We had this in my house growing up
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I grew up with vacuum tube TV, (we got one channel, maybe a second if the weather was right), and reel to reel tape players.
I still remember the TV not working and my Father pulling it away from the wall and removing the back to look for the burnt out tube. Then since this generally happened on a Friday evening, (no Saturday cartoons), we had to wait until Monday to drive into town and go to the drug store to test and search for a replacement tube.
When I got to be a teen, I remember listening to the local am rock radio station and waiting for hours for the latest hit to come on so we could record it on a portable cassette recorder. Both my sisters spent many evenings doing that. We were sailing the high seas of piracy before it even existed.
Ahhh, those were the days. I'm so glad we don't need to do that shit anymore.
Fun fact, recording stuff from the radio is not piracy. There's actually an exemption for broadcast recordings specifically.
Also, I have similar memories.
I too am old.
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I've thought of that, too, but they take up so much space. I can create a much better performing and sounding audio system in a much smaller space. This much floor real estate could house a shelf that could hold hundreds of LPs (or CDS).
Yeah they were quite huge.
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I was 4 years old, listening to a record on headphones connected to this rig. Leaned too far back, and caught the 1/4 inch input jack on the headphones right in my fucking eyeball.
Still use my stereo system, obviously upgraded from that cheap plastic rca junk but still. I've never not had a stereo system. Funny how it was the norm, now its rare for any human to have ever heard music not on shitty earbuds. Makes me sad. And explains why popular music sounds horrible. No one's ever listened to it on an actual home system.
*im talking about the population spoon fed corpo pop that most people (usually young) listen to. There is amazing music being made today but it actually takes effort to find now.
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Yes, I am that old. Yes, I miss physical buttons to play and rewind, along with a decent wheel to adjust volume without fixed steps.
I also miss when placing the speakers separate of each other was the normal and expected behavior. The idea of Stereo.
But above all, I miss dynamic range. And that's not because of the gear, but of the recordings.
The scary part is people are conditioned to like 0 dynamic range now. Dynamics scare them.
Thank goodness we have old recordings where the sound actually mattered and engineers took it seriously!
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Yes, but how does Huey Lewis sound on it?
I've got news for you
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I'm with you on the vinyl. I was glad to get rid of it, and the pops and clicks, the need to clean every record before playing, etc
Years later, I came to realize that the whole ritual of removing the LP from its various sleeves, carefully handling it by the edges, checking for warps, blowing off the loose dust, carefully setting it on the platter, carefully cleaning it with a Discwasher or some other system, them finally carefully setting the needle down, only to do it all again in 20 minutes when you flip the record, and then reversing the entire process to put it away, became a ritual that gave the playing of a record a feeling of importance, as if it were an important cultural experience. By doing that often, it became exactly that, and a person's record collection became an important indicator of their personality. Music felt important, an integral part of a person's being, all because we treated it almost like a religious ritual.
Today, music seems so disposable.
Thats exactly it.
Plus a lot of music now is INSANELY crushed to the point the only listenable version IS the record because they physically can't squash the life out of it.
Check out no more tears cd vs the record. Mind blowingly improved on the record. Same with rush vapor trails (sadly the worst victim of the loudness wars).
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You call that old? It's got one of those fancy, new-fangled CD players! Not old at all.
I dont feel like vhs tapes and cds are old at all. People were foolish throwing away all their media for corporate owned garbage streaming.
Cds were honestly the perfect form. You still get physical media. You can rip it. Its portable. Its perfect. Reel tape of course is peak audio of all time but insane expense.
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Why do you need to hit me like this... Right now i'm fixing my dad's old telefunken hifi. I'm a lot younger than that generation. But my first taste of music was on that motherfucker with old cassettes and radio...
Fuck how am i nostalgic of a time i only saw the aftermath of?
Don't worry. I feel about 40 years older than I am because I didn't follow trends, preferred old tech, and am a cheap ass. I can talk to a 70 year old like I was their buddy in high school hahah
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I was 4 years old, listening to a record on headphones connected to this rig. Leaned too far back, and caught the 1/4 inch input jack on the headphones right in my fucking eyeball.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Love to spend $3000 in 1980s money to get the sound quality of a modern day $150 pair of headphones. Also, really cool to dedicate a full wall of my house to a series of machines that will be obsolete inside six months. Double plus also too, the music cassette was a garbage medium for a garbage era.
Anyone old enough to remember this can tell you about the day they turned a refrigerator sized cabinet of music into
this little guy. Absolutely changed my life.
