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Assuming 8 hours of use a day, this would last at least 10 years. Does audio equipment suffer less from the disposable electronics culture that we have with com

Assuming 8 hours of use a day, this would last at least 10 years. Does audio equipment suffer less from the disposable electronics culture that we have with computers?

bayindirh 8y ago
I have an AKAI AM-2850 amplifer older than me. Its VU meters a bit lazy, but otherwise it's still shaking the house. I'm no way getting rid of it! P.S.: I generally dispose any of my devices when they let their magic smoke out. Computers stay at least five years and upcycled. Mine -> Family -> Extended family -> so on.
jdietrich 8y ago
Computers generally become obsolete at some point. Most audio equipment doesn't - newer equipment might be cheaper, more reliable or more convenient to use, but it probably doesn't sound any better. The cachet and mystique surrounding vintage equipment means that it often appreciates in value with age. Vacuum tubes are considered obsolete in pretty much any other field, but they're still the gold standard for guitar amplifiers. Despite huge advances in digital modelling, many guitarists still strongly prefer traditional tube amplifiers. Tube amplifiers are fragile, finicky, incredibly heavy and frequently too loud for domestic use, but they sound superb. The NuTube is by no means the first product to promise the sound of tubes in a lighter and more reliable package, nor will it be the last.
anigbrowl 8y ago
Yes. The secondary market for audio gear is very healthy, even for things that have stopped working and may only be useful for parts. It's so healthy that building modern clones of classic early innovations is a sustainable business model. Electronic music exists as it does because the advent of digital synthesis/recording technology in the 1980s led to mass abandonment of analog gear by rock and pop musicians, which was eagerly snapped up by broke hippies and hip-hop DJs. Commercial musicians jumped on the digital bandwagon for reliability, range, and repeatability (sounds stored as easily-recallable software presents instead of requiring tedious rewiring and knob-twiddling or having 10 keyboards on stage). Also, commercial musicians had mostly used synthesizers to substitute for acoustic instruments; it's cheaper to hire a keyboard player than a string or a brass section, and digital synthesis and sampling offered more realistic imitations than was possible with analog gear. Electronic musicians are more interested - no, obsessed = by the timbral characteristics and weirdness of the instruments themselves. I know people who have dedicated years of their lives to analysing and reproducing the characteristics of discontinued instruments like the TB-303 bassline as if it were a Stradivarius. Synth circuit engineers are venerated like stars at music equipment trade shows, and the social hierarchy of electronic musicians is ordered by their known propensity for experimenting or modifying their gear rather than commercial success. It's an interesting ecosystem. Anyway, rest assured that few if any of the products using this component will end up in a landfill.
colechristensen 8y ago
It is difficult to make audio equipment disposable. There's no Moore's Law-driven metric and anything low durability is obvious enough.

Assuming 8 hours of use a day, this would last at least 10 years. Does audio equipment suffer less from the disposable electronics culture that we have with computers?

bayindirh 8y ago

I have an AKAI AM-2850 amplifer older than me. Its VU meters a bit lazy, but otherwise it's still shaking the house. I'm no way getting rid of it! P.S.: I generally dispose any of my devices when they let their magic smoke out. Computers stay at least five years and upcycled. Mine -> Family -> Extended family -> so on.

jdietrich 8y ago

Computers generally become obsolete at some point. Most audio equipment doesn't - newer equipment might be cheaper, more reliable or more convenient to use, but it probably doesn't sound any better. The cachet and mystique surrounding vintage equipment means that it often appreciates in value with age. Vacuum tubes are considered obsolete in pretty much any other field, but they're still the gold standard for guitar amplifiers. Despite huge advances in digital modelling, many guitarists still strongly prefer traditional tube amplifiers. Tube amplifiers are fragile, finicky, incredibly heavy and frequently too loud for domestic use, but they sound superb. The NuTube is by no means the first product to promise the sound of tubes in a lighter and more reliable package, nor will it be the last.

anigbrowl 8y ago

Yes. The secondary market for audio gear is very healthy, even for things that have stopped working and may only be useful for parts. It's so healthy that building modern clones of classic early innovations is a sustainable business model. Electronic music exists as it does because the advent of digital synthesis/recording technology in the 1980s led to mass abandonment of analog gear by rock and pop musicians, which was eagerly snapped up by broke hippies and hip-hop DJs. Commercial musicians jumped on the digital bandwagon for reliability, range, and repeatability (sounds stored as easily-recallable software presents instead of requiring tedious rewiring and knob-twiddling or having 10 keyboards on stage). Also, commercial musicians had mostly used synthesizers to substitute for acoustic instruments; it's cheaper to hire a keyboard player than a string or a brass section, and digital synthesis and sampling offered more realistic imitations than was possible with analog gear. Electronic musicians are more interested - no, obsessed = by the timbral characteristics and weirdness of the instruments themselves. I know people who have dedicated years of their lives to analysing and reproducing the characteristics of discontinued instruments like the TB-303 bassline as if it were a Stradivarius. Synth circuit engineers are venerated like stars at music equipment trade shows, and the social hierarchy of electronic musicians is ordered by their known propensity for experimenting or modifying their gear rather than commercial success. It's an interesting ecosystem. Anyway, rest assured that few if any of the products using this component will end up in a landfill.

colechristensen 8y ago

It is difficult to make audio equipment disposable. There's no Moore's Law-driven metric and anything low durability is obvious enough.