What's new Pussycat too?

ABSOLUTELY ACE/AWESOME! I could easily run out of suitable positive adjectives so I'll just say that I adore your new-look displays, Matt, and keep the great show ever improving - your retro collection must be second to none in terms of aesthetic presentation and the sheer variety of it all and how well you mod, improve, care and show it all. You can feel the lurve from here! Keep it going and lovely to see the Retro Gamer 7800 UK mag on show too!

 

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO YOU TOO, MATT!! Sorry for shouting... memo to oneself... turn the bloody CAPS LOCK off Baz.... darn, did it again! ;-)

 

I do indeed mate. Lovely little bit of kit. I just got the MC 2 SIO adaptor which fits in the memory card slot and takes a microSD card. Runs games buttery smooth and well worth the 20 quid or so it cost. It means I no longer have to faff about with putting images on to hard drive via the PS2 network card.

 

Continuing to fill out my collection of Rush music, after rediscovering my favorite group over the summer, I just purchased an audiophile quality box set of their classic Permanent Waves album and three more albums on CD. Roll the Bones, Counterparts and Test for Echo. The LP is a classic 70's album, the CD's complete their albums released during the 1990's.



Between CD's and audiophile quality vinyl, I now have 12 of their 21 studio albums, stretching from 1975 (first 2 albums came out in '73/74) through 2012, the last studio album; though more live albums came later. (The band disbanded in 2015/16 due to health of drummer Neil Peart).

I also have 1 of 4 live albums, a Blu-ray and Laserdisc of live shows and a graphic art DVD version of one of the 70's albums I have. 16 discs of musical masterpieces (actually more since some are multi-disc albums/sets).

I only need two more 70's albums to complete that decade and one more for the 2000's era. I still am missing the majority of their 80's work, but that's their weakest era, IMHO, of making the greatest progress rock/hard rock music of all time (which means even their weak stuff is better than everything else, IMHO, of course).

 

I found a few more Rush album deals and I had a bit extra money so I decided to get them, as they are the best prices I've seen for each and prices are on a drastic increase in the audio market now too, for vintage and new remasters/limited editions of classic artists.

So I have a remastered CD version of Caress of Steel coming (I have the original pressing on vinyl), Presto audiophile class on LP and Different Stages, a 1998 release of live performances covering much of their history.

 

The Caress of Steel CD arrived today. So below is my complete audio/video collection of Rush on-hand so far, with 6 more on the way...

The three at the bottom are Laserdisc, DVD&CD and Blu-ray material. The rest are studio albums or live albums. Caress of Steel, 2112 and Clockwork Angels I have on both CD and LP.

 

Great sound, great artwork and some great purchases there, Matt.

Great job, mate.

Also getting into my 80s music too at the mo so can well appreciate how much this collection means to you.

 

No disrespect, metal was never my thing, but I'm happy to see someone get some goodies

 

You keep mentioning you're not into metal music. You do realize Rush is NOT metal don't you? I didn't give it much thought the previous times, just thinking, as you, "to each their own", but if you are referring to Rush as a metal band, then you must have never heard them and someone told you wrong. They are Progressive Rock, like Yes and Kansas, with a bit of Led Zeppelin thrown in. But if you have heard some of their work and you consider it to be "metal" then you must consider the Beach Boys and Simon & Garfunkel as "hard rock!"

They were a HUGE influence on bands like The Foo Fighters. They have some harder tunes I'd call "hard rock" but they are not a metal band. This is NOT like Slayer or Iron Maiden or Metallica: Metal bands.

Not only do they make progressive music, but their music itself progressed as Rock music progressed. You can tell by the sound and style what era of Rush you are listening too. In the 70's, 80, 90's and 2000's their music never got stale, it progressed with the times which is how they stayed relevant with hit record after hit record for 40+ years.

