Your oldest device or gadget

[mcbraemer]

Pix 2

 

[NateW]

I have a pair of Bose 901 Direct Reflecting stereo speakers with matching equalizer that I inherited from my mother. These are the infamous "either you love them or hate them" speakers. Foam speaker surrounds are in perfect shape. In 1986 I went to Circuit City with my mother and suggested she buy the Bose 901s and she did. Still have the original sales receipt and literature. I think the speakers and equalizer were about $1800 at the time. I like them; sound great to me.

 

[Kwirk]

Wow, hundred year old tubes, impressive!-ERD50

+1


I have a happy memory of learning about electric fields, distance, and voltage from a physics problem based on vacuum tubes.

 

[JP.mpls]

Nate,
I always wanted some Bose 901 speakers.

They were just the cool audiophile speakers of my youth. I'm assuming they sound nice, but I've never experienced them.

JP

I have a pair of Bose 901 Direct Reflecting stereo speakers with matching equalizer that I inherited from my mother. These are the infamous "either you love them or hate them" speakers. Foam speaker surrounds are in perfect shape. In 1986 I went to Circuit City with my mother and suggested she buy the Bose 901s and she did. Still have the original sales receipt and literature. I think the speakers and equalizer were about $1800 at the time. I like them; sound great to me.

 

[NateW]

It takes a lot of power to drive them. From memory each speaker has 9 of the same size and type small speakers (5 inch maybe) or drivers. 4 are mounted in each of the 2 virtical sections facing rearward and one is mounted facing forward in the front panel. There are no crossovers because all the drivers are the same. That is why the Bose equalizer must be used with the 901s, to adjust the low, mid, and high frequencies (the equalizer actually attenuates the low, mid, and/or high frequency ranges out of the turntable, CD player or receiver prior to being amplified by the power amp or stereo receiver amp) to sound correct. Speaker placement and room acoustics has a major impact on sound quality and one must experiment quite a bit to get optimal placement. I use an 125 watt per channel rms, 20 hz to 20 khz @ .001THD Onkyo receiver from the 1980s to drive them. Set them up right and they sound great.

I also have a pair of same vintage EPI Time Energy speakers I bought new (for about 1/3 the price the Bose 901s were) that used to really sound great, but I think their crossover capacitors need replacing and the foam speaker surrounds are failing.

 

[Winemaker]

I use my DMIL's 1948 International Harvester refrigerator in the garage winery to cold stabilize.

 

[wmc1000]

GE Clock Radio still fully functional from the late 60's IIRC

 

[Boose]

Here is the 1940s-1950s enamel-topped kitchen table with the passing resemblance to your stove. It has a pull-out leaf, wooden base, silverware drawer and chrome legs that bolt onto the corners. We bought it in 2000; it came with four uncomfortable vinyl-upholstered chairs. The chrome "hairpin" legs on the chairs were practically worn through, which leads me to believe this set was used in a basement "summer kitchen" (as canning kitchens were known in my Italian-American community) and probably dragged across the concrete floor by many family members.

My kitchen stove. Used daily.
My guess is mid to late 1940's.

JPView attachment 35316

 

[JP.mpls]

Boose,
It is a cool table, and probably built in the same time period.

I always thought the black dash marks on my stove looked kind of art deco influenced.

Take care, JP

 

[Ex Chao]

Our oldest device / appliance is a Kitchen Aid dishwasher, Superba by Hobart, installed in 1974. We use it every day. Loud like an airplane taking off, but takes about as long as that -- including taxi-ing -- to do a load of dishes. 15-20 minutes. Planned to retire it before it dies, but at this point have less faith in a new one lasting 10 years than this one lasting 10 years more.

 

[socca]

I have been using an old MacBookPro (2006 model) along with an even older Harman Kardon speaker system to play classic rock & roll while I'm doing unpleasant tasks around the house, such as cleaning. Although the old laptop boots just fine, its days have gotta be numbered.

I'm now migrating my entire playlist to Spotify. I can play music using my new streaming LG "smart" TV and LG sound bar thanks to the Spotify app I downloaded to my TV. The sound quality with the new approach is excellent - gotta have a subwoofer to listen to rock & roll!

I thought that there were around 100 songs on my old playlist - I never bothered to count. Well, I've already added 175 songs to my Spotify playlist and have barely made a dent in my list. I'm now thinking that my entire playlist might actually have over 500 songs . Adding these songs one-by-one to a Spotify playlist is straightforward but tedious. Hopefully, I'll only need to do it once.

