Re:Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Mara...
by hakfoo on Thursday May 08, 2025 @12:19AM
(#43923024)
As someone with a metre-high stack of vintage recievers in his closet, I think a significant part of the appeal is the feelie aspect. If you put the guts of a Marantz 22xx in a black plastic case with a modern RCA logo in it, it would languish for five years in the back of a Goodwill.
But the feelies are the hard part. An attractive bespoke case is expensive to build and ship. Some of the stuff (high-grade tuning capacitors) probably simply can't be had in quantity without opening a new production line.
I know there are a bunch of DIY kits that claim to be circuit-equivalent to popular vintage amplifier designs, and there's the Akitika range, but they're still not really a turnkey "it's your favourite vintage model, but with zero hours on it"
But the feelies are the hard part. An attractive bespoke case is expensive to build and ship. Some of the stuff (high-grade tuning capacitors) probably simply can't be had in quantity without opening a new production line.
I know there are a bunch of DIY kits that claim to be circuit-equivalent to popular vintage amplifier designs, and there's the Akitika range, but they're still not really a turnkey "it's your favourite vintage model, but with zero hours on it"