Here are links to a few of their more well known songs:

(If you like any Rock music at all @Paul "Mclaneinc" Irvine , give these 5 songs a listen and give Rush a chance. If you aren't a fan of Rush after you listen to them, I will buy and send you any music CD you want. If you are a fan, after, I'll send you one of their "best of/greatest hits" CD's. It's win-win for you, all I ask is that you listen to all 5 before you pass judgement, to give you a taste of different sounds from them)

Fan favorite:
Closer to the Heart


My favorite:
Red Barchetta


Radio hit:
Spirit of Radio



Radio hit:
Tom Sawyer


Radio hit:
Limelight


Those songs above, are what are known as their "radio friendly" songs, meaning there length is 5 minutes or less, like the top 40 radio stations prefer (2-3 minute average). They are VERY well known for their long, epic, story-driven songs that are anywhere from 10-20 minutes long with many transitions to the music, so it doesn't get old like you are listening to a 2 minute song dragged out to 10 minutes. The type of songs you set aside time to just sit in your easy chair or on your bed and kick back, close your eyes and let the music take you on a journey.

You know what "Rock Operas" are I'm sure, like The Who's Tommy. Well, these are not Rock Operas (operas done to rock music), these are "Opera's of Rock" (story telling in Opera-esque form through rock music) or "Rock Symphonies." They are musical stories of fantasy or sci-fi in nature.

Rush's third album 'Caress of Steel' (in no way referring to "heavy metal," they caress the strings...well maybe a bit of making them scream) was the first with a couple of long "rock symphonies" on it. One of my and many a true fan's favorite albums, but it was a commercial failure. Mercury Records, at the time, gave them one more chance, ordering them to keep all the songs short and "radio friendly" for singles to be released, etc. and in rebellion, Rush decided they were going to do music their way or not at all and decided if they were going down, they would go down in flames making their dream album instead.

The album was 2112, and an entire side took up the 20 minute song by the same title, in like six chapters. The album was a hit, eventually becoming triple-platinum the first in a loong list of consecutive gold and platinum albums. After that, Mercury records gave Rush all the freedom they wanted and they went on to have a 40+ year career and became a super-group in the end, selling out stadium shows averaging 40 thousand people per show, their largest ever was in 2003 in Rio Brazil where they played three nights with crowds of 40 thousands the first two nights and 60 thousand the last night, a record, I believe. (for a single band concert with no opening acts at all) They are actually considered to be one of the best live acts ever, and are consistently considered to be better sounding live in concert than even on their studio albums (practice, practice, practice!).

They changed from Mercury to Atlantic Records in 1989 when they achieved "super group" status, out growing arenas and theatres and filling stadiums and amphitheatres. They formed in 1968 in high school, but their first albums wasn't released until 1974, with one to two albums per year until 1989! After that they slowed down to about 3 new albums per decade.

They always kept the epics to one side of the album though, and had shorter songs on the other side...until their very last studio album in 2012, 'Clockwork Angels' where for the first time in their history, and last, they made a full concept album instead of half of one. But they did arrange it more so there are individual songs or parts that can stand alone as singles.

They were inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of fame in 2013, and are number 3 behind only the Beatles and the Rolling Stones for the most consecutive Gold and Platinum albums in a discography! With 14 reaching Gold or Platinum and 3, 3x multi-platinum albums, consecutively! (20 studio albums; one being a cover album of 60's bands they grew up with, so 19 of original content) They also have multiple greatest/best of albums by both Mercury and Atlantic records and about 7 live compilation and full single concert albums released.

They are widely considered to be GOAT's (greatest of all time) with the drummer Neil Peart being at least in the top 5 if not number 1 drummer in history. Did you notice how clean, precise, and on time it all sounds? And how full it all sounds from just 3 members? They play multiple instruments each.

The Drummer, Neil Peart, (P-ear-t, not "Purt") also wrote the vast majority of their songs and the other two wrote the music. Guitarist/keyboards/back-up vocalist Alex Lifeson and Bassist/keyboards/vocalist Geddy Lee regarded as top 10 on their instruments.

Below is a fan favorite of one of their songs live in concert. This song is an instrumental and just see how the crowd reacts to even a non-vocal song by Rush! If you choose not to listen to the others, or not all of them, you must at least watch this video below, this is a must see performance that will blow your mind as to what a real concert is! And as an added bonus for you Brits, the song is titled "YYZ" and yes, it is pronounced correctly the British way as YYZED! They are a Canadian band after all...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eSlvoO3Vw8

Yes, all the information I just shared about the band is all correct and off the top of my head, that's how big a fan I am of them. I can even give you a full biography of each of their lives. I can tell you what their favorite pass-time activities are, too, and list not only every album in chronological order off the top of my head, but all the songs on each album too, in order, for at least half their albums! I can tell you what any given song of theirs is, in three notes or less. with an average of 8 songs an album, over 19 albums...you do the math...about 150 songs...

