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VINTAGE STUPID - why not new

Posted by JWPATE (A) on December 24, 2003 at 23:01:56

Just a personal note on vintage insanity. Recently I posted a query about the best step-up transformer to input a micro Benz ref. moving coil signal to the Marantz 7 pre-amp. One of the best thought-out answers to this question was to scrap the model 7 and move up to a true pre-amp – “think modern, for the vintage pre-amps are complicated, and expensive stupidity, when compared to advances made during the 80’s and 90’s”.

How about it, do you agree?

I have actually thought quite a lot about that recommendation over the past day. In fact, I almost determined to scrap NOT ONLY the model 7, but also the model 10b and the tape deck – I hardly ever use either one. That way I could join the modern world and enjoy the advantages of, say, the Manley Steelhead, or perhaps the Audion Quattro, with the result that I could really have the latest technology, with sound logic, and with great sound.
Then I went out for a drive in the 1954 Bentley to enjoy the desert in winter and fill up the petrol tank. I remembered my age, 62. After that, I got in the hot tub and considered again the modern audio gear. I remember that I first got involved in this insanity in the 1950’s with a Scott-Kit amp and two Altec speakers. The first LP was Joan Baez, she was beautiful then, not yet gone crazy. Back then I could hear a pin drop from across the room. Today, after a career of setting atop Navy aircraft engines, an anvil falling nearby probably wouldn’t even cause me to shake my prune juice. Still…..my old mind is vulnerable to the hype. If even 1/100th of the advances that have been announced over the years that I personally have followed this interest, were even 10% correct, we could have long ago retired all musicians – for recorded music would have surpassed their live possibilities at about the mid ‘70’s. That, however, did not occur. And I doubt that it ever will.
Just go out on any occasion that presents itself to you, and take a seat in about the 10th through 15th row, center section, of any philharmonic offering, in any city, in this great country. Ask yourself, during the concert, can it ever sound like this in my 20 x 30 foot music room. Ok, for you High Rollers, make it a 30 x 70 foot music room. Being honest (regardless of what you paid for the Hi-Fi system) the answer is, of course, no sir,… and it never will. In the case of small acoustical groups the possibilities are far greater. And for, say, a single instrument like a virtuoso guitar session, we can come very close indeed with recorded sound.
The logical mind doesn’t forget that the quest for perfect audio reproduction is nothing but a fools game, with an never-ending mirage of sonic perfection, just out of reach, just a few thousand dollars more, and always vanishing, coldly and cruelly, in the shimmering , rising desert heat… AFTER the funds are spent and done with. It will always be so. Yet I myself seem, even after all these years, still tempted…still seduced with the dancing desert-sand-dreams that yet another purchase will open the silver gates to pure, clean, presence at some precious, long-past musical event.
So here am I, even now, tempted to buy a modern miracle…in this particular weakness it happens to be the siren call of a certain AUDION QUATRO pre amp which came highly recommended, as the genuine article, sure to change, forevermore, all I have ever known about recorded sound.
I looked at the specs. – Impressive. I called the US importer of this UK product. The price is silly, over 14 big-ones for the separate-power-supply units….but oh…this will cure the problem “no vintage pre-amp is appropriate for 2003”. Sounds so good I still may “go for it”. Told the rep I will be there for a look at The Show, here is Las Vegas, perhaps two or three weeks hence.
Tonight though, I went to the computer and pulled up an image of this, the newest “best-of-the-best”, the pre-amp to cure all. Here and now, I wish to thank the designers of this unit, that I am saved from this latest run on the bank funds…That thing is simply too UGLY! Not only that, it is a pure dual-mono effort. That may sound great, but it REQUIRES that one handles two knobs to adjust the volume. Get real! Thank you, you English designers. You have the finest electronics available anywhere in the world in this unit, and you had me on the hook, even at the silly prices.. but, you blew it - big time – for us old guys – with the ugly layout
Of the design………and, .you have spared me this time, from my own stupidity.

The game is pure sound, I agree. But I admit here, tonight, that presentation also matters for some of us. It matters enough that this particular old Sailor is unwilling to take onboard a set of pre-amps, that cost 14K+, and are presented without even the decently of a tube cage. Another option, the Manley Steelhead, a far better value for US dollars, is even further off -target, on the ugly scale. Sorry, but I must admit – appearance does play into this game for some of us. (Don’t like admitting it – but I actually did consider stuffing the steelhead inside a Marantz case - how sick is this?).

The vintage units, such as Marantz, are always pleasing to the eye, regardless of sonic questions, they look pleasing – and I am talking about 40 years so far.
It could go on. Let’s also remember that NONE of these modern marvels will be worth, even ½ their purchase price in five years (How about a bet – which will draw more in an open auction in Jan. 2008 – a Marantz 7 or a Manley Steelhead?). A vintage unit will likely have appreciated in value, The Steelhead, in 2008? What was that? Further, an owner, while he is at rest, listening to quiet music of an evening, cannot avoid his vision catching the occasional image of the electronic components responsible for his joy. Would you rather glimpse the classic symmetry of Marantz thoughtfulness or the ugliness of a great glaring pair of “modern phono-stage magic”?

Again gentle readers, could someone please advise me about the Sid Smith modifications to the BEAUTIFUL model 7 Marantz?
James

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