What's your oldest piece of audio kit still in regular use?

A minidisc player still going is very good going. Flimsy as hell.

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Bose 901 Series IV, 1979.


(and despite the hate, they sound pretty great in the right room with the right source)

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Is the Bose box on the amp a controller or something?

EQ. The 901’s consist of 9 4.5” drivers per speaker, 8 of them shooting backwards! So they have their own special EQ that brings the bass way up.

I picked up a pair of original series Bose 901’s in a garage sale in Australia … guy wanted AU$40 for them…with the EQ (120V) but no stands. He had a Luxman receiver I got too for an extra AU$10. I jokingly asked if he would take less for the 901’s…he said with a dead serous face…They are BOSE! - I said OK had to ask :wink:

I kept them for a while and even purchased new stands from Bose in Singapore and took them back to oz…the set was too much effort to bring back to Singapore so they sat at my parents.

Some year or so later I met a one of my Dad’s student’s father’s who was the rep for Bose Australasia and told him of the speakers…to cut a long story short he asked if I would donate them to the Bose museum in Sydney in return for some gear. I got a Bose wave CD/Radio for myself plus a $1000 off a any Bose system - I got my dad a Lifestyle 5 surround system that he still has to this day in White. The Luxman went to the tip…it was to old to be useful…it had 2 x tape head inputs!!! Best $50 I ever spend despite my dislike for Bose current offerings the 901’s had some creds. I still have the CD Wave Radio but the CD no longer works…probably will gut it and build a RPi inside with Ropieee and a DACAMP hat just for fun. At least its all plastic so wifi would be fine and would only need 19V to power it. I’ll make a roon ready badge for it :slight_smile: I wonder if that would class as over 20 years old now? Hope the speakers are still usable.

Multi array speakers are still around


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I dont have a lot of old hifi gear to be honest. Most of what I did have I sold recently to fund new purchases. The most significant of which were a Cambridge Audio A500 amp circa 2000 and a pair of Mordaunt Short MS20 speakers circa 1990.

I do have these though…

A 1988/89 limited edition (10 year anniversary model I think) Sony Walkman, in full working order with internal ear buds on a reel

A 1997 Sony MD Walkman in full working order

And finally a 1978 Beogram 1500 turntable which belonged to my Dad originally. This is a stock photo because mine is in the loft, and Im not going in there for anyone :wink: It does work but needs some TLC if I am honest. Edit: I guess this falls down on the ‘in regular use’ part of the OP. I do use the Walkmen(??) occasionally though

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I had the original walkman. My sister brought it back from Hong Kong before it was released in the UK. The stares I used to get! The bright orange foam on the headset didn’t help.
A car ploughing into me when I was on my bicycle brought it’s untimely demise.

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Cool! Shame it is no longer with you, it might be worth a bit to the right hipster :wink:

I used that Walkman while on my bike, pretty much everyday from the age of 13 to 17, doing my paper round. It is a small miracle it still works!

Mine survived the first time I went over a car and landed on it, I was wearing it on my hip. The second time I went over a rover and it didn’t.

Ouch! I’m fortunate enough to be able to say I have never been hit on my bike. I would have been more worried about my Walkman than myself though if I had.

It’s amazing that the bright orange foam didnt make you visible enough for drivers to avoid.

Sometimes the player will power up on its own randomly. Otherwise, it’s working fine. :slight_smile:

My Beogram 8000 linear tracker is also “out of action” but was painfully restored to working some years back until the LDR FWD and BWD lamps blew and I shelved it for a rainy day to restore once more. One of the 8…another is a Sony PS-FL99 also linear tracker…are you thinking I have a soft spot for Linear Trackers. My other linear is in the setups thread but here is a pic…

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Why is there a robot from an advanced civilization hovering over the platter?

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I loved my DQ10’s but switched them up for Martin Logan Aerius i speakers 25 years ago and those are still in my system

I have a pair of hafler 220’s one of which I built in the 1983-1986 (for both) range. They are bridged to mono and are used to this day in my system.

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@Tom_Ryburn Is that the original Peachtree Nova you have in there? I’ve got one of those, would love to compare notes. I’m trying to figure out exactly what bitrate the DAC will do (spec on peachtree’s site is a bit elusive) and how good the DAC really is. Care to share any details of your setup? looks like its an optical input you have judging by the button thats lit.

I’ve been trying Optical in fed by either a Google CCA or a MacBook Pro and also the USB via Macbook. Trying to decide which way to drive it and if doing a USB streamer on RoPieee would be a nice solution ahead of the Nova.

It is an original Nova. I’ve never got anything higher than 96MHz to play on it through the optical. I haven’t used the coax. I have used a Google CCA to feed the Nova optical and it sounds great for a very cheap solution. Also used a Pi 3 with HiFiBerry and it worked but I ran into network issues and gave up on it.


Yup, in my front room!

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Mid '80s Klipsch La Scalas - listen to them daily.

Circa 2005 Primaluna Prologue One - still a great integrated.