 

If you made it through all of that Paul, and you have changed your mind about Rush not being "your cup of tea," well that was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Rush. I don't want to throw you off the iceberg into the deep quite yet, but just hang your feet over side into the waters.

Maybe you happen to recall the movie Star Trek: The Wrath of Kahn? In that movie when Kirk goes down to the planetoid to recover the Genesis device and encounters his old flame and meets his son, his old flame says something to the effect of "Let me show you something that will make you feel young, as when the world was young."

Well, this Rush song will make you feel young, as when rock was young. But also make you realize that up to that point, you have never truly heard what rock music could be, what rock music should be. Not just musical noise with a beat, but a rock and roll masterpiece that in the generations and centuries to come, like classical symphonies, ballads and chamber music, will stand the test of time and be considered a great musical masterpiece in the same light as the great composers of ages past. This is the epitome of a rock symphony...This is still just the beginning...



Maybe I should have started you on this one before the more main-stream Rush songs, even if they are light-years above most main-stream rock.

 

I only got to hear a bit of one song, we have a few problems here at the moment..

Sounded like Supertramp to me, well of that feel...

Somehow I got it in my head that it was heavy metal, won't be my last mistake..

Will try and get some less manic time to have a proper listen, just wanted you to know I had seen the post..

Paul..

 

A few of their songs I guess might feel a bit like Supertramp, another band I do like, I just never gave it much thought. But we'd have to check the time-line between songs to know for sure if one might have inspired the other.
I'll make you a Rush fan yet...well, you will really decide for yourself you are one, I'm sure, after you've heard these songs through... But just to make sure you know after one song that Rush only sounds like Rush, for the most part, besides maybe a few beats or riffs, may I suggest when you get back to it, to listen to the song in the second post first (it's 10 min. but I guarantee you will enjoy it and wish the song (instrumental) was longer...La Villa Strangiato

 

I shall be giving RUSH a good going over this weekend, Matt. My mate Johnny was always a big fan (he of Oric and Spooky Mansion fame). In fact, Jumpin Johnny liked the band Rush so much... he named his dawg after the band. Cheers for the recommendations and video short cuts - they will be on my playlist this weekend after I have returned from Sunderland and also fixed the god damn DVD/VHS player which has swallowed (and jammed within) a ruddy "slipped disc"... just my luck

 

So old school Andy, the kids these days are into those new fangled Laserdisc movies I hear.

 

LOL! That's ironically hilarious and pitiful at the same time, in my case anyway; I just purchased a RUSH live album on Laserdisc called Chronicles. And just before I came to check the forum sites I started unpacking my VHS and S-VHS tapes and putting them away in a nice antique artist's supply cabinet! Along with those other high-tech media discs I have including my Laserdisc collection and my CED vinyl movie collection! Last week I got my VHS, S-VHS, Laserdisc and CED players connected to my 70's JVC component stereo system.

I'm just old school all around and proud of it! But I keep up with them times some what. I have those new fangled VCD/DVD/Blu-ray players and game consoles from the 70's through 2010's all hanging around my stereo system too.

You say I should move on to streaming? I don't have a boat...

Or, wait a minute...was that a jab at me due to my "new" Rush Laserdisc I posted on here a week or two ago? I like jabs where I am referred to as a "kid."

 

Sounds like the job will mainly be removing and replacing removed screws to open the DVD/VHS and get the disc. As long as you can pull the disc out easily, that should be all it takes to get her running again. I also have a DVD/VHS combo still. Though I have a Blu-ray that can play DVD's and an S-VHS that can play standard VHS, i keep it around for one reason; the old DVD player in that unit can play my VCD movie discs and my new Blu-ray does not support VCD's anymore. I have a Panasonic DVD that will play VCD's, but it's laser went out and it won't read any discs now. So I pulled out the old DVD/VHS combo.

I'll take a few pics and post them here this weekend, focusing on my old media players and consoles and the media itself too. I had to sacrifice my second tape component to my JVC to make room for these other devices. But I wasn't using it any more as I don't dub tapes anymore, I just record other media to cassette tapes, so I only need one cassette deck now.

It's just a bit saddening because the two cassette decks together made a world-class dubbing system for tapes, but there is just no sense in making copies of tapes when there are a bunch of other media sources that are superior and will create a superior tape copy. No more making mix tapes from cassettes. Just mix tapes from every other superior type of music media!

