Older is better

I don’t know why I do, but I love vintage stuff. I’ve been really jonesing lately for old Pioneer audio gear that has no practical purpose in today’s world of all things digital. Honestly, I really can’t stand digital music in the form of a single, downloadable file that you stick onto an iPod or some other such device. I don’t mind the CD, because with the CD, you get the artwork, liner notes, and a CD that you actually OWN. I can see the appeal in the convenience of having your music on a little player you can take with you on a walk, or plug into an adaptor in your car, or home stereo system. I get it, I just don’t like it. I have a single CD player in my car, and I’m totally fine with that.

Why then, do I have an irrational craving for a Pioneer reel to reel tape deck? They are huge, awkward to use, provide less musical fidelity, and are prone to needing to be adjusted for the vagaries of the whole tape format. Couple that with the fact that finding recording media requires a bit of a hunt to get it. Assuming I bought one and had 10” reels on the thing, how much music could I get on a single reel of tape? 5 hours? 6 hours? I have no idea, but if you get sick of what your listening to, to find a different recording on the tape requires fast or reverse forwarding until you find the desired spot on the tape. Think of it as looking for the beginning of a song on the old cassette tape. Fast Forward. Stop. Play. Is that what I was looking for? Nope. Do I need to FF or Rev to find the spot. Repeat ad nauseum until location is found. Does anyone want to go back to that? I love the > or < buttons on CD players. Finding the next track is EASY.

What happens if a tape breaks? Do I really want to put the reel onto a splicing machine? God, no, what a pain! Given that we’re taking about tape, you KNOW there’s going to be tape hiss. Is that what I want to listen to? Not really, but I can live with it, though not ideal. Why then do I want a reel to reel player? Because they look coooool!

Feast your peepers on this bad boy… Sadly, these units run into the many 100s of dollars, and I’m just not ready to shell out that kind of dough for what I suspect might be a passing fancy. Still…

I’ve also gotten hot and bothered about the old Pioneer turntables… Again, what’s with the old stuff? Now, there are many purists who say that a well-recorded, quality wax pressing sounds superior to CDs: they are warmer and richer sounding than CDs sound. I know a number of strides have been made in CD recording technology, so that may not be as true as it once was, but playing albums really is a visceral experience. You pull the sleeve from the 12” album cover, place the disc on the platter, give the disc a good cleaning, then carefully lower the needle down onto the wax, as you sit and examine ever square inch of the album art, reading every word of of the liner notes (including credits). Ahhh! Another afternoon, wonderfully spent.

Lay some ocular heaviness on this bad boy… I knew you could. And…? Yeah, you know you want one…

OK, stepping away from all things stereo, I was looking around the other night for a new fridge. Ours has a tendency to either run too cold, freezing all our produces in the fridge or… run not cold enough so that food goes south faster than we’d like. With a bebe on the way, we need something that regulates its temperature a lot better than what we’ve got going. I start poking around for fridges, and I don’t even know what got me side-tracked, but I found a website that sells restored antique kitchen appliances. OMG!! I want a fully restored 40” gas stove from the mid-50s. I saw some I absolutely loved, but fully restored, these bad boys run anywhere from 3 to 8 thousand dollars. That’s $3,000 - $8,000 for those of you keeping score at home. These stoves look so cool, and have so many configurations that today’s stoves simply do not have. Double ovens, double broilers, some other combination, they made ‘em then to last.

When they are fully restored, they look so good, and would neatly fill up the spot in our kitchen that doesn’t look completely filled by the 36” stove that currently resides there. With all the heavy metal and polished stainless steel, these babies are the Cadillacs of appliances.

I found several websites for companies that restore antique appliances, and one of them touted the benefits of the antique appliances, and I’m sold. Just need to pull together some serious scratch. OK, maybe when I’m back to working. Until then, I can dream, can’t I? Come dream along with me…

I am giddy at this one, because this is a 1954 O'Keefe & Merritt model, in light yellow. Given that our house was built in ‘54 and the kitchen is largely wall-to-wall yellow tile, I can’t think of another unit that would better complement our kitchen than this one. Look at how that baby is lit up. Some units even have salt and pepper shakers built in to the control head.

You can have these appliances restored in a multitude of colors, so whatever strikes your fancy, you can probably get a custom appliance to match (provided, of course, you can come up with the dough for one of these).

As a culture, I think we’ve allowed ourselves to be seduced by all things quick and convenient. Unfortunately, this comes at the expense of quality and esthetics. 99 times out of 100, I will go with the older item, so long as the quality is there. Depending on the item, safety has to be taken into consideration, but I doubt playing a record will cause undue harm to my health.

Can’t wait for the day when I can listen to the reel-to-reel tapes I made from the albums I recorded on my vintage turntable, all while eating something tasty on my vintage, refurbished stove.

Ahh, the good life!