Me. 62 years. As long as it keeps on ticking, I'm proud.
Seriously? No upgrades, augments, removals or additions?
I'm 45 and I don't think my knees or hips will last that long. And my memory will probably degrade over the next twenty years.
You go girl!
I've got a Miele washing machine that's the best part of 40 years old. It's required some maintenance over the years. However, it was designed with maintenance in mind, so all the repairs have been fairly painless.
My 5 year old dishwasher, on the other hand, has cost me more time, money and stress than the (very overworked) washing machine.
Miele shit just continues to exist inexplicably. Literally unbreakable (permanently). And according to what I've read, at least, their modern stuff has not dropped in quality
I honestly can't think of any brands that have anything close to that longevity
It's the little things that count.
The drain pump is just 3 bolts to take off (pump came back to life after I tipped it. The new one is still sat in the cupboard a decade later).
The electronics are mounted on their own door. They swing out, and are VERY easy to service.
The wiring diagram was in a plastic wallet inside the machine.
The shocks are easy to access and come off with an M10 spanner and are easy access.
Those are just the ones that have noticed explicitly, the whole machine was built with that mentality.
I used a Miele hoover as a shop vac, hoovering wall plaster, muck and sawdust etc and pretty much abused it - replaced all filters and gave it a good clean and it still works like new. That was 5 years ago and it's still going fine.
My original NES and game cartridges. Still work great, although retired as collectibles in favor of emulators now.
I got lucky with mine. I started having issues with mine around 2000. I lived in Washington, only like an hour from Nintendo of America. At the time, Nintendo still serviced all their old consoles up to and including their current consoles. (This would change in 2006, with the Wii, when they started releasing old games digitally, it was game-over for their long-term servicing of old consoles.) So I took mine in, and if I recall correctly, it was about $50 to get all my games professionally cleaned and for the console to be cleaned, fixed, and sent home with new power supply and controllers.
It's been a champ ever since.
I wish I had known about that. The cleaning accessories I’ve found over the years have kept it going without issues, but I definitely would have sent mine in for a preventative professional cleaning and refurbishing if they found anything wrong with it.
I remember being a bit surprised when I found out about it, but it also seems to be that a lot of people didn't know about this service, despite it being something Nintendo seemed to pride themselves in for a long time. Maybe they just didn't publicize it widely enough?
I never heard anything about it. I definitely would have sent in the NES, SNES, and N64 for servicing if it was on my radar.
Neat.
I have a hand-me-down NES from a relative that sadly passed away, console works a treat but at some point within the past decade the cartridge batteries went flat. Finally have the gamebit driver to replace them but the gear is all packed away at the back of my storage cupboard...
Could always do the melted pen trick (outside; burning plastic is not good for you). Could risk melting the game cart plastic, though if you get the pen too hot.
Same here. It's been a while since I've owned an actual TV to hook them up to though.
A pocketwatch manufactured in 1889. I keep it running as a memento mori: the watch may outlive the watchmaker. Build things well -- they may be all people remember you by, one day.
I also have a slide rule at my desk at most times, to remind me of false-precision.
I guess the oldest though, is a Wu Zhu coin from the Three Kingdoms period (currency is a technology, too?). I keep it to remember that all empires arise from chaos, and must return to it; that all assets eventually have no value. That the things that endure, are stranger currencies still.
You're the badass stoich character from fantasy stories!
"I keep the relics of my ancestors to remind me we all die"
Certainly, no one would accuse me of insufficient gravitas.
A 1940s era Sterling Siren Model "F" factory siren. This siren spent decades outside of a Long Island, NY firehouse, acting as a street clearing siren to allow fire engines to exit the station unimpeded during an emergency. It was decommissioned a few years ago and popped up on eBay, and I was able to get ahold of it for cheap as the seller didn't know its worth. Model F sirens are very hard to find, as they haven't been made since the 1960s, and the need for street clearing and fire sirens have lessened with the advent of pagers. I believe there are less than a dozen left in service across North America.
Mine is in very good running shape, despite its age. I lubricated the bearings recently (brass sleeve bearings) and let the motor break in. It isn't quite as loud as my Federal Sign & Signal Model "L" (built in the 1960s) but still packs a punch. I usually set them off with the city sirens every Monday. It does need cosmetic restoration, as the paint is badly weathered and the projector has some dents in it, but it won't be hard to fix up.
My Model L is on the left, and my Model F is on the right.
Your neighbors must love you.
They've never complained, and I'm respectful with them. So I think them and I are cool lol
Your city has sirens that go off every Monday?
Yup! A weekly 30 second test.
That was common in the town where I grew up. The sirens were used as tornado warnings, so they made sure they were in good working order.
It's relatively common in small towns. Some towns with volunteer fire departments will have a siren they use both to call all available volunteer firefighters and to announce the need to shelter for a tornado. They used to sound it at noon every day and my wife (then girlfriend) used it as an alarm clock when she worked 2nd shift anytime she slept in too late
About 5 years ago they stopped sounding it at noon, and honestly I'm not sure when the last time i heard the sirens was since tornadic storms are becomes much less common here and the firefighters have become increasingly reliant on their radios instead. I kinda miss it. There's a quaintness to just listening for the noon whistle to tell time
It's very common even today for fire sirens to still be in use, as well as noon whistles. Unfortunately, people complain about the noise despite choosing to live near the fire department, and the sirens get shut off.
My paternal grandmother's KitchenAid model K mixer she bought just after my grandfather returned from WW2. She gave it to my mother in the late 70's because she wanted a new one and the damn thing showed no signs of dying. My mother gave it to my wife about 15 years ago for the same reason.
We've bought some new accessories but that fucking zombie mixer will outlast the roaches.
Might be worth regreasing it, iFixIt has some good guides on that.
Those old KitchenAid mixers are beasts. I think they were still made by Hobart at that point and really built to last and easy to fix.
Those are the mixers of legends 💪🧑🍳💪
I still listen to my music using a 160 GB iPod Classic. Apple struck gold with that clickwheel. Carrying around a dedicated device for music just for that elegant one-thumb control I don't even have to look at to use is still totally worth it to me.
I could use it through my back jeans pocket. It was great!
In public would it just look like you're caressing your own ass?
Probably. Just quickly and more of a poke the cheek. I did have a headphone cord coming out of the pocket though, so maybe less suspect. this was around 2010 probably.
The click wheel also works through fabric. I miss changing songs and adjusting volume without removing it from my pocket.
I am the oldest piece of working hardware I own and I am constantly disappointed by it
Have you tried oiling the joints ?
You probably mean electronic not technology. But I have a mechanical singer sewing machine from the 1800s that's still in working order.
Those things were built like tanks. As long as the main inner rod (name is escaping me right now) isn't literally bent, and you can keep uo with maintenance/minor repairs it'll probably keep running forever.
I'm a bit of a collector of old sewing machines; I love how simple a machine they are and yet so incredibly useful! They were also built to be able to be repaired by just about anyone, which is so cool. If you had to pick a single machine that shows how much capitalism has engineered backwards into built-in obsolescence from something we had already figured out, the sewing machine would be a good example.
Not at all impressive, but to maximize interactions on a newborn thread:
It's probably my PS3, which I would have gotten Christmas 2008 (or maybe it was 2009?). I recently started sailining the seas, and the most convenient way to watch those videos is to burn them to a disk, and so the PS3 is really just a glorified DVD player (can't even be bothered to use it's blue ray functionality)
Hey, keeping a first gen PS3 running after all those years is more impressive than you might think. Wayyy too many of those cooked themselves on 12+ hr gaming sessions back in the day
Similarly, my PS2 which I got for Christmas in 2003 is still running strong, I replayed Simpsons Hit & Run recently and it the console plays as well as it did when I first booted up.
It also has the honour of being the last device I own capable of playing DVDs since my PC's optical disc drive died.
We pull it out each year to listen to their old Christmas records.
It's become a tradition that my university age kids still look forward to.
I have a General Post Office model 711 telephone. I installed a microcontroller into it and it's now the keypad for my home alarm system. It's also hooked into Home Assistant so I could have it for other things if I wanted.
That is just brilliant!
Thanks. It has occurred to me to add a voice assistant to the phone as well but I'm not sure I'd ever actually use it.
I got a fountain pen with my initials on it from my grandfather. We have the same initials.
Depending on what you consider technology:
I have several firearms well over 100 years old in perfectly operational condition.
Quite a few kitchen appliances from the 70s that will never die.
And a working Apple IIgs.
As far as use on a daily or near daily basis, I have a 1974 Fender guitar amp, and a few other speakers and musical instruments that are vintage that are also going to outlive me.
What's amazing to me is that for guitars / basses, even amps, the value often goes up for the truly old stuff. Even (sometimes especially) if there's visible wear and tear. The bass I own was one I bought new, so it's only about 15 years old. But, I was just curious the other day so I was searching for basses on Ebay, and they're selling basses that are $50k and are 40+ years old.
