Your oldest gear?


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

What piece of equipment have you owned the longest? 

zavato

Pre & power amp and tuner are from 1976 or 78

Speakers are from 1989

Subs are from 2006 

TT & streamer are from 2023

Most of my gear is pretty old. Probably the oldest is my group of Kenrad VT231 black glass tubes from 1944. I have several other tubes from the 40's and 50's as well. I think the best tube combination that I've had as yet in my Cary SLP 98 is The Kenrads at gain stage and RCA VT231 smoke glass pair at the buffer stage. The RCA's are probably mid to late 40's. It has been my favorite combo so far. 81 year old tubes purchased NOS recently and they sound awesome. Just getting broke in at 81 years old. I think it's remarkable that we have such things available. 

My AR9 speakers are about 45 years old and they still sound amazing. They were restored about 24 years ago. The speakers are all original, refoamed only. I also have a pair of KEF R107's. I guess they are about 40 years old.

My Linn LP 12 is old, not sure how old, near 40 years or so, I suppose. So is my VPI HW 19 III. I just had the bearing rebuilt by VAS recently. Not sure what has been done to the Linn, has Cirkus bearing and Lingo PS. I'd guess it is also around 40 years. Just fitted with a new cartridge, AT33PTG2, still breaking in. I'm fairly impressed for the money spent. I also use SAEC SUT that is likely near 50 years old, model MST 100.

I have several old cartridges, not necessarily in daily use but still viable, Shure V15 III, Shure V15 IV, Empire 4000 XL 1, Denon DL109, Fidelity research FR1, MKIIIF, Linn Karma, All are 40 to 60 years old. 

Almost everything I have is old. Right now in my main system is a pair of Rectilinear 5s from 1977 driven by a Kenwood KA-7200 with a 2-year old WiiM Pro. Soon I will replace the Kenwood with a The Fisher 400 from the mid 60's.