I have a future project in mind for my old cassette tape collection, in fact. I'm going to invest in a bunch of superior high-bias metal tapes, open up all my old cassette music collection, remove their old worn tapes, install the new metal tapes in the cassette cases and then record the original music back onto them, but with new remastered source material and all those old cassettes will sound even better with higher fidelity than the original normal bias tapes were when new!

I also removed my second turntable and another VHS I had since I moved in the combo machine. I only had that VHS set-up because my S-VHS player needs to be fixed. But now I have the combo player for that too. The S-VHS is just a matter getting up the nerve as it was a broken gear that I fixed, but I'm having trouble getting all the little mechanical bits and bobs that load and eject the tape to synchronize so it can load and eject! Maybe I'll make that adventure this weekend myself.

 

You know what, Matt, you are even more coco loco than me when it comes to retro-dabbling, disc discovering, retrograde tape restoring, blu ray re-badging and VHS/VCD vanquishing... I thought I was pretty much past any hope of salvation but you take every biscuit and cookie in the store, mate.

I doff my hat in your general direction, clean my tape heads on my seventies star jumper and demagnetize my digital dungarees... you have got the retro geek market absolutely nailed on, fella...



Baz in his heyday with some fellow tape/jumper munchers

 

You are the one in red, correct? The HAIR! Still, it's better than my late 80's mullet! Unfortunately the mullet is making a come back!

And Coco Loco certainly fits me to a "T" since I also own a vintage Coco computer!

I still need a VHS deck because I have several VHS collections that are out of print in any media format, like National Geographic tapes and American Civil war, WWI, WW2, Vietnam film collections and other military videos on all sorts of military machines, old Nasa stuff, etc.

And then there are collections that I could replace with newer media, but it would just be so damned expensive. Like my John Wayne box set movie collections and other various box-sets. Actually the same is true with my Laserdisc and DVD collections too. New Blu-rays would be great, but the cost would be enormous. But also, like my recently acquired RUSH Laserdisc, which has been out-of-print since the age of the VHS and Laserdisc. I couldn't get it on DVD or Blu-ray if I wanted, or I would have...

 

Here are photos of my audio-video electronics set-up I promised to post. I still need to clean some components up a bit.

capturing the cabinets. A standard 80/90's entertainment center.



The other is an artist's supply storage cabinet. An antique I got from my grandfather. He had it in his dorm room while attending the Chicago Art Institute back between world war I and the roaring 20's. He met my grandmother there. The top part normally lifts up and has an arm to hold it up and is meant for overnight storage of unfinished art. There's nothing in the top atm since I can't open it due to placement which is basically regulated by my small room and everything I am currently cramming into it until I get more space.

Here is my JVC component stereo (circa 1978/79) minus a second tape deck for dubbing. And on the bottom, from bottom up are my RCA CED player, Sony Super VHS deck, and my Symphonic dual VHS/DVD deck.



Next upwards is one of the best cassette decks for recording and playback ever made, quite literally a legend in the cassette deck realm.



Above that is my JVC amplifier-one of the best in is price range with features usually found on amplifiers costing hundreds or thousands more. One of the interesting features about this amplifier and found out by accident, when I bought the Pyle Amplifier to temporarily replace it, is that it is an integrated amplifier, which I mistakenly took that it was somehow referring to the entire component system as being integrated. But it actually means that it serves as both a pre-amp to all the components and the final amp.



Which means none of the components have there own line-level amplification! They wouldn't work directly plugged into the new amp! But since I had to purchase a pre-amp for the turntable anyway, as I automatically knew without a specific phono input, it had no pre-amp on board for the turntable. But I have to have all the JVC components run through that pre-amp too, via a switchbox, until I get around to finish repairing my JVC amp (I was waiting on parts, which came recently).

My new Pyle surround amplifier is on top of the JVC amp. A great amp considering it was only $100!


Next up is my JVC tuner (another legend in tuners) and my recently acquired JVC equalizer on top of the tuner-meant for a lower-end JVC system than mine, and I didn't realize it was narrower and didn't match the size of the other components until I got it. But it works fine with the system and better than no equalizer and it matches the rest in color and styling.