Polaroid Land camera, ~1950. Found it after my grandparents passed. Never tried using it, it's just neat.
They're a lot of fun if you can get the film. Some company reverse engineered it and then went out of business, but I think there are still options if you're willing to pay $2 a photo.
Polaroid is making a comeback. You can get film in Walmart now.
There's a neat video showcase of their process/factory on YouTube. Forgot which channel made it but think something like veritasium/sed
Think my dad has one of those.. he has a bunch of old cameras his father used to use.
I have a Kodak Brownie here somewhere. I've never tried using it, but it should work - the shutter spring is in place and functional. The mirror for the viewfinder is messed up, too, so I might not be able to frame the shot correctly either.
I have cosmic dust from the moon and stars in my body
My bike is made from an element that has been shaped by man into a more useful... shape.
I have a beard trimmer from like 2008. I have literally no feelings about it.
Lmao
1959 mechanical cameras. An electronic camera from 1969. Polaroid SX-70 from 1976. A calculator from 1988: FX85P from Casio. And then the Atari Lynx from 1991.
A very rare 1965 push button UK telephone, which I converted to work on DTMF.
Almost all UK phones from this era are dial based so it was very hard to find. It is our actual land line phone, not that our landline is ever used. Looks cool though.
Sunbeam Radiant Control Toaster.
Shit's fire
Fucking Technology Connections.
I imported one and converted it to 230V. Shit is, indeed, fire.
Got one too. 1952-1957 vintage.
My car. 1995.
The most reliable car I ever owned was a 1998 Suzuki Sidekick Sport. I drove it for over a decade. It was the only car from my son’s childhood that he remembers. We got two more with identical parts to move stuff around when it broke.
Now he’s driving it. It’s all to hell at this point, but it’s sentimental to him. It isn’t his daily driver, but he still takes it out pretty often to ride around in the mountains.
That car is two years older than him.
I barely ever changed the oil in it. Speed shifted one transmission too long and had to replace that. The harmonic balancer took a shit once. Otherwise just coil packs and a battery from time to time. Any other parts were minor and yanked from the identical one that sat right beside it. He still has both. I hit a deer with the old one, he hit a deer with the other one before we parted it out. The front is rigged together.
I can’t believe it’s still going.
Volvo 940, here. I'm replacing it this spring, though. But it still runs fine, and it recently passed inspection. The main reason why I'm upgrading is because I need an extra seat to fit the entire family.
A 12" Samsung TV that I've had since I was a kid. If I had to guess I'd say it's from 1989 or so. It still works perfectly except that it now has to warm up for a minute or so. I currently have a Roku box connected to it that I use for watching old shows in SD format lol
If you've not done so, look into replacing/getting replaced the electrolytic capacitors in the TV. They are one of the only parts that truly suffers from aging. By the sound of it, some of yours are on their last legs. If you replace them before they go completely, you can limit the damage. A failed cap can often cause damage to other components.
The caps will generally have their value and tolerances printed on them. They are ¢ each, so it's fairly cheap, parts wise.
With the word "multiplex" does it let you play both the radio and 8-track at the same time (overlapping?)
I'm afraid it does not.
Aw I was getting some "Weather on the ones - REMIX" ideas hah
Award winning
That is beautiful!
I still use my Dad's old hifi from the 70s to listen to records. It's one of the only things I have that was his, so it has a lot of sentimental value to me.
I don't still have my dad's whole 60s-era stereo but I do have the speakers and they're absolutely fantastic. Heavy as fuck with the giant magnets and solid wood cabinets. Modern stuff just does not compare, especially on the low frequency end.
Those are the best systems. They can always be repared, not like the junk they have been selling since the 80s. Make sure to keep it, and maybe get a recap at some point.
It desperately needs a recap and pot clean/replace, but I need to find someone who can do it.
I could probably do it myself, but I don't trust myself to not screw it up.
I’ve got an old iRiver mp3 player thats still ticking (as soon as you pop a AA in it. Would play enough music for me and can plug it in via mini USB I believe.
My iRiver is just lying around in a box somewhere. I totally forgot about it. Poor thing. Has some nice weight to it, well-distributed, very high-quality build.
Hell yeah! My H320 is still going strong. Did you rockbox it?
In terms of things passed down, I have the original Wii my parents bought for us on Christmas of 2008. In terms of consoles, I have a Nintendo 64 I got off eBay to play the collection of cartridges we had been accruing since the late 90s.
As for the oldest antique item, I have some mechanical slide calculators, two from Australia, one from Japan, and one from the US. No idea the exact years of manufacturing, but the US one is a Tasco Pocket Arithmometer, which I think ceased manufacturing in the early 1900s ( it's been a bit since I last researched it.)
I have a couple of original Nintendos (NES) lying around. Including the one from when I was kids, missing its door because my sibling would toss controllers at it when they lost.
Those controllers are solid.
Also a few dozen cartridges to go with it. Nothing of value as far as I know but future family heirlooms.
I wish I still had the original N64 controllers. The nintendium shells they were made out of were thicker, heftier. Now I've just got these off-brand ones that don't feel as good.
Tell you what, though - the joysticks are just as floppy as the originals we had. I'll eventually get those GameCube joysticks to upgrade them.
I still use a nearly 20 year old DSLR as my primary photography camera. It’s all personal stuff so the lower resolution and overall lower quality compared to modern cameras doesn’t bother me much. The battery isn’t doing so well after 20 years though, so I’m getting a couple new ones and a larger memory card for it. Hoping to buy a new camera soon and get at least 20 years out of that too, but I still plan to use my current one alongside any other camera as I really like the look of the images it produces.
What's the make and model?
I had a Cannon 20D that I used forever, tiny 2.5in LCD.
My 7D is collecting dust, but my fave was a A-1 with 800 Kodak.
It’s actually a 20D too! The new battery really brought it back to its prime, not having to constantly stress about it dying on me has been great
1966 Fender Princeton guitar amplifier. Me likey
My original Atari 2600 and games I got as a kid.
EDIT: I am pretty sure my stove is from the 60's but it came with the house I bought in 2015, so I am not sure it counts.
My mom gave me her Atari 2600 that she had when she was a kid. It still works. It even still had all the cables and games stored with it at her parents' house when they passed.
Not that old but my 2009 i5 750 can still rock most of the games at a solid 1080p. I added a fan and overclocked it to 3.6, some ram and a 1060 gpu. It now serves as our main streaming / gaming computer on the TV and shows no sign of giving up. Overall I've spent less than 650$ over 15 years on a computer that we use daily.
thats the main reason i still run desktops.
the modularity means you dont need special equipment or rare schematics to keep it working. or to upgrade one aspect of an otherwise adequate system.
I'm right there with you man.
(2010-2011? built) 2nd generation i7 with 32 GB of ddr3 and a freaking 3070ti slapped on top...
I'm pushing over 100 fps on a 2k screen still.
It just won't die!
I mean to upgrade soon tho. It's time...
My Aiwa P22 micro hifi from 1978. Very nice, compact and sounds great.
I have a Panasonic "Genius" microwave from 1983, still going strong.
A multimeter from the 70's, although I don't use it often anymore (I have two newer ones)
A Back and Decker b-100 corded drill from the 1960's with a skill saw of the same era. (Both backups in case my newer ones die.)
Also not really tech, but A scythe from the 1930's, an old clothes iron from the early 1900's (The kind you heated on the stove) a machete from 1920, and a couple old hand pump sprayers from the 20's or 30's (The type you screw a glass bottle onto) that all are functional but mainly just collect dust.
I probably have some other old crap I'm not thinking of at the moment, I just like collecting weird old things.
Mine eventually started stopping after one minute no matter how long I asked it to cook. I guess the brain was starting to go.
I'm going to cry when mine finally dies. I bought it second hand in 1991/92 and have only ever replaced the light bulb in it once around 98. That microwave has survived both my daughters growing up and a lot of moves over the years.
Although at this rate I might crap out before it does lol.
A 1930s era Sunkist Juicer. That thing is still chooching along and just juiced enough key limes for two pies last night.
I recently bought a 1970s Sunbeam food processor to replace my broken modern one. It's so incredibly quiet that I thought it was broken as well until I tried it out grinding stuff and found that it was even better and faster than the modern one. It is much heavier, though, and a pretty ugly shade of '70s yellow.
I'm still using an IBM model M keyboard from 1989. Picked up a conversion cable to go straight from the weird RJ45 connector to USB and have zero issues with it.
Also using a Model M from 1991, still going strong. Very serviceable too if I ever need to repair it, so long as I can get the replacement parts on ebay.
