Turntables.
Shortest. Oddly it was one of the first linn LP12 in the 70s. Nothing but trouble partly caused by my ignorance at siting correctly.
Longest. Linn axis. Still using after more than 30 years.
Longest - My MA Bronze 5s, had them 4 years. Just cant let them go, they sing wonderfully.
Shortest - Chord Qutest, 2 weeks. Didnt like what it did for my ND5XS2, preferred the native DAC.
Shortest? a Kenwood top of the range 1990s CD player (a few days) - sounded great at the store demo, but not at home. Longest commercial product (I have longer DIY components) is this beauty: Alphason HR100S (early 1980s) & a spare HR100MCS on an Alphason Sonata TT. The first modern day high performing single tube tonearm?
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Thatâs the opposite of me as my shortest was a Linn Axis which went back after a short time in 1988 to be replaced by an LP 12 which I still have on second system. My Revox B77 is from 1989 and works fine but all the old tapes squeak and shed coating so I can only use tapes I bought more recently. I did cook all the old tapes and digitise them so not lost.
Ian
I wonder why they didnât call it the Aksis?
Epos es14. 29 years for me. An itch to scratch, but not quite yetâŚ
Great story about your SX-1050.
1970âs Pioneer components were incredibly reliable. I was able to re-build my first system (PL 112D, SA 7500II - TX 5500II - CT-F500 - HPM 60) piece by piece over the last couple years. Sourcing the different components on the Internet was a fun game and all components still work beautifully.
Claude
So glad you spoke up about Pioneers. Iâve been told many things about them, the most prominent being â they donât make them to last anymoreâ or âthey donât make them like thatâ or âitâll be good for another forty yearsâ or variations on you couldnât afford their equivalent these days. I donât know if any of that is true but it sure makes me feel good (smiles).
One thing I learned is that at that time In the late seventies there was a dead serious competition on between rival companies to outdo each other and Pioneer was leading that competition with this line. I feel pretty sure of its good quality. And Iâm enjoying the fun of resurrecting it from my closet. Itâs not a bad investment as judging from eBay prices have risen quite a bit in the last few years.
My oldest piece of kit bought 1972 or 3 and still in occasional use. Prompted by talk of other Pioneer gear.
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CD3.5 for six weeks before upgrading to CDX. CDX was a game changerâloved that upgrade!
Dynaudio Audience 50 speakers saw me all the way through to 252/250. Nearly 20 years.
282/250dr just shy of two years and one of the hicaps less than a year, much to my surprise. Longest is a Bang and Olufsen BO Century that is onh conservatory wall, still going strong since I bought it new in the 90s
No idea what the shortest was at all, but my IBLâs have been with me for 30+years. I picked them out at the factory and they never went back! Well, apart from the time I had the bass driver upgrade, which was completed while I was making an afternoon visit!
In fact, Paul S and the rest the team at naim always ensured fantastic service if I ever needed it. I even recall taking my LP12 to the factory for something to be checked on it, (help was offered when I mentioned an issue with it during a phone call) and it was âtunedâ then tested in the dem room!
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Grouchy people like me enjoy a joke. But i think your wife got the better part of the deal.
Bonus points for not indulging in cruelty to animals.
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Nothing to be ashamed of there absolutely no one! did any better.
Great looking design i forgot about - prior to the Ittok best on a Linn was Grace 707 but
that also Gimble design Alphason had the makings to beat it.
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Shortest probably DAC V1, great dac but I really wanted a streamer. Think I had it for a few months at best.
Longest my beloved Ryod Priors, bought them with my original Naim gear back in â94. Excellent speakers.
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My own experience with Kans is that theyâre quite unbalanced speakers, even with a 250 up them. Great - sometimes unrivalled - with rhythmic, lively music at moderate to high-ish volumes, not so great with many other genres. And even when theyâre in their element, that excitement easily tips over into relentlessness.
Having said that, more than one person has told me that the best hi-fi theyâve ever heard, regardless of cost, was an old-school Linn / Naim system running active Kans. Active doesnât appeal to me, but Iâd certainly be curious to hear such a system, if only to find out what the fuss is about, and to put my own Kan odyssey into perspective.
I really think the deal is whether you need a full range level response speaker to make you happy or not - you can not really have the best HiFi you have ever heard if half the frequencys
are missing! at least not by my standards. I would rather have fun with JBL, Klipshorn or Tannoys, ( Big Toys?) which i am doing at the moment with a pair of Tannoy Legacy Ardens.
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A full frequency response is not at the top of my list of audio priorities. I could be entirely happy with a system that âonlyâ went down to the upper bass, as long as it preserves the energy, cohesion and expression in the music. I havenât yet heard such a system, as even that modest wish list is a tall order, but some systems have come close, and I remain hopeful.
Bingo! - shame about all that money wasted on the dog thereapist for his uncontrolled howling.