Up top is my Pioneer turn-table, another feat of engineering for the original price, I love it and made it as good as a higher end JVC with the upgraded needle and cartridge head. Next to it is my Pioneer laserdisc & 5 CD carousel deck. A mid-range one that lack S-video out, but I'm going to mod it for S-video.



The rest up top and on the wall shelves are my consoles which you have all seen in pics posted before.



To the right of the stereo system is my late model Sanyo flat screen tube CRT TV that still works great, I use it mostly with my vintage 8-bit consoles. It is an "enhanced definition" 480p TV that does automatically upscale all 480i video input into 480p. But I mostly use my projector with my video-to-VGA up-scaler/converter which can upscale to 720p and has 3D motion-adaptive comb filtering so it makes old 480i signals even better than the Sanyo TV.

I just got a used Roku device that has both video and HDMI outs, so it will be hooked up to the TV and my projector. Above the TV are all my switch boxes and video converter/up-scalers so everything can be hooked into my TV, projector and stereo at the same time and I just flick switches for what I want to use. And yes, I even still forget and confuse myself keeping track of them all, even with labels, so I am going to re-label with color coding. I also have my LG Blu-ray and Panasonic DVD decks by the switch boxes too, since they are so small.



Lastly for hardware, here is my Masterworks 8-track player deck from the late 60's early 70's era sometime. It still works fine. I only have to replace one missing light bulb cover for choosing a track. It's a wooden case that I repaired and repainted to match my other black and silver components better.



Last, a look inside my antique cabinet where I store my records, tapes, VHS tapes, CD's, laserdiscs and CED discs in caddies. All the white albums you see are my albums that got water damaged and I could only save the records themselves and give them new sleeves and covers. right now I just have written on them what is inside, but I intend to printout images of the original cover art and glue them to the covers. The ones to the right are all my new Rush albums and CD's. My older, meager CD collection is above the records and my laserdiscs and CED discs on the bottom. Cassette tapes are bottom right and a fraction of all my VHS tapes fit in the cabinet, so I mostly just put the stuff there that are out of print and can't be had in a modern format. I also have a bunch of blank T-120 videocassettes and C-50 audio cassettes for recording onto behind the box sets of VHS tapes.

where I have the LP's I recently built shelves for, as originally vertical slats for holding artist's frame canvas's and whatnot were originally stored.



I also have two racks not pictured (clearly anyway) of DVD/Blu-rays and video game discs for the various disc based game systems I own.

So that's my Coco loco vintage electronics. I have other old audio/video equipment but they are all redundant back-ups (and inferior to what is set-up) I don't need as long as these are working.

For example, I do have a pretty nice Onkyo Amplifier, mid to late 80's model, 4-channel stereo, but it is just stereo, the rear speakers are merely repeats of front left and right and it's only 180 watts or 45 watts per channel (decent but not great). Equivalent on a single channel basis (45 watt), to my new Pyle amp, but the Pyle is 5.1 surround so 45x6=270 watt.

And the Onkyo has a channel out that needs repair, but the JVC amp comes first, because it is 400 watt, 100 per channel and it's 4 channels are true Quadrophonic, not just double stereo out. And quadraphonic is literally just the original name for surround 4.0. And yes, that means that the front and rear, left and right channels of 5.1 surround work as they should off of modern 5.1 surround media, and the center channel and subwoofer channels are only there on modern surround due to the short comings of small, modern surround sound system speakers: the center channel is just L/R front combined to help enhance the vocals and other mid-range in movies, and the subwoofer channel is to make up for a lack of bass out of the small surround speakers.

There is plenty of bass out of 4 large floor speakers with 16" woofers. And the other 2-way mid and tweeter speakers on 3-way floor speakers are powerful enough to accomplish a virtual center channel with stereo/surround sound scaping. The DIY redneck subwoofer I recently made is for the subwoofer out on my Pyle amp, to give a bit more bass kick since I only have 45 watts running out to 100 watt speakers. I don't need it for the JVC amp, and there is no low-frequency extraction on the JVC for just bass to the subwoofer so if I did splice it into the system I'd be getting the entire frequency range through it as a mono speaker. In fact, the only reason I'll keep the Pyle with the JVC once it is fixed is it's Bluetooth capability and MP3's from SD & USB thumb drives. So I'll still use that amp once in a while instead of the JVC when I want to use those features. 4 speakers will be connected to two amps at the same time, but only one amp will be on at any given time. And of course the Pyle amp will also have the center speaker and sub connected to it alone.

