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July 15, 2007
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    From more then 6 years the stereo system hooked up to my computer is a 1980’s pickup amplifier… it’s working without any problems… and I love it :)

    Here you can see a pic.
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/vamapaull/393799976/

    vamapaull / 17/07/2007

    I belong to a group of analog rangers and we get together and listen to vinyl played through tube amps. It is nice… I love computers and designing but I hear you loud and clear on this disposable culture. The joy is in getting many years of pleasure from well made tools and nobody knows about it. Har har.

    Paul / 28/07/2007

    It’s sad, I agree. For Apple to be so… unconcerned about the unreliability of their products is because they know that people lap up their brand, and so will go right out and buy another making more profit for them.

    This won’t go on forever though. Either enough people will get pissed off wasting their hard-earned on good-looking doorstops, or their brand will be tarnished by the environmental damage that is done my making electronics that are disposable.

    I bought an 80s Arcam amp a couple of years ago and it sounds gorgeous. How about replacing your Airtunes with a Squeezebox (http://www.slimdevices.com)?

    Jason Crosse / 31/07/2007

    Yep I have a fabulous Squeezebox in my living room which I love - especially with Pandora. Guess I need to buy another!

    bren / 01/08/2007

    Yes, it’s terrible. Nik Roope and I had a chat about a ‘wear in, not wear out’ philosophy in terms of technology on the Core77 podcast we did. I can post the link if you like…

    Andy Polaine / 09/08/2007

    Comment

    In September 2004 I wrote about how I was using a 1960s B&O stereo (bought from Ebay) with my iPod and then eventually an Airtunes as a coming together of old and new technologies.

    I loved this setup. I had a beautiful (through my eyes at least) Beomaster 1000 amplifier, with all it’s wood. touchy feely controls, smells, lights and wonderful warm sound. Even though it was made in the sixties it was and still is going strong - a testament to the build quality of Bang & Olufsen. Sadly that is no longer the case. As experienced by many people my Airtunes/Airport Exress lasted about 2 years. It’s completely dead. But what astounds me about this is that Apple know that this is the case. You see apparently you don’t buy these things to give you years of service. Oh, no. You got 2 years - that’s about right according to Apple! And the same is true of my original iPod. That died long ago - and yes I replaced the battery but it’s still dead.

    Of course relatively speaking the B&O unit would have cost a fortune back in the day, and so you would have expected to get a lot of use from it. But even so, 2 years for a piece of tech is, to my mind, not long.

    I guess this is indicative of our consumption obessesed culture. Everything is short-term and disposable. Old things are seen as bad things. No need to have something last a life-time. Simply chuck it in the bin when it’s done and buy a new, updated version! But that means items like the B&O stereo would never have made it to the 21st Century if that had been the case back then. And I think that’s all a bit sad. I don’t want to be constantly surrounded by the now and the updated.

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