the price, that a friend has running throuhg a very old set of 1970s goodmans speakers (12" drive units, with some modifications/repairs on them)

I would agree that speakers from the 60's-80's are just as capable of sounding excellent as modern designs, though I believe that there were some woeful designs out there. What seems to have improved in recent years is the ability to produce lots of high quality sound from small enclosures, eg the sonos systems.

But yes, i wandered into a 'junk' shop a couple years back and was transfixed by the room-filling, warm, realistic sound emanating from a huge pair of wooden wharfdales. To this day, I have never heard Cat Stevens sound so good ! Even my circa £600 Tannoys don't sound as good.

I still have some old audio components from the eighties, but The Bose stereo I use has everything in one unit. I like the ease of it.

My brother has a sophisticated, multi-part system, and he has placed the components in unobtrusive places.