I have a GeForce GTX 970 from 2015 that's still doing sterling service every day in my recently refreshed HTPC, delivering 4K movies and the occasional game to my 65in Sony OLED TV. My best tech buy ever.
I just gave mine away, like an hour ago. I recently upgraded my hardware so I listed the old 970 for giveaway since it has very little market value nowadays, and this guy showed up for it, turns out he's the pilot at a nearby scuba centre, and he told me I got a diving session in exchange for the card. Good business
Commodore 64 but for everyday stuff my Alienware X51 R3 is a weird, old Frankenstein monster
Are you keeping up with the Commodore?
My dad was showing us all Moon Shuttle for the 64, some old game he'd never played. And then he pulled out a chip he called "the shadow" that I guess has a history to it. It was a replacement for another chip you'd plug it into the hard drive to... Copy games? But they didn't work or they didn't make enough? He even showed me his thermal printed complaint letter he wrote explaining how long he waited and how many times he was fobbed off.
I have several of the original Philips LED replacement bulbs, which were some of the very first LED bulbs available. Paid about $35CAD each for them in late 2009 and they're built out of solid metal and weigh a ton. They're still going strong and put out a lovely light.
Pentax ME SLR camera, bought by my uncle in the 70s.
Got some dents and scratches but it’s still taking beautiful pics.
SNES purchased by my parents in 1992.
An old blade server I was able to take from my very first job, state of the art for the time it was made around 2002. It's still running and I've been using it as a media and hosting server for years despite how out of date the specs are now.
Mines not so interesting, but I do have an original N64 from launch. I wish I had picked up the gold plated Zelda console, but I instead grabbed the regular grey one that came with Mario...I had never played a Zelda game before and regret the decision today.
If I'm going even older, it would probably be the planer that my father made about 50 years ago. Still works amazingly for being all cherry.
My Atari 7800. Had to replace capacitors and a transistor to get it working again. Also added composite AV output.
I have a 2600 that needs the same treatment, haven't gotten to it
There is a website called Console5 that has tons of repair and upgrade parts. Replacing components in the Atari wasn't bad.
Hope you never have to replace the capacitors on a SNES. You're almost guaranteed to lift a bunch of pads unless you have a hot air station or a specialty tool that's half soldering iron half tweezers.
Easily beaten by others, but I'm happy that my old Das Keyboard lasted nearly twelve years before it started missing keystrokes. Only retired it last week
You could probably replace the individual switches by de-soldering them.
It's a brilliant and somewhat unique design. The eq is part 8 pole tilt filter and part lift/step filter with adjustable turnover. This enables you to position the audio in a very precise and uncoloured way, much like changing your seating position in an auditorium. If you like bass you don't sit at the front!
It has a true mono selector, high and low frequency filters for radio and vinyl subsonics respectively, a modular phono stage for MM or MC turntable cartridge type, and the volume gain stage is accurate between channels to around a tenth of a dB, which is about ten times better than is generally accepted as adequate.
It's power is so efficient that it never gets even warm and it's audio design has a quality that is similar to the way valve equipment sounds.
It's a very special part of my system which drives my active speakers. They are pro audio which have a very accurate response compared to consumer speakers. The Quad gives them something special to reproduce which, with a lot of CD sources imparts a bit of character that's musical and very pleasant.
If it ever needs servicing, I can take it to the Quad service centre where it was made in Huntingdon near Cambridge, a couple of hours drive away.
I'm very proud of my Quad 34, I wanted one for many years and was fortunate to be able to find a good one I could afford at the time. I expect it will outlive me, along with my speakers and a few other bits and bobs I've collected over the years. It's the oldest bit of technology I have that I use regularly. I have a film camera that may be older but I don't use film any more and I thought the Quad would be more interesting.
Thanks for asking and I hope you find this worthy. I'm happy to answer any questions about all this if anyone feels compelled.
Bang & Ollufsen record player from 1977
1975 Gibson Grabber bass. Instead of having multiple pickups, it has one pickup that you "grab" and slide across the pickguard. I had to get the fretboard re-set, as it had been sliding down the neck and making it impossible to intonate.
Terrible design, but it's a unique piece of music history that I enjoy having on hand.
A 1960s electric meat slicer. Use it every Thanskgiving. That thing is built like a tank and a probable fire hazard.
A 70s crockpot/fryer. Another fire hazard that is relegated to hot buttered rum and frying food.
More recent would be a 720p Samsung TV hooked up to an AppleTV HD we still use in our Master bedroom, mostly for classic movies on TCM. We’ve had it for 15 years and she’s still kicking.
That thing is built like a tank and a probable fire hazard.
Back in the '70s my parents got gifted an electric hot dog cooker. It basically had two rows of electrode spikes and you'd stick a bunch of hot dogs between the spikes and electrocute them. Dangerous as fuck since it had no kind of guard or anything - and how hard is it to just boil hot dogs anyway?
That’s crazy! I’ve never heard of that. I love hot dogs and haven’t had them electrocuted. Any good?
I don't remember us ever using the thing. My parents were sort of proto-hippies and we didn't eat stuff like hot dogs very often.
My dad has a 65+ year old tube radio that still works great. Sounds amazing too. It was my grandfather's radio and it's older than my dad is we're not sure how old it is exactly.
A pair of vertical speakers with three elements each made by my father in the early 80s and the paired amplifier that he built at the same time
Any chance of a photo?
sure thing, right now I cant but I should be able to do it in a few hours !
This isn't entirely uncommon, but my 20 year old car is in perfect shape, fully paid off, and can do any job. I'm proud of that thing.
Sounds like a treasure. Toyota?
That's a super safe assumption in this case, but this one is more of an anomaly. It's a Jeep Grand Cherokee.
My mom's morantz receiver from the late 60s.
10 year old Dell machine that I’m using as my home assistant and Plex server. Picked it up on Facebook for $30, tossed new ram in for $10, and a new SSD for $40 and it’s snappy and does a great job. And the SSD will go to any new machine.
One of the first projectors that could do 720p from 20+ years ago. Kinda crazy how bad it seems now while being state of the art on release
A Singer sewing machine from before the Great War.
Should be able to dig up a fully functioning Sony Minidisk player. Owned and lost quite a few of them over the years. Damn things were sleek and small, but they meant the world to me. Napster and then Limewire provided the mp3s thanks to the old 56k dialup modem, then a mini jack connection from PC to the Minidisk. It took a hell of a long time to get everything set up just so, but it was worth it. Every time.
1940 Turkish Mauser (8mm), at the newest 83yo. But that year's production was cobbled together from old stock receivers and barrels made just before 1900. So parts of it could be ~120yo.
Might not be tech now but in the late 19th c. the Mauser bolt action was absolute tech.
Until recently, my daily driver laptop. ThinkPad x200s from 2008. When covid hit I started using my desktop and a month ago I tried the laptop and it doesn't turn on anymore :(
Nowadays nothing noteworthy... maybe my smartwatch, Samsung Galaxy Watch 1.
If it's not just the battery finally giving out, it might be the thermal goop on the CPU / GPU. Late IBM Thinkpads could eat fans annually. Early Lenovo models can't be all that different. Thermal cycling is a rude source of stress... as is the sudden end of routine thermal cycling.
Also the BIOS battery. At least some from the late 90s refuse to do anything if the Bios battery is dead.
Quadrophonic 8-track player. I use it as an amplifier.
I also keep a copy of "Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk" by Meco loaded into it. It's a disco/jazz fusion that's truly horrible, but authentically 70s.
If a razor counts my Gillette Fat boy (~1954). If you're wanting to know about electronics the motherboard/ram in my media server(2011). I have older stuff around but not in active use.
I’ve got planes and a chisel from late 1800s, some of the best tools I own. The steel of the blades is fantastic, and the feel of the handles after more than 100 years of being handled is fairly unique
Best I have is an old Midland Gun Company double barrel shotgun that belonged to my great-grandfather. Passed through the Birmingham Proof House and bears 1904-1925 proof marks, but doesn’t actually have a date stamp, my understanding is that they didn’t start date stamping until 1921. The company was bought by Parker-Hale and the records were subsequently destroyed in a fire, so I’ve never been able to find out exactly how old the thing is.
I try not to hoard stuff in case I ever need to relocate, so my list of owned items isn't big. I would love to collect retro consoles otherwise.
I miss my Touchpad. Palm was ahead of its time by making all mobile apps web apps.
Oh well. The HP firesale was one hell of a send-off at least.
That tablet was the bomb at the time. I ran android on it when webOS was discontinued. It kept up for a while but i saw an OLED tablet that gave me eyegasms.
I had to sell off/donate most of my stuff before moving abroad. If that’s a goal for you, nothing wrong with keeing minimal stuff.
I’ve got plenty of stuff that’s older than I am. I’ve got mechanical cameras dating back to the 1930’s, electronic camera’s from the 70’s, watches dating back to that time as well. And there’s game consoles dating back to the NES, like many here.
