If it could stay just one year technologically forever...

[Arkay]

Originally Posted by andy

One thing I've noticed while reading old magazines is that people had many of the same complaints back in the 50's and 60's as we do in 2008. Government was too big, taxes were too high, there was too much traffic, young people had lost their way, there was too much cost cutting,... For some reason we often only remember the good things from the past.

Yes, people were complaining about these things, at a time when --compared with today-- they were not nearly as "bad". This just goes to show HOW CHANGED things have become, in some respects. The degree to which government and regulation intrudes into people's lives today, and the degree to which the central government dominates over state and local governments, etc... would have been UNTHINKABLE just forty years ago. People would never have believed it possible for things in the US to become the way they are today, because there would have been revolution if it had all been done at once, overnight. But because it has been incremental, step-by-step, and brought in partly through the school systems, television, etc... people have become conditioned to accept it, step by step. Sort of like the "death of a thousand cuts", in slow motion, or the old (and wrong) story about the frog in the frying pan. {This is not meant to be a political comment or inflammatory, just an observation. Whether the actual changes have been for the better or worse, is up to the individual to decide. I'm just saying that there has been great change in the yardsticks, even if what is being measured/complained about is the same issues.}

But we are talking about TECHNOLOGY in this thread, not other and more political factors. I think I'm glad to live today, with today's technologies for some things, but equally grateful that yesterday's technologies are still around and even more affordable, if you choose to look for them.

For purely AUDIO gear, I think tubes peaked in the late 60s, and solid state peaked around 1979. But back then when TOTL gear was expensive, I couldn't afford it. Now that it is old, I can get it and restore it, and still enjoy it. For example, I have stacked near me an SX-950, an SX-1050, and an SX-1250. I paid less for all three of them in today's dollars than one alone cost new in yesteryear's dollars, even before adjusting for inflation. Back when I drooled over ads for the SX-1250, I couldn't afford one, not only because I was a young student, but also because they were costly in comparison with other goods of the day, and wage levels. Even if I had been older and earning more back then, I would probably have had to save up and make sacrifices to get one. Today, instead of saving up for just ONE unit, I can COLLECT them, even on a modest budget, without big sacrifices. After renovation, I still enjoy that wonderful sound.

On the other end, if I want a small electronic device like a blood pressure meter or heart-rate monitor or laser levelling device or proximity-sensor alarm or any other technological gadget out there, there is a huge selection available and cheap today. Their equivalents years ago were big, expensive things, if they existed at all.

If I fall ill or am injured, I'm glad the hospital machinery will probably be relatively sensitive and reliable. I'm glad that MRIs and CAT scans and such make exploratory surgery largely a thing of the past. While medicine has completely missed the boat on health and healing, in terms of the importance of food and lifestyle and a dangerous over-reliance on toxic medicines, etc... it has moved forward tremendously in diagnostic technologies, and I'm grateful for and appreciative of that.

I even like having a really lightweight, portable music source for when I'm commuting by train...yes, the iPod! The sound quality is nowhere remotely as good as my home stereo, but it is portable, GOOD ENOUGH for a noisy train environment, and carries a lot more tunes than I could have carried in a Walkman or an MD player. Before Walkmen/MDs existed, my transistor radio was fun, but it wouldn't have received a signal at all down in a subway tube. Would I GIVE UP the 50s-70s technologies in order to have iPod technology? NO WAY! I like the sound of my home systems too much. But since I have the choice and chance to enjoy BOTH today, I choose 2008 for my year, too.

If I could, I might be tempted to choose a future year, perhaps 2020, because I think by then digital quality may have caught up or surpassed analog (?) with all the added convenience of digital. But by then there might be little or no chance to acquire the "golden era" vintage gear for affordable prices.

Otherwise, I'd like to go back to about 2000, simply because the audio wholesale market here in Hong Kong was FULL of CHEAP TOTL models of vintage 60s and 70s gear, but I didn't know about it yet, back then. If I had, today I would have a "monster collection" of almost unbelievable range and quality. Sansui AU-9500s and G-8/9000s and Marantz Quadradials, etc... were around regularly, often for under a hundred bucks back then. Unfortunately, I only learned about and gained access to the market as the heyday was already beginning to fade. I've been watching the stream dry up, even as I tried to drink my fill. I have still got some good things since I started, but not the almost-unbelievable audio wealth that used to be there for the easy pickings. Of course, that is a reflection of my personal story, and not about technological change in society at large. For technology, I'm content to live each year with the current technology.

[andy]

Originally Posted by Arkay

Yes, people were complaining about these things, at a time when --compared with today-- they were not nearly as "bad". This just goes to show HOW CHANGED things have become, in some respects. The degree to which government and regulation intrudes into people's lives today, and the degree to which the central government dominates over state and local governments, etc... would have been UNTHINKABLE just forty years ago. ....

While I agree with that to a certain extent, my main point was that things weren't as good in the good old days as a lot of people think they were. We forget many of the problems of the past that have mostly been solved. Granted, there are new problems that didn't exist back then, but life will always be full of problems. For example, I complain about having to wait for over an hour to see my doctor for only 10 minutes, but I'm glad he can usually cure me with a few pills. Life in the 50's was not like Leave it to Beaver!

Back on topic, you make a very good point about being able to collect things that we couldn't have afforded when they were new. The best time to collect something is when everyone else is throwing them away. These days you only have to wait a year or two for things to start hitting the trash.

Based on my interests, I would love to take a few trips back to the 70's and 80's. Now if I could just find a way to install a flux capacitor in a large U-haul...

