I thought I missed physical media but it turned out I just missed fancy playback equipment. I do have piles of vinyl and CDs, what has really gotten out of han

I thought I missed physical media but it turned out I just missed fancy playback equipment. I do have piles of vinyl and CDs, what has really gotten out of hand for me is classic, aluminium faced stereo equipment of the 1970s and early 80s. Big tactile knobs and switches. Hums, thumps, lights, crazy control schemes, wires going everywhere. The beautiful bearings and smooth operation of good quality japanese direct drive turntables. Brushed aluminium and timber cheeks on receivers. The insane mechanical genius of 3 head cassette players with multiple belts and auto stop mechs. The tuners too. Hefty weighted knobs, VU meters or staged lighting showing the signal strength and that magic little stereo light when you get it tuned right. Its fun to play with, simple enough to tinker with and repair with mostly discrete components. The music sounds right too. Its got pops and hisses and those big power amps thump and wallop and send me back to when I first heard those tunes. You have to sit and listen and not skip tracks or skip genres. When I showed my daughter how to find her favourite track by counting the grooves on an LP it was like a rite of initiation. There is magic in that classic gear.