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General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc.

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Old 13th Apr 2019, 7:50 pm   #21
rontech
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Default Re: When does old trash turn into vintage?

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Curiously when I asked a working museum whether they were interested in a late 'fifties EKCO they said they already had a couple and did not consider them an endangered species! TV sets from the 'eighties however- they were having trouble getting hold of. Hmm! This one has a happy ending as K had the EKCO and painstakingly returned it to working order, then sold it off for the same price he paid for it. Now that's enthusiasm.
My parent's first TV was an EKCO T293 ( 96 gns in 1956 I think ). It gave an excellent picture and also had a tuner position for FM radio. It gave good service for 9 years then tube brightness began to reduce. I sold it to a friend for few pounds and it served his kids for another five years. They don't make things like that these days.
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Old 13th Apr 2019, 8:55 pm   #22
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Default Re: When does old trash turn into vintage?

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Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post

Old "Professional" computers - with their specific environmental and power-needs as well as their size they're never going to be a collectable that you can easily do anything with; much though I'd like my own VAX 11/780 or IBM Series/3 it wouldn't be very practical and there's limited entertainment that can be gained by watching it re-run a company's payroll from 1986.

Then there's "dead" technology - like dialup modems, the old analog Sky-boxes, and first-generation cellphones - which just don't work any more. They may be interesting talking-points but that's about all: I can't see anyone (yet) going to the effort of Steampunking an old VCR or Sky-box by fitting a lampholder to the top and selling if tor £250!
Actually there are a LOT of minicomputer collectors around the world, I am one such. And a fair few mainframe collectors, although I don't fit into that category yet.

After looking at the technical documentation, etc, I felt there were only 2 types of VAX that I could keep running. The 11/780 family and the 11/730 family. Those are all standard, documented, ICs. I couldn't get the former (and to be honest space is a bit tight when you have half a dozen PDP11s, a couple of PDP8s and 3 Philips P800s as well) but I did get the latter. Interesting little machine.

As for 'dead technology' I think a lot of people (certainly most non-techncial people) would put 405 line TVs in that category. We all know that you can get standards converters and thus have something to watch, but on their own they do very little now. But of course there are (fortunately) several people (many people?) who collect and restore such sets.

I feel the same way about dialup modems. Sure few people use them, there is not a lot you can communicate with any more. But they certainly work still. And some are interesting pieces of technology (or even interesting styling, think of the GPO Modem 13, a plinth under a Telephone 740). So yes, I collect some of those too. I feel it is a _BIG_ mistake to regard a classic computer as the CPU only, I like to have the 'right' peripherals on it too.

To go back to the original question : for me, and in my specific area of old computers, they stopped being interesting when they stopped being boards of standard ICs (mostly TTL logic and became a few mostly undocumented ASICs. The latter sort of machines are difficult to understand and repair.
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Old 13th Apr 2019, 9:57 pm   #23
crackle
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Default Re: When does old trash turn into vintage?

As people reach mature years they often think of their past and the items that they were fond of and used a lot.
In 50 years time I am convinced that people will look on their first DAB radio with fondness and nostalgia. I don't like them because I consider myself to be from the transistor era.
So I am building up my collection of the future vintage rare and in demand transistor radios, cassette players and record players.. (or at least I hope they will be)
Also you can get a lot more on the shelf than you can of old 40's or 50's woody's.

Mike
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Old 14th Apr 2019, 7:00 am   #24
Peter.N.
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Default Re: When does old trash turn into vintage?

Never had a DAB radio but I remember the KB 1950's range.

Peter
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Old 14th Apr 2019, 10:56 am   #25
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When it's covered in Annie Sloan paint?
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Old 24th Apr 2019, 6:23 pm   #26
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Default Re: When does old trash turn into vintage?

Just agonising over this today - I have a complete heathkit VTVM kit in its original box packaging unassembled with all the bits still in packages and now I'm debating if I will build it or keep it as is??
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Old 24th Apr 2019, 7:45 pm   #27
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Default Re: When does old trash turn into vintage?

A very difficult question,what would I do?To be honest unsure.
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Old 24th Apr 2019, 8:42 pm   #28
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For me, the "Golden Age" was the early 1980's when the stereo radio recorder boom exploded! Nostalgia is of course what most of it means to me, I was 16 in 1982 & the sometimes huge silver machines with build quality at a level we will probably never see again certainly in our lifetime!! As some of you know I am somewhat addicted to saving these machines both generic & the big names of that period..........almost like I am duty bound to do so!

