Phonoland

I'm with you, Doghouse. My son and his friends are now discovering vintage electronics and have asked me to set them up.

Dog, I deal with young people in our restaurants nearly every day. It is not really the reproducing tech that is of interest, even the Ipod is now passè, it is the whole concept of having ALL your music with you at all times and not paying anything for it.

Within the last 5-6 year a video component has become semi-essential too. The recording and radio industries have taken the biggest hits. This was all foreseeable by early 2000 when Napster made file sharing easy for the masses. The sale of music is down by a full 50% since 1999 and a combination of factors have shown the radio listening is off by around 30% overall and a high percentage for those under age 25.

My jukebox business is off by as much as 50% in some locations and I doubt I'll bother setting up any new locations.

Against all that, I have discovered a HUGE amount of wonderful music and video I would never have found on the old "push mediums". Old songs that never get on the air here in NYC. New material, much of it from Thailand, and other Asian countries that will probably never get an airing on American mainstream media are a part of every day now.

The changes have gored the careers of several friends in the recording and broadcasting industries, but even-so, I would hate to be again stuck with the limitations of the old regimes.

Rob/NYC

Im only in my 30s, but I love vintage gear. As a child I was always fascinated by my dads records and his Technics SLD2 turntable which I still own and use all the time. The fascination with records then translated to gear. In my house I have a windup gramophone that's been in my family from new, a couple of 50s and 60s valve based auto changers (by Bush), an old 50s radio, my Jukebox and probably other things I cant recall!

One of my friends refers to them affectionately as my "redundant music delivery systems"

That said I also enjoy digital music and have all my CDs ripped to a server and a nice hifi DAC to connect to my main system. iPods are also useful, but I must say sound like crap to my ears. The problem with having everything with you is, what do you play? Sometimes having limited choice is simpler. My collection is too diverse to shuffle, or I end up with a strange mix which Im not in the mood for.

I agree with Rob, Im not sure I'd go back to how things used to be, but I certainly enjoy doing so now that I can choose between the old stuff and the new.