Your oldest gear?

I enjoy keeping old things going if they sound/work great.

Oldest are the 1958 Electrovoice Drivers inside my Speakers

I transferred them from my Uncle Johnny’s 1958 Fisher President II Console I inherited in 1973. (2t stereo tape deck and Garrard changer in the drawers).

He was a friend of Avery Fisher, They came to his apartment and modified it for a stereo cartridge, phono preamps, and multiplex for FM stereo, it started out as 2 channel Binaural Stereo using live simul-broadcasts of AM and FM which only existed for a brief period.

https://www.audiogon.com/systems/11420

The 15W Woofers fired down on 8" high legs originally, I made a few enclosures over the years, the final Rosewood ones are just tall enough to fire forward and get more cubic feet in the box (6.83 I remember calculating), but not too tall in front of something wherever they might be. Electrovoice Engineers, still in NYC then, helped me design the enclosure and a rear tuned port that is closed here (not seen, it’s part of the back panel), used open when no wall was behind them in prior location.

There is no special bracing, I thought I might need some, and yet there is no vibration and they are slanted tops and nothing Donna puts on top moves off it’s coaster. I shake my head in wonder, but it’s true. Those woofers magnets are huge, they weigh 37lbs each.

 

The crossover parts are sealed in a tar filled grey can (in the photo above), the drivers for the horns are ’impregnated linen’, seemingly indestructible (I did burn out a T35 horn’s coil blasting "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida"). I’ve re-coned the woofers a few times over the years, and I have a full set of spare drivers and crossover for the future. Not shown, but each has a pair of L-Pads for the horns, I put new 16 ohm ones in a few years ago. They were why I was able to convert from T35 Tweeters to T350's and blend them with the mid horn.

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I use/love a Vintage 1962 MX110z McIntosh Tube Tuner/Preamp, but I acquired it in 2019

https://www.audiogon.com/systems/11422

Next, 2 pairs of AR-2ax I restored a few years ago for my Office and Garage/Shop systems. I owned them in the 1968 while in college, they were stolen, always missed them

https://www.audiogon.com/systems/10092

You might enjoy this prior discussion here

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/is-there-any-one-piece-of-vintage-gear-you-most-wished-you-owned

 

 

 

 

I had the same complete system for 20+ years.  My current system was all put together over the past 5 years.  But I'm listening to my Ipod Classic in a Bose Docking Station as I type this.  Amazingly, the Ipod is still working, and holding a charge, after +/- 16 years.  But the oldest things would be several LPs that I bought 45+ years ago and still play.  Cheers,

My current main system is about 5 years old (last upgrade cycle, all the same age). My oldest piece...is a 1972 Marantz 1040 integrated amp... I just keep it for nostalgia... my first piece of high end equipment.  

What’s the oldest piece of equipment in your system? 
 

What piece of equipment have you owned the longest? 
 

my ears

Speakers. Dali Mentor 6 purchased in 2012 if I remember correctly. I started to replace them last year with smaller lighter speakers but ended up keeping them and buying a pair of Dali Menuet SEs which was the start of my office system.