All this talk about how nobody likes digital has got me thinking, If it could stay just one year technologically forever, what year/years would you choose? Or maybe the present day isn't all that bad? With all the old shows on dvd now you can watch Bewitched on a roundie whenever you want.

Myself, I would stay in and around the late 50s - early 60s: new enough to get a color set with a remote, but old enough that the set would be all tube, have a high quality cabinet and a round crt, and the radios still came in nice console cabinets and used tube amplifiers, but also came with a "modern" 33 rpm stereo record changer.

I like 2008 because I can appreciate the technology of the past while enjoying modern things like the internet. If I was living in the 60's, all these vintage TVs I love would be no more interesting than a black plastic sony TV.

I'm looking towards the future myself... When all this shit with Digital TV is ironed out enough for it to be acceptible. (better tuners capable of working with weaker signals, OLED displays becoming mainstream, faster channel surfing)

I know people will want those features, otherwise there are gonna be too many pissed off people.

With all due respect to Adam, I think I'd go with today. Why? Because when I was a kid, the roundies were all over the place... Everybody had one. And therefore, there wasn't anything special about tube sets. People get interested in old TVs, I beileve, for two main reasons: Either because they take you back to your innocent youth, or because you like to have something of historical value that nobody else among your friends has. There are other reasons of course, but those are the reasons I hear about. In my case, I like the 60s color sets because I played with them, worked on them, bought & sold them all through my teen years. Now they're gone with time passed, and we always want what can't be had.

Charles

I'd pick 1997, the internet was new and not so populated with pop-ups, viruses, spam and spoof sites. My first internet computer worked for 7 years and never broke down. It used windows 95 and never had a problem with it. Back then used electronics still had some value, before we went to a totally disposable society. I needed some quick cash 6 months ago and tried to pawn my 2 year old Sanyo 27" TV set. They would not take it for any amount, not even 5 bucks. I remember in the 80's getting old color tv's and fixing then and people paying me real money for them.
and cars you could work on, my friend has a 2004 Chevy trailblazer that you unbolt the front clip to replace headlight bulbs. The dealer must do it and imagine a $200 bill to change you headlights. I miss the old days, Logan

I am like Andy, I like 2008. I do not hate digital, I just want it to work at least as well as the analog I now have(and to have the converters to be able to use my old TVs). I also like the internet, PCs, etc. As to tube TVs, I just enjoy working on them. I am very aware that a solid state television could be built(but is not) that would outlast any tube type television.

In fact, I make my living designing digital integrated circuits, so I definitely am in favor of digital in the proper applications.

Some have mentioned cars. To me modern cars are a mixed bag based on experience so far. Modern cars outdo the early ones with electronic fuel injection/engine control(much better than carbs) and safety(antilock brakes, air bags, crumple zones, handling, etc). Where they fall down is all of the plastic crap used on them such as plastic wheel covers, plastic/aluminum radiators, and plastic door handles. These are items that have failed(within 5 years no less) on the modern cars that I have owned. The metal equivalants on my 30+ year Mustang continue to work fine. Of course, it is true you can work on the older cars yourself(not true of the modern ones).

I did see an article indicating that in general, as people age, they tend to collect/like the things of their youth. Possibly this is part of the reason old TVs, radios, cars, etc. are collected. I see nothing wrong with this as it does help preserve historical items.

1955. Color TVs were here, passenger jets just over the horizon, American cars RULED-who the F*** wants something called a "Toyopet", anyhow ? The music was great, men were men & women were damn glad of it, Ike was in the White House, no cell phones, you could eat red meat & not feel guilty, if yr kid got out of line, you could cuff him in public & they didn't call the law on you....

If it stayed one year technologically forever, I would probably just want to go out and kill myself.

(I was going to elaborate on the above statement, but I found out there is no point to doing so. It sums up my opinion perfectly, nothing additional needed.)

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.

1955? With all of the rampant condoned racisim in the country, especially the old south? Also if the McCarthyism was not still going on, it had not been too long. Not my choice for sure. I do like working on TVs from that period though(unless they have the yokes with the plastic that falls apart).

We could be like the Amish who have chosen to kind of remain at one technological year(1880 something, I think). I say kind of, as they have been seen wearing tennis shoes(not around in the 1880s) and will ride in automobiles(but will not own one).

I think any year from say 1918 to 1925. Hang out with Marconi, DuMont, Bell, everything is new, everything is possible, or almost.

Zero regulation, zero airwave pollution. Government is still Small.

An attitude that the New World would not repeat the mistakes of old, and that Technology would make us all safe, healthy, and wealthy.