I like old tech. Just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s bad or unreliable. If you treat stuff well and maintain as needed, a lot of things will outlast you. I’ll be shooting film in cameras that are a hundred years old in a few years.
Got my grandpa's Minolta XE7 in the bag on my way to visit my daughter for the holidays. Not my oldest camera, but he's not around anymore so there's some nice sentiment capturing family moments with his camera. Security hand checked the film, no questions asked, so that's nice. Couple rolls of HP5 to push for inside, and some Gold 200 if we get some sunny weather.
I own a few Minolta's, including the X500 and X700. Those were basically the last of their manual focus SLR's. I love classic bodies like that; metal built bricks that feel solid and chunky to use. I also bought a ton of Minolta glass back in the 2010's when they stuff went for pennies on the dollar on Ebay. Good glass is good glass, right?
I've never shot HP5 myself; I tend to be more of a Fuji shooter in general with Acros for my B&W needs. I've developed my own rolls, especially when I had to shoot that in cut-down form in Minox cartridges. Not exactly the kind of thing you take to a one hour photo place :D
Though I've also shot stuff like Tri-X 400, Ektar and a bunch of other stuff from Kodak and Fuji over the years. But the thing I absolutely LOVE to shoot is slide film. Velvia 50 & 100 in particular. Absolutely amazing to see slides on a lightbox. You get a lovely depth and color that you just don't really see in other negatives in my opinion.
I actually just bought a Fuji X-S20 camera which includes a bunch of film simulations, including Acros and Velvia. That's how much I love shooting those, that I want to bring that fun factor to digital as well :D Also own a Fuji X100S, which I found out is a 'TikTok trend' apparently...
AKAI S-1100 sampler. It is still in mint conditition, released in 1990. It was a studio standard in those days. I don't use it that much these days, but the time stretch on that machine is amazing. For Jungle and Drum & Bass it's an essential piece of hardware imo. The Prodigy for instance had two of them 1100's in the studio and on tour if irc.
As far as "daily driver" tech, Motorcycle is 43 years old. My razor is 103 years old.
Luckily I'm closer in age to the motorcycle.
A microwave from 1997. I give it most of the credit for staying alive. It's a brick house.
My rather ancient audio setup: a Yamaha RX-496RDS stereo receiver with a Vestax PMC 17A Mixer and T+A Triton R130 speakers for 2 (lame ass) Gemini PT 2100 Turntables (through a preamp) and some PC-Audio.
Most of this stuff is from the 90s or early 00s. Wasn't the best setup in the first place but it still works fine to this day and probably even beats some of the contemporary bluetooth thingies.
Wasn't the best setup in the first place but it still works fine to this day
Lmao same with my audio setup
Have there even been much development in sound quality of speakers over the year, that is hardware?
I'm not an expert by any means, but I don't really think so. I think hi-fi audio is one of the few fields in which technical development is stagnating or even lagging behind in terms of sound quality. This is probably mainly due to the fact that the quality of streaming files is much poorer than that of lossless formats on data carriers such as CDs anyway. The same probably applies to wireless solutions. Streaming and wireless audio transmission is of course much more user-friendly, but in terms of audio quality it is probably not a step forward.
Old speakers had enormous, heavy magnets and were great at reproducing audio, especially on the low end. The only major "development" with modern speakers has been the ability to sort of reproduce sound with lighter-weight, cheaper materials.
Clock radio is from around 1979 I think. Stereo tuner from 1978 (Sansui TU-9900!).
Oh, I have two functional tube testers from the 1950s. Also a short wave radio from about 1950.
I like old stuff.
1979 Sanyo Record Player. It was my mom's and she bought it in high school
1961 Gibson Discoverer Amp. Found it in the basement as a teen. Replaced the fuse holder and fuse. Powered up all the tubes no problem and still running strong today.
altec lansing speakers from 2000.
I was still using my Yamaha speakers I bought in 1999
Nokia 3310, it even spent a good 20 min submerged because a 9lb pike pushed my parents out of the canoe and had to walk back to shore
Not sure how loose you define tech, but mine would be my motorcyle, a 1981 Yamaha XS400 that my grandfather gifted me. It's certainly feeling it's age, so it requires a lot more effort on my end to keep running than most bikes made this century. It's not made for modern highway speeds, it's not happy when I try, so I keep it off the interstate, 50 and under. That said, when the weather's good, I've never had a carbeurated engine start so easily, and it's a joy to ride!
Some old corded drill that my dad had. It's supposed to have a reverse function but it only goes one direction now.
I've got no idea when it was made.
My toaster, similar one here. It was the toaster that I grew up with. My father in turn bought it at a garage sale. I recently tracked down the history and found that it was manufactured in the 50's, so it's been in near constant use for around 75 years.
My Amiga 500 is from 1987.
But I think the stereo & LP player in the living room is from the early 70s.
Pinball fantasies anyone?
My microwave from 1985 which came with the house.
The original fat PS2 I got for Christmas 20-odd years ago. It still plays games perfectly fine if the discs aren’t too scratched up (RIP my bro’s copy of Marvel vs Capcom 1).
I was thoroughly impressed by Technology Connections exploration of the Sunbeam automatic beyond belief toaster. Bought one cheap off Craigslist a while ago and added a ground wire. Works great.
I also picked up an IBM selectric pretty cheap, mostly works.
My Harman Kardon pc speakers. They are as old as I am. Here's a pic of the same model I found online.
Type Mike IBM keyboard......goddMm indestructible.
Technics SL-1900 turntable from 1977, it was a pretty midrange model for its time but it sure as hell is better than any deck you can get new today. The only thing that doesn't work is the dampening on the tonearm lift/lowering.
That's a nice turn table and you should be happy to have it. But, it is definitely not better than any deck you can get today.
Oh? Like which one?
Rega Planar series, for sure. They are pricey, though. I'd hazard that there are some Pro-ject models that are likely superior at a lower price point than the Rega's.
Again, nothing against yours, it's a good one. But there's almost always something better, and in this case that holds true.
I mean, Rega turntables are pretty highly regarded but I doubt they're better than my Technics (direct drive vs. belt drive pretty much). Rega doesn't list specifications like wow & flutter or rumble on their page as far as I know which makes them kinda hard to compare, though.
Edit: Just had a look at a Pro-Ject deck (the classic evo, which is $1,999) and both the wow & flutter (0.11%) and the rumble (-70db) are worse than my Technics (0.03% and -73db).
They're still really good specs but on paper they're worse than those of the SL-1900.
My friend has two of the current 1200 series (1210mk5?) and they are very nice. Not sure how they compare but it would be interesting if you know how to find the specs?
1210mk5
The 1210MK5G ran from 2002 to 2010 I think. Yeah, it's even a little bit better than mine actually, not by much, though.
It's got the quartz lock, which is really nice. I'd love to have a 1210MK2 but, as you can probably imagine, their status among DJs has made them pretty much unaffordable for more casual listeners like me.
Original Xbox console with a copy of Halo Combat Evolved though the console would probably pop if I plugged it in
Open it up and see if any of the capacitors are leaking! Soldering is a great skill to learn and you can fix it yourself.
The biggest problem people have is buying a bad soldering iron that gets way too hot. You can get an excellent iron for only 10 or 20 dollars more than the garbage out there. I used to recommend the TS-100, because that's what I use and love, and they used to be way cheaper. The TS-80 was an upgrade to that, which was also nice but I never liked. If you've got the money, I still recommend them. However for the budget minded, the pinecil is almost the exact same thing, it's well made, and it's still like $30-40 bucks. In fact some people prefer it over the others. You can power it with a beefy USB-C charger if you have one, or an old laptop charger if you want to cut up the end and put a barrel jack on it. The thing pulls about 90 watts at full tilt, but only for brief periods.
Next you want to buy yourself some practice boards, you can get soldering kits from AliExpress that will let you build little flashing trees and hearts and stuff. Or even small handheld games if you're getting better at soldering.
Then you watch YouTube tutorials, find several. You want to focus on quick work, at low ish temps like 280C, keep the tip clean, and flux is your friend. The very tippy tip of your iron should always be shiny, if it starts turning black, it's building oxides from being too hot and not enough flux. Clean that thing with flux. If you leave it that way too long you'll ruin it, that's why most people struggle to solder.
Then once you've learned, and you're ready to go. Watch YouTube videos on fixing the Xbox, buy the caps, crack that thing open and have fun. Caps aren't that hard to replace, compared to other soldering projects. You'll do fine 👍
Hey thanks. I may need to solder something in the near future, and it's always felt a bit daunting to start/learn for some reason. This comment was super helpful.
I bought a cheap learn to solder kit and did that project before fixing an old Dell motherboard. It came with a soldering iron but agree with the poster above that a better soldering iron makes a big difference.