 

Loving the setup Matt, especially those older cabinets. Very nice.

 

It's all wonderful and blows my formica-formed mind, Al.
I aspire to have this kind of kit creating a sonic boom in my Retro room.
Cheers once more, Matt, for sharing.

 

Thanks for your appreciation of it all guys. It's the culmination of slowly collecting different audio/video components over the last 3 decades. Most of the audio/video kit I was given for free over time from friends, family and neighbors that are busy keeping up with the Jones', suckered into replacing perfectly good equipment by marketing tactics of corporations, and old equipment was either offered as they knew of my electronics hobbies or I saved it from the junk piles before it was hauled of to the dump. The perfectly working Sanyo CRT TV, I grabbed off the side of the road, put out for garbage and I saved it. I did buy a replacement remote for it of ebay for $10. Some of it is mine from back in the day and I just keep and maintain it all instead of constantly out with the old, in with the new like most consumers. I get the new, but keep the old too. Except for audio equipment; today's stuff may have features like 5.1 and blu-ray etc., but the sound coming out of them is a pale comparison to the sonic audio systems of yesteryear, like the JVC stereo.

 

I'm similar, Matt.
I hate chucking anything electrical (esp hifi and micro/radio/video) and whenever I hear of folks lobbing out old kit - or they know to come to me now anyway - I make a beeline for such kit.
It might not be needed now BUT I know in my heart that I will find a place and a role for it soon and sure enough, more often than not, I give the gear a new lease of life.
Fast Eddie was round last night/this morning til 2am and he was looking over my separates and he said... Didn;t you used to have this stuff with me in the flat about 20yrs ago? I said yeah I did and then I stored it away and it gathered dust but I always knew it would come in handy for some project eventually so just like you Matt, here we go now in its new incarnation giving pleasure to ale drinkers in a 80s retro bar garage project - all assembled for next to nowt as the speakers were destined for the tip and donated by a mate.
Gives us all a warm glow inside when we see this brilliant old kit back in action and you're one of the best examples of a guy doing just that, Matt.
Shine on, you crazy diamond... ;-)

 

@Andy Barr We are just the few and the proud who go against the disposable culture of everything these days, and see the value in what we have, remember the hard work we put in to have the money to purchase our material possessions or if it was used and given or found, the hard work we put in repairing and restoring it. And all the years of care that has kept them in good condition now.

We look at material possessions as our ancestors did before disposable mass-production and built-in obsolescence, that they should be truly owned and expect that we should have them for the rest of our lives and maybe even leave them as an inheritance to future generations. In the disposable mind-set of modern society nothing is truly owned, because when it breaks they pay for another, when it loses it's luster, instead of restoring and maintaining, throw it out and replace it, if something that they perceive as better comes along they replace it.

To me this is not ownership, it's leasing, just like leasing a car and you move on to the next in a few years, forever paying instead of enjoying material possessions that are payed for and owned so you can use your money on more important things. We few take advantage and gain unwanted material possessions from others and make them like new and enjoy them knowing they were free, we truly own them, and take pride in their repair, restoration and use until the end of our days.

But I also wonder how many vintage electronic or any other material possession collector's and user's only care for that vintage stuff, and still treat modern stuff as disposable, not seeing the writing on the wall that it will all be vintage one day and ultimately maintain or grow in value?

The most ironic to me being electronics, especially computers and consoles, that are market failures and most people ignore them and go for the winners, even though they know from their vintage collections that the failures, do to lack of sales, also become the most valuable rarities in years to come? That's why I always jump at close-out bargain-bin opportunities! One simple example is my Atari Jaguar Pro-controller that I payed $5 for out of a bargain bin in the late 90's and actively sells for $500 on ebay now.

I take care of everything I own, the best I can because I look to the future as well as the past with my hobbies and ownership of possessions old and new. And I took the time to educate myself to be the guy that can fix and maintain it all. I have never owned a new vehicle in my life, never made a car payment and the most I have ever payed for one is $2000.00.

And I know for a fact that the average I spent monthly on repairing and maintaining my vehicles is far less than a monthly car payment all my life would have cost. I've saved/gained a couple hundred thousand in my life already by not paying for new cars costing tens of thousands plus interest and tax on top, and still having to pay for repairs and maintenance until it's payed off and the process is repeated: doing the same thing over expecting different results is the definition of insanity!