The Old Country was only a memory, large families lived often with the extended family (grandma, grandad) in tiny houses, but didn't know that they were crowded. That's just how it was. And it was better than their parents had.

Almost all food was grown locally, sometimes by people you knew. It was sold to you by a person you definitely knew. Everyone knew what a car was, but many had not even ridden in one yet. Ditto for aiplanes, but most summers there were young men, WWI vets, that would come round flying in with barrel-rolls over the town, and land in a farmer's field on the outskirts of town to sell rides.

You lived in a house that didn't look exactly like every other one on the block. In fact, your street had one or two empty lots, and maybe a semi-derelict house.

One of your neighbours had a Radiogramme, and your dad was reading up on how they worked and was planning to make one himself.

A time to Dream Big...

1918-1925? No treatment for TB (My grandfather on my mothers side died from it at age 52 just before antibiotics in the 1930s)? Lynchings? No treatment for polio? Are you sure?

My grandfather and grandmother did live through these years, did not get to hang out with Marconi, had to work every day on their farm just to survive(including the backbreaking work of picking cotton manually). They had no running water, only a well and outhouse and had no electricity until 1950).

2008 sounds better to me all the time(but would like to be younger in age).

1918-1925? No treatment for TB (My grandfather on my mothers side died from it at age 52 just before antibiotics in the 1930s)? Lynchings? No treatment for polio? Are you sure?

My grandfather and grandmother did live through these years, did not get to hang out with Marconi, had to work every day on their farm just to survive(including the backbreaking work of picking cotton manually). They had no running water, only a well and outhouse and had no electricity until 1950).

2008 sounds better to me all the time(but would like to be younger in age).

Well, all that is true, and my Danish grandad, a bricklayer who hardly spoke English at all, worked in the building boom in Chicago in the '20s didn't feel like Rockefeller, but he did feel wealthy relative to the folks back home. He sent his pay home to his mother in cash, by mail, by the way.

See, you can criticize all points in history, even today: where's our cure for cancer? Why isn't there universal rights for all men?

No, for me that time was flush with the excitement of the new inventions of Telegraph and Radio, plus the train, then the motorcar opened up the vast spaces of North America to all. Yet these were still far from being mature technologies, used by everyone.

You could smell the opportunity...

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.

I try to appreciate and learn from the past while enjoying the present and looking forward to the future. If things stayed the same like would be pointless.

I remember just 15 years ago having to rely on quickly outdated reference books to find out anything about films,sports,the arts,etc.I wouldnt give up 2008 and the wonderful instant reference tools of the internet for anything.And remember how hard it was,pre internet to find or sell anything vintage audio related?
Jimmy

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.

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...

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.

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...

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...

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

...

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.

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.

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

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.

I've had a '83 system 3 Zenith in the metal cabinet, I currently have a '68 tube color Zenith in the metal cabinet, but I've never seen either that 4 tube hybrid chassis, the early flat ss chassis, or that more common fold down chromacolor II ss chassis in a metal cabinet, do they exist, has anyone ever seen one?

They (Table Models) were in metal cabinets. As I remember is was not until System 3 that Zenith dropped metal for their table model cabinets.

I've had a '83 system 3 Zenith in the metal cabinet, I currently have a '68 tube color Zenith in the metal cabinet, but I've never seen either that 4 tube hybrid chassis, the early flat ss chassis, or that more common fold down chromacolor II ss chassis in a metal cabinet, do they exist, has anyone ever seen one?

I saw one four tube hybrid 23" or 25" in a metal cabinet, I've had a few CCII's in the metal cabinet, and the picture on the Sams folder for the 25EC58 horizontal SS chassis is a metal cabinet set.

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.
OK, I understand now, yes. If I had known better, in the store where I worked from March 1979 until January 1980, I could have bought, I think, about four of these 1954 GE color monitors, new in their original wooden crates:

http://earlytelevision.org/ge_4tm15.html

The bad thing is, I had already started collecting old TV sets then (the same store had an RCA 630TS in its back room that I still own), but I thought of color TV as "newer", and I was only interested in pre-1950 TV sets, so I didn't even bother with the GE monitors.

I would pick the early Seventies. Most TVs still had tubes, the Zeniths were at their peak in performance and all the sets I like from '40s Bakelite radios to Color roundies were readily available and parts could be obtained locally. AM radio was great to listen to and most people still knew what shortwave was. Most watches were still mechanical rather than quartz, music was good, TV programs were good. God I miss the Seventies. The two things I would really miss from this era are my cellphone and my laptop.