2004 Wacom Cintiq 21UX. Drawing on a screen that large and heavy is awesome. I built it into my desk and can raise and lower it from flat to nearly 90 degrees. The brightness has faded over the years, but I won't let it go until I can afford a new one (equivalent $3k + today). I can barely work in PS with just a mouse anymore. It spoils ya.
I have a Sunbeam Radiant Control toaster from the 1960s. It’s an elegant, automatic design with only one control for the amount of toast. If it had slots wide enough for bagels it would be perfect.
Video door-phone from the eighties. The screen is crap but hit a few times and it works lol
I have Lenco turntable from 1969, making it roughly 54 years old.
It's been over a year since I unboxed it, but my Nintendo 64. Last game I played was Majora's Mask and it suffered a hard reset in the stone temple that made me box it back up.
My hammer.
Also, an axe.
Arguably, …fire?
Only if the fire has been continuously running. Otherwise you started a new fire.
My old and trustworthy Kenwood KRV75R receiver. From around 1985 and still rocking!
If a pocket watch counts, then my Hamilton watch from 1908. Oldest electronic would probably be my NES.
Oh nice. I have a Mario Bros game watch. Think it's from 86 or something like that.
My Yamaha speakers that I got in 1996. Beautiful sound from them. The receiver and other things have long since been replaced.
My oldest piece of tech would probably be my C64 or maybe an old camera I have. But the one that I'm actually proud of is my car, a Mercedes W124 from 1988. It'll be hard to find a bolt on that car that I haven't touched and I'm finally getting it where my even my perfectionist self is happy with the way it looks and drives.
Probably one of my CRTs from the early 80s, unless we're counting basic stuff like my house wiring or gate speaker.
Dynaco ST-70 stereo tube amp, probably from the 60s (no date on them that I can tell).
Very proud of it, got it for free at a garage sale. Replaced selenium rectifier with silicon diodes, a few new caps, and new tubes. Sounds great.
My ps1 probably. I just played with it yesterday and I loved it.
I would say my Sega GameGear, but I just went to turn it on, aaaaaaand it's probably well past time to replace the caps. And screen. And motherboard...
I have a Milling Machine with a 1902 patent date on it. It was converted to an electric motor, but the line shaft pulley is still on it.
1901 Edison victrola. Listen to Edison's band.
An Acetronic MPU1000 games console, from the 1970s - 76 or 78 I think. Still worked last time I powered it up, I also got some extra games cheap off eBay a while back, interesting playing something other than the three or four games I remember from childhood.
My dad bought an amplifier in the 70s, I still use it for my TV audio system today. Super solid stuff.
The oldest thing that runs on electricity in my house is probably a tie between my washer and dryer. Both are Kenmore 80 series from the early 90's. I've repaired them a number of times and will continue to do so.
I also have a late 90's vintage Magnavox tube TV which is in working if slightly twitchy order. I set it up every now and again to play SNES games on. The picture's gone slightly orange and depending on what's being displayed there's a notable coil whine, I'm sure it needs to be recapped.
I still have my original SNES, it doesn't work and I'm not sure why. One of its controllers and all but one of my old cartridges is still working. It's not going to be long I'm going to have to change the batteries in the games. Weird to think my copy of Link to the Past has had RAM turned on and running for 33 years straight.
I've still got my RioVolt mp3 CD player. The in-line remote died but the machine itself works fine. I've had it since 2001. I'm very fond of it.
As far as computers, I still have my high school HP Pavilion desktop, and it does still barely boot to XP, but I don't use it for anything. I have a Dell Dimension with an old 3-digit Core i7 circa 2009 that does still see some use as it's supported by modern Linux and yet it's got old shit like a PCI slot, optical drives, firewire, extrenal SATA, so it's a useful tool to have around if I have to play with Dubya-era electronics.
Weird to think my copy of Link to the Past has had RAM turned on and running for 33 years straight.
Outstanding!
My Nintendo DS.
Somehow the battery is still charged and went multiple times from red state to a green state.
A few, a silver Pikachu Gameboy color, some synthesizers from the 1980's, a unique guitar that I've only been able to find documentation of 1 other one online (Ibanez Nitro full wood body finish - it's certainly a custom). And I think the last pride and joy is my Sony MDR-V600's.
Anybody remember Cube World? Those little electronic cubes that you could magnetically attach to others and they could interact? Got a set of those too.
The music stuff is the oldest but it's mostly second hand so it's harder to claim. The headphones were a gift and new back then though, so they're for sure, same with the Gameboy color and Cube World. Heh :)
some synthesizers from the 1980's
Oh come on, I need to know more!
Ah I guess some made it sound a little cooler than it is, my apologies for the hope!! It's just a Casio HT700 that I got at a thrift, it's not bad but it's not anything super special.
I had bad syntax, I have some aged synthesizers, one from the 80's... That's the only one lol, I think my others are mostly from the 2000's, like the gakken sx-150 and the midiman oxygen 8, an Ibanez Bass Synthesizer pedal (SB7). Oh, speaking of pedals I do have a Snarling Dogs Bootsy Collins Wah/Fuzz which is pretty neat!
Seems to me you're more of a musician than a gear head, which is a good thing.
Very much so :) though I do have a lot of gear! I would attribute that to playing for.. gosh... Nearly 3 decades now!
I have a TI 99/4A PC that still works! It has a super weird version of BASIC and I don't have any tapes for it, but it's a cool display piece. I was able to make an educated guess that it was manufactured in 1982 based on the design
Newton MessagePad 2100. I used it daily from 2008-2011 (well after I had an iPhone) for office work and everyone thought I was crazy but I loved it. I still prefer the ui for calendar/contacts/note taking compared to everything else out there.
Daily? Logitech MX-518. I'd still be using my CeBIT 2003 IntelliMouse if it hadn't been jostled by one too many trips in a backpack. Both are newer than the Max Payne mousepad that is somehow still in tolerable condition.
No, wait. I just glanced at the time on a Westclox digital alarm clock, model 22636, production code 1/10/83. That thing's older than I am. Had to check the underside again: Norcross, GA. I was unsure if "Westclox" hinted at being produced in West Germany.
Probably an nes or vcr. I have an Atari too but it's not hooked up so idk if it still works. I have some old film projectors too
As for daily usage and "tech" - I have a Samsung Galaxy S1. The battery still holds a charge and it's being used on a near daily basis (for very simple stuff). Runs Omnirom with android 4.
An electric turkey-carving knife, made in 1962. GE built it to last.
My N64. I probably have a few pieces of tech older than me, but I can't think of them off the top of my head.
I have a PC from 2004 as well.
I know this isn't what you meant but, this week I restored a large format photo enlarger from the 1950s. A Beseler 45 MCXR. I am extremely proud that I was not electrocuted, and I printed a 4x5 negative as a Christmas gift for my mother in law.
Definitely counts, and I'm glad you lived to tell the tale!
a core 2 duo full tower pc from mid 2000s
first it had win95, XP, 7, now runs void Linux
Wtf? Core 2 duo was released in 2006, so your PC was made after that. Why was it originally running windows 95?! It was built 3 years after windows XP came out!
2006 is mid 2000s and my dad got his old license for 95 from another PC (we didn't had internet back then so I couldn't upgrade to xp for a while)
I have a Core 2 Duo laptop from 2007 running Void Linux too!
And another Core 2 Duo tower PC running Arch Linux.
Core 2 Duos still have some life left in them, and they're extremely cheap nowadays. I think I got the tower PC for 13€ second hand, and I've hosted countless things on it without problems.
The CD player i found on the curb. I had no idea how old it was but i looked it up for this thread and it has user reviews from 2007.
Sony CMT Nez50
Works great, 15 volume already feels loud
Two game boy DMGs, one kept original and one modded with a new shell, membrane, and LCD screen. It's a great hobby restoring them.
Nokia N73 counts?
Is it still running?
Yes Chief like good boi
I have an early 70s waffle/sandwhich maker eletric grill. Was a wedding gift to my parents and i grew up eating food off of it. Works flawlessly. But its just coils hooked to 120v with a regulator. Not much to break
the oldest is one of my portable cassette recorders, a very early GE model that is in near perfect condition. It's so early on it doesn't have much info online, and seems to be rare, but unwanted.
The one im the most proud of is my IBM LexMark model M keyboard, It's older than me, abused to hell, modified, and is still my daily driver because it's so comfortable
I have a Sony M2 Micro card with inside it's USB adapter.
I've used it to install countless Linux distros since 2007 😅
Edit: whoops accidentally tagged the community as a user lol
Probably the 20-year-old microwave.
I bet it works better than the new ones. I had a 40 year old microwave at my last rental flat and it was like the big muscly shiba inu from the meme. New microwaves are the crying little shiba inu.