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I was 4 years old, listening to a record on headphones connected to this rig. Leaned too far back, and caught the 1/4 inch input jack on the headphones right in my fucking eyeball.
Separate Tuner, Cassette Deck, Amplifier, CD player, Equalizer, and Turntable?
I am old enough and if that system were in good shape I would set it up in my living room right now. Would probably leave the cassette deck and CD player in storage though.
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Yes, but how does Huey Lewis sound on it?
LOL.
On CD? Almost as good as a new drug.
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Separate Tuner, Cassette Deck, Amplifier, CD player, Equalizer, and Turntable?
I am old enough and if that system were in good shape I would set it up in my living room right now. Would probably leave the cassette deck and CD player in storage though.
Definitely going for this setup next month when I move ..just going Vinyl and speakers was too little. (I know it's sacrilegious to say this but Bluetooth speakers for the record player also let me connect my phone and gives me the other sources... Is it high Fidelity it's fine... I'm an audio engineer I can say that.)
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Love to spend $3000 in 1980s money to get the sound quality of a modern day $150 pair of headphones. Also, really cool to dedicate a full wall of my house to a series of machines that will be obsolete inside six months. Double plus also too, the music cassette was a garbage medium for a garbage era.
Anyone old enough to remember this can tell you about the day they turned a refrigerator sized cabinet of music into
this little guy. Absolutely changed my life.
Hard disagree: well maintained vintage audio gear sounds better than 150 dollar headphones. But, I would usually rather listen to a sound system than headphones.
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I feel called out
To be clear, I think homelabs are great!
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I grew up with vacuum tube TV, (we got one channel, maybe a second if the weather was right), and reel to reel tape players.
I still remember the TV not working and my Father pulling it away from the wall and removing the back to look for the burnt out tube. Then since this generally happened on a Friday evening, (no Saturday cartoons), we had to wait until Monday to drive into town and go to the drug store to test and search for a replacement tube.
When I got to be a teen, I remember listening to the local am rock radio station and waiting for hours for the latest hit to come on so we could record it on a portable cassette recorder. Both my sisters spent many evenings doing that. We were sailing the high seas of piracy before it even existed.
Ahhh, those were the days. I'm so glad we don't need to do that shit anymore.
I grew up on crt as well, but that's because my parent's kept working until like 2015 when they swapped it for a 4k lcd with dimming zones
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I was 4 years old, listening to a record on headphones connected to this rig. Leaned too far back, and caught the 1/4 inch input jack on the headphones right in my fucking eyeball.
My parents had a JVC setup. Dual cassette deck with the click buttons like a VCR, a separate tuner, turntable and a CD player. The JVC amp had a digital EQ with buttons for each bands and the meters were florescent with waterfall displays for each band. The speakers were 12 inch with 12 Inc passive radiators and we're as tall as me when I was a kid. It was black brushed aluminum.
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Lol, this comment at least makes up for it some
Also, i love the aesthetic of these old stereos. Kinda makes me want to hunt one down now. Of course with my luck the market is probably hot for them these days so it's probably not as cheap as it would have been 10-15 years ago and given the age there's a chance they'll need some TLC to get them working properly again... Then i would probably plug my phone in through the Aux and just end up using it that way like 90% of the time if I'm being real, lol
Getting matching gear together will cost ya. If you're willing to take some time and mix and match, the thrifts and FB Marketplace have deals now and again.
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The phone-aux concern is real. An old system like that is nice for decor if you like the look, but having a physical collection of music is so inconvenient when you're used to streaming and mp3s, I fucking feel that.
If you do want one for the aesthetic, though, I'd recommend checking brick and mortar thrift stores or garage/estate sales. My nearby charity shop always has a few components stacked up on a shelf, same corner as the pandemic breadmakers, haha.
I have a mismatched stack of ancient shit as pictured and run my PC audio through the EQ and amp. Could use some tightening up for hiss, but good enough. Haven't wired the tape deck yet, no CD player.
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I was 4 years old, listening to a record on headphones connected to this rig. Leaned too far back, and caught the 1/4 inch input jack on the headphones right in my fucking eyeball.
wrote last edited by [email protected]I was likely in uni when this came out. I am cassette, 8-track and LP old. The CD came out when I was in uni. I remember having to decide whether to get a Betamax or VHS tape player when they came out.
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Yes, I am that old. Yes, I miss physical buttons to play and rewind, along with a decent wheel to adjust volume without fixed steps.
I also miss when placing the speakers separate of each other was the normal and expected behavior. The idea of Stereo.
But above all, I miss dynamic range. And that's not because of the gear, but of the recordings.
Which speakers?