I Because I fix, restore, maintain and care for them. I currently own 6 vehicles with only 3 running, all I've owned since I grew wise to the disposable society and stopped playing along. And all are there and will eventually be repaired and be back-ups for when others break, and I will have them until I die, a couple are already classics and worth much more than I payed for them even in their current non-functional state.

But I don't feel the need to impress others or keep up with the Jones' so I just repair and maintain and I have never made a car payment in my life, all bought with cash on the barrelhead. I didn't buy a house someone else built for hundreds of thousands, I built my own for mere tens of thousands. 100% owned, no mortgage.

My way of life I have very little owed to others, I own all I need and only ever have to worry about paying utilities, insurance and food & clothing and of course, taxes. anything money beyond that is mine to do with what I choose. I can choose to work only part-time and and still manage without financial worries. People who go along with the disposable society have much more constant worry and stress because they always have to pay for stuff, never really owning, just leasing their way through life.

And all of this modern-age tech that others dispose of and I save has allowed me to live on the money most would consider to be that of a pauper and have a standard of living far beyond what even the kings of old could have imagined. Of course that's true of anyone, even the poor (with exception of the truly homeless) in modern first-world countries, I've just managed to do it paying even less than most, being as self-sufficient as possible.

My frugality is what has made it possible, even when business is slow, over the past few years, to be able to buy all the new and vintage hardware, software and media pretty much any time I want, and be able to pay for a $100 vinyl collector's item on an almost weekly or bi-weekly schedule. Something I would never consider wasting money on if I had more bills and loans to pay and didn't own all of my possessions outright.

I'm definitely considered poor by American standards, just above what is considered the poverty line honestly. Only averaging an income of about $25,000-$30,000 and year, I think I made just under $50,000 as the largest yearly income in my life; a good year for business. Of course this is me, myself and I drumming up business and income for myself from scratch, doing it all myself and working for myself, not some ready-made steady job with guaranteed income as long as I was a good employee, from others.

But with everything owned out-right and me being single to boot, I have the expendable cash of someone making $150,000 a year, with family, mortgage, leased car, etc. Of course my house and cars aren't nearly as nice, but I don't care about that because the pride and satisfaction I have of building and maintaining all myself and owning outright makes up for it in spades.

My standard of being successful in life has always been to be well educated and never stop teaching oneself, self-sufficient in all ways possible, doing for myself instead of paying other's to do, and owing no man for anything. I would rather prove to myself I'm as good or better than any man walking the earth because of the mindset if they can do it, so can I. I'll just have to teach myself how. I feel less a man if I pay a plumber for something I know I have the ability to learn and do myself. That's how I feel about everything. I let myself down if I pay to have others do what I should be able to do myself.

What? Pay for an airline ticket and let someone fly me? I'd rather spend the money on flying lessons and find an old prop plane for cheap to learn to fix and then fly myself! Yes, an extreme example that will never come to fruition, just to show my attitude about life. I haven't flown in over a decade anyway and chances are never will again with all the headaches of that type of public travel these days. Besides, the journey to me is more important than the destination. I'd rather spend a week driving instead of missing the journey in a Fuselage waiting room for two hours and come out at the destination.

It is true that no man is or can be an island, but I've managed to become a peninsula with a very narrow passage to the mainland.

Well, now that I've managed to turn a post about owning vintage electronics into my entire philosophy of a successful life being an independent Renaissance Man, I will leave you all to the rest of your day or evening...I can't believe you read it all to here!

 

LOL!
You are indeed a rarity these days, Matt.
Your philosophy was make do and mend, go green, take care with valuable resources and reduce your carbon footprint - decades before any of this was fashionable - as you have all this already written up in your DNA.
It totally makes sense whereas this slave to the rhythm being tied to the conveyor built of consumerism and forever chasing the Next Big Thing is utterly ridiculous, inefficient and incredibly costly (as you point in terms of finance and to the environment as so much is trashed and wasted in the pursuit of being hip and ahead of the game) yet billions of us have become such addicts of capitalist society with the grab all you can as soon as you can mentality and for God's sake, don't get left behind as that's a sin!
Love it.
When you building the crop duster airplane, Matt, and will we make Costa Rica in it if you fit those "1050" drop tanks?