I got an Apple IIc. Drive, monitor, keyboard all work.
I think my PS3 still works, although I haven't used it in awhile.
Twenty- seven year old wireless keyboard. I love it. Feels great and never fails me. Don't know what I'll do when it finally dies.
My fat PS3. Still a good Blu Ray and DVD player.
It's either my alarm clock or 5.1 speakers, both of which would be somewhere over 20 years old.
14 year old Wacom Tablet. It still gets regular use.
I have some railroad stock certificates from the late 19th century that I need to frame. They're a few bucks on ebay and really freaking cool
In terms of electronics, I have some model trains from the 60s and 70s that are pretty worthless but keep going despite the abuse and lack of maintenance thanks to electric motors being so simple and easy to maintain. Other than that it's probably a shoe in between my wife's N64, PS2 and CRT TV, an old police scanner I got off ebay, or the early plasma TV that I got from my parents who got it from my aunt who got it with their house.
Technically speaking, it's the 2TB platter drive full of games that I've pulled from computer to computer over the last 15 years or so. Everything else has failed or become obsolete, but it's still kicking, miraculously.
Within reach on my desk, Unisonic LC-384 Dual Power Solar and Battery Backup Pocket Calculator - I've not owned it the whole time, so I looked around and see it was produced on or around 1982. It works just fine.
A 1930's Remington mechanical typewriter. My dad used it regularly until he passed away, it still works perfectly and I've got a whole box of ribbons for it.
A OG gameboy transparent hood
The oldest piece of tech I personally own and have running is probably my phone (going on 6 years). In the household it's probably our washing machine ('00s) - unfortunately the magnetron on our late 80s microwave just died :(
A pan-clock, that is a clock that has the shape of a pan. It's probably close to 40 or more years old. pan-clock
It's not too exciting, but I've got an old Lenovo EMC2 NAS that's probably from the early 10s. I was also running a Pi 1B as a DNS server until it gave up on life.
Well, not that old, and even typing this hurts me (and apologizes to all that are hurt too lol), but I just played a lot with my PSP GO and my DS Lite this week, and in a related field Jackie Chan for PS1 in my Anbernic RG351V (old software in this case).
i have speakers from somewhere in the 1980's made in the soviet union
If we're including family consoles, I'm gonna say the family wii my family got in the late 2000s. I was actually pretty pissed when we couldn't find it when it was in temporary storage because there is one mii that I would have been absolutely furious with myself if I couldn't remake it on my switch. Luckily we did find it and I've managed to recreate all the miis we had on there onto my switch, especially the one mii my grandma made.
Olympus OM 10. Bought it second hand a few years ago, when I felt I need film cameras back in my life. Must be from the early 80s. I only use it since maybe 4 years now, but I love that camera.
Oh, while I am typing I just remembered my Braun Paxette from the 1950s. But I don't like that camera and thus don't use it. Planning on selling it tbh.
I have a Vendomatic sewing machine form the late '70s or early '80s. Still works like a charm. I still use it a couple of times per year to make/fix clothes or sew badges on my heavy metal jacket
I have a 600w ham radio amplifier from the 60s.
It's a Heathkit SB-200
I'm very proud of it because I bought it in rough condition, and repaired it myself. Replaced all the leaky capacitors and did some other work in there. Now it runs like a dream! It was my first time working with tube gear. The voltages in these things is 2500 volts, that'll kill you dead before you know what happened.
I also have an SB-220 that I got broken. I fixed it up but didn't do a full rebuild on it. It'll do 1200 watts, but I don't need that much power so I haven't used it much. It's in storage. That one is from the late 60s early 70s.
My next oldest device is also ham radio gear, a Kenwood TS-530S from the 80s. There's a lot of solid state stuff inside, plenty of transistors doing all the work. But the final output stage is still a good ole pair of tubes. I bought this in non working condition, and fixed it myself as well. Good fun!
Is a wristwatch considered tech? My daily one is from 1971 and with a service it keeps time way better than a lot of new mechanical watches.
Apple IIe even has a dot matrix printer still in operation (paper running low though)
But probably my oldest piece is my Beale upright piano, made in the 1920s, still beautiful, still hammering out music.
Me. 62 years. As long as it keeps on ticking, I'm proud.
Seriously? No upgrades, augments, removals or additions?
I'm 45 and I don't think my knees or hips will last that long. And my memory will probably degrade over the next twenty years.
You go girl!
I've got a Miele washing machine that's the best part of 40 years old. It's required some maintenance over the years. However, it was designed with maintenance in mind, so all the repairs have been fairly painless.
My 5 year old dishwasher, on the other hand, has cost me more time, money and stress than the (very overworked) washing machine.
Miele shit just continues to exist inexplicably. Literally unbreakable (permanently). And according to what I've read, at least, their modern stuff has not dropped in quality
I honestly can't think of any brands that have anything close to that longevity
It's the little things that count.
The drain pump is just 3 bolts to take off (pump came back to life after I tipped it. The new one is still sat in the cupboard a decade later).
The electronics are mounted on their own door. They swing out, and are VERY easy to service.
The wiring diagram was in a plastic wallet inside the machine.
The shocks are easy to access and come off with an M10 spanner and are easy access.
Those are just the ones that have noticed explicitly, the whole machine was built with that mentality.
I used a Miele hoover as a shop vac, hoovering wall plaster, muck and sawdust etc and pretty much abused it - replaced all filters and gave it a good clean and it still works like new. That was 5 years ago and it's still going fine.
My original NES and game cartridges. Still work great, although retired as collectibles in favor of emulators now.
I got lucky with mine. I started having issues with mine around 2000. I lived in Washington, only like an hour from Nintendo of America. At the time, Nintendo still serviced all their old consoles up to and including their current consoles. (This would change in 2006, with the Wii, when they started releasing old games digitally, it was game-over for their long-term servicing of old consoles.) So I took mine in, and if I recall correctly, it was about $50 to get all my games professionally cleaned and for the console to be cleaned, fixed, and sent home with new power supply and controllers.
It's been a champ ever since.
I wish I had known about that. The cleaning accessories I’ve found over the years have kept it going without issues, but I definitely would have sent mine in for a preventative professional cleaning and refurbishing if they found anything wrong with it.
I remember being a bit surprised when I found out about it, but it also seems to be that a lot of people didn't know about this service, despite it being something Nintendo seemed to pride themselves in for a long time. Maybe they just didn't publicize it widely enough?
I never heard anything about it. I definitely would have sent in the NES, SNES, and N64 for servicing if it was on my radar.
Neat.
I have a hand-me-down NES from a relative that sadly passed away, console works a treat but at some point within the past decade the cartridge batteries went flat. Finally have the gamebit driver to replace them but the gear is all packed away at the back of my storage cupboard...
Could always do the melted pen trick (outside; burning plastic is not good for you). Could risk melting the game cart plastic, though if you get the pen too hot.
Same here. It's been a while since I've owned an actual TV to hook them up to though.
A pocketwatch manufactured in 1889. I keep it running as a memento mori: the watch may outlive the watchmaker. Build things well -- they may be all people remember you by, one day.
I also have a slide rule at my desk at most times, to remind me of false-precision.
I guess the oldest though, is a Wu Zhu coin from the Three Kingdoms period (currency is a technology, too?). I keep it to remember that all empires arise from chaos, and must return to it; that all assets eventually have no value. That the things that endure, are stranger currencies still.
You're the badass stoich character from fantasy stories!
"I keep the relics of my ancestors to remind me we all die"
Certainly, no one would accuse me of insufficient gravitas.
Just the right amount 🤌
A 1940s era Sterling Siren Model "F" factory siren. This siren spent decades outside of a Long Island, NY firehouse, acting as a street clearing siren to allow fire engines to exit the station unimpeded during an emergency. It was decommissioned a few years ago and popped up on eBay, and I was able to get ahold of it for cheap as the seller didn't know its worth. Model F sirens are very hard to find, as they haven't been made since the 1960s, and the need for street clearing and fire sirens have lessened with the advent of pagers. I believe there are less than a dozen left in service across North America.
Mine is in very good running shape, despite its age. I lubricated the bearings recently (brass sleeve bearings) and let the motor break in. It isn't quite as loud as my Federal Sign & Signal Model "L" (built in the 1960s) but still packs a punch. I usually set them off with the city sirens every Monday. It does need cosmetic restoration, as the paint is badly weathered and the projector has some dents in it, but it won't be hard to fix up.
https://youtu.be/KvsGiL15g1k?si=ZgheNIH-fqOHJXnJ
My Model L is on the left, and my Model F is on the right.
Your neighbors must love you.
They've never complained, and I'm respectful with them. So I think them and I are cool lol
Your city has sirens that go off every Monday?
Yup! A weekly 30 second test.
