Happy Birthday to Me and my Turntable

[rjm]

My birthday tomorrow. I'll turn 39. Not really that old I guess, but old enough to have seen a couple of generations go by in audio years and it came as a bit of a shock to realize just old age has crept up on my audio equipment without me noticing.

My Denon turntable will be 34 years old next month, counting from it's release date June 1977. It was a junk shop find, it's been shipped across the world and back again, and it's still trucking ... but for how much longer?

Vintage gear - what I consider vintage gear, i.e 1950-70's, is rolling on from vintage to "antique". From retro cool to the realm of the incomprehensibly eccentric.

[jacco vermeulen]

Let's wish you outlast your turntable.
Still HB to the both of you, the setup looks very Kyoto, cosy.

[vaughn]

Happy Birthday!

I love that little system, I assume a class d or gainclone amp?

simplicity

[d to the g]

simplicity is good.

rjm's phonostage is simple and it sounds pretty damn good.

HB, and thanks for the great designs.

[Pano]

Happy Birthday!
You should put a cake on the TT and let it go round and round.

OK, maybe not.

[TerryO]

Happy Birthday!

BTW: I really like your system.

Best Regards,
TerryO

[planet10]

Happy bDay. We had those Denon when i worked hifi. I really liked the arm, hard to sell the tables.

dave

[rjm]

Thanks guys.

My audio system lives in the "toko no ma", next to the cupboard for the household deity.

I bought the TT and plinth together about 10 years ago, never imagined I'd be holding onto it for this long. Got the matching DA-307 arm a bit later. That red Gainclone predates me getting the TT by 2-3 years again, never imagined I'd be still be using that either - I was supposed to rebuild it properly, never happened.

Back to my original musing: 34 years is really getting on in audio terms. Basically all the stuff from the 70's is starting to fall off the cliff of its natural lifespan. Unlike diamonds (or tubes) electrolytics are not forever and it's not going to be practical to repair most of the solid state stuff. There are still a couple of stores down in Osaka Nipponbashi selling (or trying to sell) used component audio from way back, but not only are they now an anachromism (no one is interested in a "stereo system" these days, certainly nothing without an iPhone dock.) but neither will the equipment be in a working state for much longer.

[Gyuri]

Really nice little system.
I wish you many happy birthdays!

Gyuri

[dave_gerecke]

Happy Birthday rjm, I hit forty a few days back (April 20), my does time fly! That does look like a nice little system you have there. I know what you mean about having things longer than planned. That is most of my life!

It is sad that people only want stuff with quick support for the latest gadget craze, as opposed to good quality equipment. I happen to have a collection of various 70's gear around, in different states of functionality. Some will be repaired as much as possible, some will become donors for my own projects. Some will probably just sit around and get in the way.

Peace,

Dave