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by mr_fixer

Dear Chris, Don't say that! because one day it will. It might be peak oil, total collapse of the artificial American economy or China's attempt to become the world's #1 superpower. I will bet sometime within the next 50 years we will go through another dark ages. look up a writer on the web called James Howard Kunstler.

Thanks, mr_fixer. I looked up Kunstler, and while he has some very valid points, I believe that new technology is precisely what will head off any collapse of economies, American or other. Technical stuff is my biggest hobby (and career as well) specifically because I see it as the one area that gets better (in most ways) all the time: higher performance, lower cost, more versatile, safer, etc.

If I had to pick a year's technology to live with for the rest of my life, I think maybe 2712 could be a good one.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by andy

I would love to take a few trips back to the 70's and 80's.

That is fascinating to hear for a 47-year-old like me. I cannot think of anything from the 70's or 80's I want that I don't still have. Oh, actually, I'd like to take some of today's money back and buy a bunch of Bay Area houses. That Hillsborough house I saw on a real estate office ad for $399,000 in about 1987 would be a good start, or the three-story Victorian in San Francisco for $290,000. Better yet, go back to the early 70's when those S.F. houses were "lousy" and cost about $50k...

[Sandy G]

Hell, go back to about 1942, right when the war started going here full bore...Gas rationing, you could pick up an immaculate Dusenberg Beverly Sedan for $200....Or just think of the '32 Ford roadsters you could snap up for $50-100...They were jalopies then...Or more near & dear to our hearts, think of the E.H. Scotts you could get for a pittance then...What jet could they have made w/1940s technology ? The F-4 Phantom? Possibly a stretch, but I betcha it could have been done...Certainly the B-52 & KC-135s could have been done if they'd had the blueprints & stuff... WW2 could have been over with before it got started good...

[andy]

Originally Posted by ChrisW6ATV

That is fascinating to hear for a 47-year-old like me. I cannot think of anything from the 70's or 80's I want that I don't still have...

I meant that back in the 70's and 80's things like rare 50's color TVs and Fisher 500's were just old junk that most people wanted to get rid of. I know as a kid I passed up on lots of junk that would be worth thousands now.

[zenithfan1]

Originally Posted by andy

I meant that back in the 70's and 80's things like rare 50's color TVs and Fisher 500's were just old junk that most people wanted to get rid of. I know as a kid I passed up on lots of junk that would be worth thousands now.

ME too, sucks huh?

[Sandy G]

Aww, no kiddin' ! I remember in Chattanooga in the early '70s, in an old tv/radio repair/junque shoppe, there was a VERY early roundie color set-may have been a CT-100, but more than likely a CT-4/5 or so, in the window & looking pristine for $150. It was there for a LOOOOOONG time, I never got the chance to go in & see what it went for. I went back to Nooga in '78, in college, & the TV/radio shop had been cleared out...Not even sure that building is still there.

[peverett]

Catalin radios were a lot cheaper in the 1970s/1980s also. However, I was antique raido shopping then also and did not see any Catalin radios in Texas antique stores or flea markets. I think most of these were sold in the northeast. Texan's were probably too conservative to buy these and bought the much more common wood/brown bakelite ones.

[rcaman]

the 70,s was great. lots of great audio gear and cool tv,s in that era. but if i had a chance to go back in time the fiftys would be my choice. beautiful cars everything manufactured was great looking cool lines to them not modern plastic or everything looking the same. and times was simpler. steve

[vintagecollect]

...

[peverett]

1970s-Just leave a lot of the cars behind. This was Detroits worst time for quality(I personally believe they are still paying for it). Cars such as the Ford Pinto, Chevy Vega, etc-Horrible. The Ford Fairmont was also built during this time-not so sure about quality, but boring-a square box on wheels.

As far as TVs. a lot of the cabinets reached a new low in quality. I still remember a Zenith console we had that. The cabinet was made of pressboard and plastic, no real wood.

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by peverett

1970s-Just leave a lot of the cars behind. This was Detroits worst time for quality(I personally believe they are still paying for it). Cars such as the Ford Pinto, Chevy Vega, etc-Horrible. The Ford Fairmont was also built during this time-not so sure about quality, but boring-a square box on wheels.

As far as TVs. a lot of the cabinets reached a new low in quality. I still remember a Zenith console we had that. The cabinet was made of pressboard and plastic, no real wood.

OT, but my dad had two Ford Fairmonts. One was an '83 model, I think. It was a real POS and he traded it for an '84 or '85 Fairmont station wagon. That one wasn't much better. That one got traded in on a slightly used Dodge Caravan in the early '90's and the Dodge was sold about 3 years ago because it had 160,something thousand miles on it. I still see it around town from time to time. Probably should have kept it.

Speaking of cheap Zenith TV cabinets, I have a '74 Zenith console with the flat 25EC58 metal solid state chassis. The chassis is built like a tank. Probably the best one Zenith ever built. The cabinet is particle board and plastic.

[peverett]

The Zeniths with the metal cases (and chassis) are great. I have a couple now. It was their consoles that got the cheapo cabinets.

[radiotvnut]

I think Zenith may have been one of the last to offer a large screen color TV in a metal case. I've seen some early '80's ones that were still in a metal cabinet. The one I wish I still had was the late '60's 23" metal cabinet Zenith color TV that my neighbor gave me when she was cleaning out one of her houses. I threw a 6LB6 horizontal output tube in it and it played perfect.