That was common in the town where I grew up. The sirens were used as tornado warnings, so they made sure they were in good working order.
It's relatively common in small towns. Some towns with volunteer fire departments will have a siren they use both to call all available volunteer firefighters and to announce the need to shelter for a tornado. They used to sound it at noon every day and my wife (then girlfriend) used it as an alarm clock when she worked 2nd shift anytime she slept in too late
About 5 years ago they stopped sounding it at noon, and honestly I'm not sure when the last time i heard the sirens was since tornadic storms are becomes much less common here and the firefighters have become increasingly reliant on their radios instead. I kinda miss it. There's a quaintness to just listening for the noon whistle to tell time
It's very common even today for fire sirens to still be in use, as well as noon whistles. Unfortunately, people complain about the noise despite choosing to live near the fire department, and the sirens get shut off.
But why do you have sirens?
My paternal grandmother's KitchenAid model K mixer she bought just after my grandfather returned from WW2. She gave it to my mother in the late 70's because she wanted a new one and the damn thing showed no signs of dying. My mother gave it to my wife about 15 years ago for the same reason.
We've bought some new accessories but that fucking zombie mixer will outlast the roaches.
Might be worth regreasing it, iFixIt has some good guides on that.
Those old KitchenAid mixers are beasts. I think they were still made by Hobart at that point and really built to last and easy to fix.
Those are the mixers of legends 💪🧑🍳💪
I still listen to my music using a 160 GB iPod Classic. Apple struck gold with that clickwheel. Carrying around a dedicated device for music just for that elegant one-thumb control I don't even have to look at to use is still totally worth it to me.
I could use it through my back jeans pocket. It was great!
In public would it just look like you're caressing your own ass?
Probably. Just quickly and more of a poke the cheek. I did have a headphone cord coming out of the pocket though, so maybe less suspect. this was around 2010 probably.
The click wheel also works through fabric. I miss changing songs and adjusting volume without removing it from my pocket.
I am the oldest piece of working hardware I own and I am constantly disappointed by it
Have you tried oiling the joints ?
You probably mean electronic not technology. But I have a mechanical singer sewing machine from the 1800s that's still in working order.
Those things were built like tanks. As long as the main inner rod (name is escaping me right now) isn't literally bent, and you can keep uo with maintenance/minor repairs it'll probably keep running forever.
I'm a bit of a collector of old sewing machines; I love how simple a machine they are and yet so incredibly useful! They were also built to be able to be repaired by just about anyone, which is so cool. If you had to pick a single machine that shows how much capitalism has engineered backwards into built-in obsolescence from something we had already figured out, the sewing machine would be a good example.
Not at all impressive, but to maximize interactions on a newborn thread:
It's probably my PS3, which I would have gotten Christmas 2008 (or maybe it was 2009?). I recently started sailining the seas, and the most convenient way to watch those videos is to burn them to a disk, and so the PS3 is really just a glorified DVD player (can't even be bothered to use it's blue ray functionality)
Hey, keeping a first gen PS3 running after all those years is more impressive than you might think. Wayyy too many of those cooked themselves on 12+ hr gaming sessions back in the day
Similarly, my PS2 which I got for Christmas in 2003 is still running strong, I replayed Simpsons Hit & Run recently and it the console plays as well as it did when I first booted up.
It also has the honour of being the last device I own capable of playing DVDs since my PC's optical disc drive died.
Same here. While mine is connected, I have no reason to use it with newer consoles in the same cabinet.
I have my grandparents gramophone.
We pull it out each year to listen to their old Christmas records.
It's become a tradition that my university age kids still look forward to.
I have a General Post Office model 711 telephone. I installed a microcontroller into it and it's now the keypad for my home alarm system. It's also hooked into Home Assistant so I could have it for other things if I wanted.
That is just brilliant!
Thanks. It has occurred to me to add a voice assistant to the phone as well but I'm not sure I'd ever actually use it.
I got a fountain pen with my initials on it from my grandfather. We have the same initials.
Depending on what you consider technology:
I have several firearms well over 100 years old in perfectly operational condition.
Quite a few kitchen appliances from the 70s that will never die.
And a working Apple IIgs.
As far as use on a daily or near daily basis, I have a 1974 Fender guitar amp, and a few other speakers and musical instruments that are vintage that are also going to outlive me.
What's amazing to me is that for guitars / basses, even amps, the value often goes up for the truly old stuff. Even (sometimes especially) if there's visible wear and tear. The bass I own was one I bought new, so it's only about 15 years old. But, I was just curious the other day so I was searching for basses on Ebay, and they're selling basses that are $50k and are 40+ years old.
Polaroid Land camera, ~1950. Found it after my grandparents passed. Never tried using it, it's just neat.
They're a lot of fun if you can get the film. Some company reverse engineered it and then went out of business, but I think there are still options if you're willing to pay $2 a photo.
Polaroid is making a comeback. You can get film in Walmart now.
There's a neat video showcase of their process/factory on YouTube. Forgot which channel made it but think something like veritasium/sed
Ohhh really? I have one too, figured it was just a neat decoration on my camera shelf now. Maybe I'll dust it off and use it again!
Think my dad has one of those.. he has a bunch of old cameras his father used to use.
I have a Kodak Brownie here somewhere. I've never tried using it, but it should work - the shutter spring is in place and functional. The mirror for the viewfinder is messed up, too, so I might not be able to frame the shot correctly either.
I have a wheel on my bike.
I have cosmic dust from the moon and stars in my body
My bike is made from an element that has been shaped by man into a more useful... shape.
I have a beard trimmer from like 2008. I have literally no feelings about it.
Lmao
1959 mechanical cameras. An electronic camera from 1969. Polaroid SX-70 from 1976. A calculator from 1988: FX85P from Casio. And then the Atari Lynx from 1991.
A very rare 1965 push button UK telephone, which I converted to work on DTMF.
Almost all UK phones from this era are dial based so it was very hard to find. It is our actual land line phone, not that our landline is ever used. Looks cool though.
Sunbeam Radiant Control Toaster.
Shit's fire
Fucking Technology Connections.
I imported one and converted it to 230V. Shit is, indeed, fire.
Got one too. 1952-1957 vintage.
My car. 1995.
The most reliable car I ever owned was a 1998 Suzuki Sidekick Sport. I drove it for over a decade. It was the only car from my son’s childhood that he remembers. We got two more with identical parts to move stuff around when it broke.
Now he’s driving it. It’s all to hell at this point, but it’s sentimental to him. It isn’t his daily driver, but he still takes it out pretty often to ride around in the mountains.
That car is two years older than him.
I barely ever changed the oil in it. Speed shifted one transmission too long and had to replace that. The harmonic balancer took a shit once. Otherwise just coil packs and a battery from time to time. Any other parts were minor and yanked from the identical one that sat right beside it. He still has both. I hit a deer with the old one, he hit a deer with the other one before we parted it out. The front is rigged together.
I can’t believe it’s still going.
Volvo 940, here. I'm replacing it this spring, though. But it still runs fine, and it recently passed inspection. The main reason why I'm upgrading is because I need an extra seat to fit the entire family.
A 12" Samsung TV that I've had since I was a kid. If I had to guess I'd say it's from 1989 or so. It still works perfectly except that it now has to warm up for a minute or so. I currently have a Roku box connected to it that I use for watching old shows in SD format lol
If you've not done so, look into replacing/getting replaced the electrolytic capacitors in the TV. They are one of the only parts that truly suffers from aging. By the sound of it, some of yours are on their last legs. If you replace them before they go completely, you can limit the damage. A failed cap can often cause damage to other components.
The caps will generally have their value and tolerances printed on them. They are ¢ each, so it's fairly cheap, parts wise.
Read this first. CRT TVs have high voltage in them.
Very good point!
I absolutely cherish it.
With the word "multiplex" does it let you play both the radio and 8-track at the same time (overlapping?)
I'm afraid it does not.
Aw I was getting some "Weather on the ones - REMIX" ideas hah
Award winning
That is beautiful!
I still use my Dad's old hifi from the 70s to listen to records. It's one of the only things I have that was his, so it has a lot of sentimental value to me.
I don't still have my dad's whole 60s-era stereo but I do have the speakers and they're absolutely fantastic. Heavy as fuck with the giant magnets and solid wood cabinets. Modern stuff just does not compare, especially on the low frequency end.
Those are the best systems. They can always be repared, not like the junk they have been selling since the 80s. Make sure to keep it, and maybe get a recap at some point.
It desperately needs a recap and pot clean/replace, but I need to find someone who can do it.
I could probably do it myself, but I don't trust myself to not screw it up.
I’ve got an old iRiver mp3 player thats still ticking (as soon as you pop a AA in it. Would play enough music for me and can plug it in via mini USB I believe.