 

[aja8888]

My old working clock from 1900 or a bit earlier (mentioned in my earlier post):

 

[O2Bfree]

Fired up this retro beauty today, a Cory percolator from the 1950s. It was a gift to my parents from DF's mom. It's shape reminds me of early sci-fi rockets, and it still makes a good cup of coffee for the morning blast-off.

 

[gayl]

Automatic Electric Monophone circa 1934 + 1905 Western Electric phone that was unfortunately modified a long time ago with a switch to move it on & off party line. Not sure when those were. No idea why I collect old phones. I don't even have a landline phone (just use my cell)

 

[Rustic23]

I have an anvil which belonged to my grandfather. It was cut and shaped from a section of a railroad rail. I remember banging on it as a kid. Value $0.10 maybe, to me priceless!
There are a few other odds and ends like some Confederate Bills that are older but I seldom come across them.

 

[CardsFan]

Fired up this retro beauty today, a Cory percolator from the 1950s. It was a gift to my parents from DF's mom. It's shape reminds me of early sci-fi rockets, and it still makes a good cup of coffee for the morning blast-off.

I want one of those!

 

[Sunset]

I have an anvil which belonged to my grandfather. It was cut and shaped from a section of a railroad rail. I remember banging on it as a kid. Value $0.10 maybe, to me priceless!
....

That looks like it was a tremendous amount of work, seems like hacksaw marks on it for cutting the point.
I suppose in the Winter he had lots of spare time.

Possibly also explains one historical derailment

 

[Ronstar]

I have an anvil which belonged to my grandfather. It was cut and shaped from a section of a railroad rail. I remember banging on it as a kid. Value $0.10 maybe, to me priceless!
.....

Very nice!

 

[Freedom56]

Still have lots of items from the past:

From the 70's:

Fender American Stratocaster guitar
Fender American Jazz Bass
Kramer American DMZ 3000 Bass
Kramer American DMZ 3000 Guitar
Martin D-10 Acoustic Guitar.
Ovation 12 string acoustic guitar.
Yamaha classical guitar
Yamaha acoustic guitar

PAIA Analog Synthesizer (built from a kit - Still works)

From the 80's

Harmon Kardon (US Made) stereo amplifier
Carver power amplifier

Roland D-50 Synthesizer

Sony Walkman (still works)

Ricoh Mirai 35-135mm Film Camera (still works)


From the 90's

Proteus 2000 Synthesizer Module
Korg TR Rack Synth Module
Roland A-90 Midi Controller (Piano)

JVC 5.1 Surround Sound Receiver with JBL 5.1 Speakers
Onkyo 5.1 Surround Sound Receiver with Energy Speakers

Panasonic Tape/CD Boombox (still works)

Nikon Coolpix Digital Camera (still works)

Early 2000's

Sony CD/MP3 Boombox

Yamaha Motif ES Synth Module
Roland Fantom XR Synth Module

Canon EOS 10D (first Digital SLR - still works)

A few years ago a sold a Vectrex Video game system from the 80's in near mint condition with 14 games for about eight times what I paid. My guitars are worth considerably more than what I paid for them in the 70's. Sometimes it's worth keeping older items.

 

[street]

I missed this thread some how. I like threads like this makes it fun and not all discussion about money.

We have many things we have in the home that are from late 1800's very early 1900's. As for devices and gadgets we use today that are old is an electric knife 34 years old and a snow blower that is 34 years old. All work like brand new. The snow blower has done a lot of work and fears no snow. Lol

A few pictures of old things that came from great grand parents, we have that are over 100 years old. A animal medicine cabinet and horse collars from grand dads saddle/harness shop.

 

[Badger]

I have an acoustic EKO 12 string guitar I bought new in 1969 (50+ years ago). They were popular in Europe at the time. It is still in showroom condition.


Then there is a 1951 Philco radio on which I listened to rock-n-roll in the early 60s. Unfortunately radio in my area is not so good anymore. Especially AM.


I also have an electric drill that belonged to my father that is at least 60 years old.


Cheers!

 

[brett]

Sony clock radio. Purchased in 1978.

 

[kcowan]

Uniden cordless phone system for use with landline. Batteries replaced many times.

 

[W2R]

My slide rule, which I got in 1966 when I started college. The (lesser) one that I bought in 1960 has somehow vanished after the passage of time.

 

[Walt34]

My slide rule, which I got in 1966 when I started college. The (lesser) one that I bought in 1960 has somehow vanished after the passage of time.

That reminds me, I do have my father's large slide rule, complete with leather case, that I inherited when he passed away. One thing that I really did want of his that I never could find was the tie clip that had the formula for the escape velocity of a rocket on it. Last seen about 1966 or so.