I was becoming interested in audio & video from around 1976, a time when you could pick up an Ekco valve radio as I did for fifty pence take it home & find it working perfectly!!

Of course, in my little world, the cassette recorder was king - A £14.95 Waltham shoebox recorder from Argos was my first machine, I guess the interest in valve radio's waned as 1980 saw the much bandied around phrase "The Digital Age" began & radio recorders suddenly swept the planet - These somewhat magical machines enabled half decent recordings from the radio which for me was exciting!

I hesitated for a long time to deem the overused "Vintage" or even worse "Retro" to describe early 80's technology, Vintage only just gets used here as everything seems to be either of the two!

I should mention HiFi systems & separates too, I would visit the local trade fair (Yes we had those in 1982 & beyond even in Bognor Regis).......The small community hall would be jam packed with the latest offerings all there to try out & be amazed by! Now it's all overpriced & over venued "Events" that I wouldn't attend even if I could still walk!!

I feel now that all that magic is long gone & I realise now how lucky I was being part of those wonderful times!!

I've been reading this forum since it was born & only joined years later, I don't think I would of dared suggest that my 1980 onwards era was "Vintage" or the other one - Time passes by & here we are, many of us now the "Older" generation & I feel happier referring to my golden age as modern vintage!

As for saving machines including mid 70's radio's & the like, I can't bear to think of them smashed & destroyed in a few seconds & I buy too many of them just to save them! Very interesting that so many have been so well cared for & need minimal servicing to get them playing once again!!

As you all know, this hobby & whatever era you love to restore from - is very addictive & a small one bedroom flat can become overrun with equipment despite having a lot of storage

This forum has taught me a lot of both common & simpler ideas when it comes to repairing my beloved "Boomboxes" I don't like that name much either..............Oh dear I must be getting old
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Old 25th Apr 2019, 11:31 pm   #29
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I think mine was in the '50's when the quality of tape recorders was improving all the time and I bought a Philips 3542 which was the ultimate domestic machine for sound quality. It was also the era of the Jason FM tuner and the combination enabled me to make a high quality recording of Pick of the Pops with David Jacobs every Saturday night.

As I was 'courting' at the time I got my dad to switch it all on at 10.00pm, his comment was ' I don't know why you want to record that rubbish'. I wonder what he would think of it now?

Peter
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Old 28th Apr 2019, 6:12 pm   #30
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Default Re: When does old trash turn into vintage?

Sometimes it all leads to a happy mix - I used an old Ferrograph tape recorder recently to feed into one of those music recorders with HDD (Fostex?? or similar) that can burn CD's (you need a padding resistor on the Ferrograph output so I made up a special lead). The friend I did it for was delighted to be able to hear his old tapes again but on a CD.
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Old 29th Apr 2019, 11:43 am   #31
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I still have quite a few of the tapes I recorded then.

Peter
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Old 29th Apr 2019, 12:31 pm   #32
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Default Re: When does old trash turn into vintage?

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CRT TVs - too energy-inefficient...
I think you may be betraying a lack of knowledge or experience there, by 1979 B&O had got their 26" model down to under 100W for a big, bright picture - how efficient do you want it? This was not unusual either, the Solara IPSALO sets were using under 50W for full-sized family viewing just a few years later.
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Old 5th May 2019, 4:22 pm   #33
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Default Re: When does old trash turn into vintage?

I'm reminded of the 'Ruddy Hell it's Harry and Paul' sketch 'I Saw You Coming' in which the shopkeeper takes advantage of various vacuous people. One memorable phrase, when Harry Enfield is running a secondhand shop comes on being asked "what is the difference between 'vintage' and 'retro'?"

"Vintage is old and horrible, while retro is new and horrible but made to look old and horrible".

I just don't like the phrase 'vintage' when applied to anything other than wine. There, it means a specific year and condition, while for other objects it's used lazily as a way of trying to spin more money out of 'secondhand'.

I like old stuff because it's often made of metal or other solid, reliable materials, the internals are equally well-engineered and the functions can be made to work as well today as they did when new. Equally, there are a number of shoddy things made in the last hundred years that I don't think are worth fiddling with. I think the only difference is that currently most things are made very poorly and those that aren't are far, far too pricey for me to even consider investigating. When solid 50s, 60s, 70s hifi is available and is affordable, there's no contest for me whether it's called 'vintage' or 'trash' by others.
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