My iRiver is just lying around in a box somewhere. I totally forgot about it. Poor thing. Has some nice weight to it, well-distributed, very high-quality build.
Hell yeah! My H320 is still going strong. Did you rockbox it?
Gameboy Color with 1st gen Pokemon still running strong
Awesome- very jealous!
In terms of things passed down, I have the original Wii my parents bought for us on Christmas of 2008. In terms of consoles, I have a Nintendo 64 I got off eBay to play the collection of cartridges we had been accruing since the late 90s.
As for the oldest antique item, I have some mechanical slide calculators, two from Australia, one from Japan, and one from the US. No idea the exact years of manufacturing, but the US one is a Tasco Pocket Arithmometer, which I think ceased manufacturing in the early 1900s ( it's been a bit since I last researched it.)
I have a couple of original Nintendos (NES) lying around. Including the one from when I was kids, missing its door because my sibling would toss controllers at it when they lost.
Those controllers are solid.
Also a few dozen cartridges to go with it. Nothing of value as far as I know but future family heirlooms.
I wish I still had the original N64 controllers. The nintendium shells they were made out of were thicker, heftier. Now I've just got these off-brand ones that don't feel as good.
Tell you what, though - the joysticks are just as floppy as the originals we had. I'll eventually get those GameCube joysticks to upgrade them.
I still use a nearly 20 year old DSLR as my primary photography camera. It’s all personal stuff so the lower resolution and overall lower quality compared to modern cameras doesn’t bother me much. The battery isn’t doing so well after 20 years though, so I’m getting a couple new ones and a larger memory card for it. Hoping to buy a new camera soon and get at least 20 years out of that too, but I still plan to use my current one alongside any other camera as I really like the look of the images it produces.
What's the make and model? I had a Cannon 20D that I used forever, tiny 2.5in LCD. My 7D is collecting dust, but my fave was a A-1 with 800 Kodak.
It’s actually a 20D too! The new battery really brought it back to its prime, not having to constantly stress about it dying on me has been great
1966 Fender Princeton guitar amplifier. Me likey
My original Atari 2600 and games I got as a kid.
EDIT: I am pretty sure my stove is from the 60's but it came with the house I bought in 2015, so I am not sure it counts.
My mom gave me her Atari 2600 that she had when she was a kid. It still works. It even still had all the cables and games stored with it at her parents' house when they passed.
IBM PS/1
Proud as fuck, as it's my first pc. I'm 26
Not that old but my 2009 i5 750 can still rock most of the games at a solid 1080p. I added a fan and overclocked it to 3.6, some ram and a 1060 gpu. It now serves as our main streaming / gaming computer on the TV and shows no sign of giving up. Overall I've spent less than 650$ over 15 years on a computer that we use daily.
thats the main reason i still run desktops.
the modularity means you dont need special equipment or rare schematics to keep it working. or to upgrade one aspect of an otherwise adequate system.
I'm right there with you man.
(2010-2011? built) 2nd generation i7 with 32 GB of ddr3 and a freaking 3070ti slapped on top...
I'm pushing over 100 fps on a 2k screen still.
It just won't die!
I mean to upgrade soon tho. It's time...
My Aiwa P22 micro hifi from 1978. Very nice, compact and sounds great.
I have a Panasonic "Genius" microwave from 1983, still going strong.
A multimeter from the 70's, although I don't use it often anymore (I have two newer ones)
A Back and Decker b-100 corded drill from the 1960's with a skill saw of the same era. (Both backups in case my newer ones die.)
Also not really tech, but A scythe from the 1930's, an old clothes iron from the early 1900's (The kind you heated on the stove) a machete from 1920, and a couple old hand pump sprayers from the 20's or 30's (The type you screw a glass bottle onto) that all are functional but mainly just collect dust.
I probably have some other old crap I'm not thinking of at the moment, I just like collecting weird old things.
Mine eventually started stopping after one minute no matter how long I asked it to cook. I guess the brain was starting to go.
I'm going to cry when mine finally dies. I bought it second hand in 1991/92 and have only ever replaced the light bulb in it once around 98. That microwave has survived both my daughters growing up and a lot of moves over the years.
Although at this rate I might crap out before it does lol.
A 1930s era Sunkist Juicer. That thing is still chooching along and just juiced enough key limes for two pies last night.
I recently bought a 1970s Sunbeam food processor to replace my broken modern one. It's so incredibly quiet that I thought it was broken as well until I tried it out grinding stuff and found that it was even better and faster than the modern one. It is much heavier, though, and a pretty ugly shade of '70s yellow.
I'm still using an IBM model M keyboard from 1989. Picked up a conversion cable to go straight from the weird RJ45 connector to USB and have zero issues with it.
Also using a Model M from 1991, still going strong. Very serviceable too if I ever need to repair it, so long as I can get the replacement parts on ebay.
I have a GeForce GTX 970 from 2015 that's still doing sterling service every day in my recently refreshed HTPC, delivering 4K movies and the occasional game to my 65in Sony OLED TV. My best tech buy ever.
I just gave mine away, like an hour ago. I recently upgraded my hardware so I listed the old 970 for giveaway since it has very little market value nowadays, and this guy showed up for it, turns out he's the pilot at a nearby scuba centre, and he told me I got a diving session in exchange for the card. Good business
Commodore 64 but for everyday stuff my Alienware X51 R3 is a weird, old Frankenstein monster
Are you keeping up with the Commodore?
My dad was showing us all Moon Shuttle for the 64, some old game he'd never played. And then he pulled out a chip he called "the shadow" that I guess has a history to it. It was a replacement for another chip you'd plug it into the hard drive to... Copy games? But they didn't work or they didn't make enough? He even showed me his thermal printed complaint letter he wrote explaining how long he waited and how many times he was fobbed off.
I have several of the original Philips LED replacement bulbs, which were some of the very first LED bulbs available. Paid about $35CAD each for them in late 2009 and they're built out of solid metal and weigh a ton. They're still going strong and put out a lovely light.
Pentax ME SLR camera, bought by my uncle in the 70s. Got some dents and scratches but it’s still taking beautiful pics.
SNES purchased by my parents in 1992.
An old blade server I was able to take from my very first job, state of the art for the time it was made around 2002. It's still running and I've been using it as a media and hosting server for years despite how out of date the specs are now.
Mines not so interesting, but I do have an original N64 from launch. I wish I had picked up the gold plated Zelda console, but I instead grabbed the regular grey one that came with Mario...I had never played a Zelda game before and regret the decision today.
If I'm going even older, it would probably be the planer that my father made about 50 years ago. Still works amazingly for being all cherry.
1976 Gottlieb Volley pinball machine
My Atari 7800. Had to replace capacitors and a transistor to get it working again. Also added composite AV output.
I have a 2600 that needs the same treatment, haven't gotten to it
There is a website called Console5 that has tons of repair and upgrade parts. Replacing components in the Atari wasn't bad.
Hope you never have to replace the capacitors on a SNES. You're almost guaranteed to lift a bunch of pads unless you have a hot air station or a specialty tool that's half soldering iron half tweezers.
An electronic typewriter that my parents bought when I was entering highschool in the early 90s.
While my first works of fiction we're not written on it, my first fiction I ever submitted (it was rejected btw) to a publisher was.
I wouldn't get successfully published until the late 90s/early 00s after I had built my first PC out of scrap parts and a cheap copy of windows 95.
But that typewriter still holds a special place in my heart.
Easily beaten by others, but I'm happy that my old Das Keyboard lasted nearly twelve years before it started missing keystrokes. Only retired it last week
You could probably replace the individual switches by de-soldering them.
I still have a Gen 1 Das Keyboard as well
Thems is good keebs
My late version (early 90s) Quad 34 preamp.
It's a brilliant and somewhat unique design. The eq is part 8 pole tilt filter and part lift/step filter with adjustable turnover. This enables you to position the audio in a very precise and uncoloured way, much like changing your seating position in an auditorium. If you like bass you don't sit at the front!
It has a true mono selector, high and low frequency filters for radio and vinyl subsonics respectively, a modular phono stage for MM or MC turntable cartridge type, and the volume gain stage is accurate between channels to around a tenth of a dB, which is about ten times better than is generally accepted as adequate.
It's power is so efficient that it never gets even warm and it's audio design has a quality that is similar to the way valve equipment sounds.
It's a very special part of my system which drives my active speakers. They are pro audio which have a very accurate response compared to consumer speakers. The Quad gives them something special to reproduce which, with a lot of CD sources imparts a bit of character that's musical and very pleasant.
If it ever needs servicing, I can take it to the Quad service centre where it was made in Huntingdon near Cambridge, a couple of hours drive away.
I'm very proud of my Quad 34, I wanted one for many years and was fortunate to be able to find a good one I could afford at the time. I expect it will outlive me, along with my speakers and a few other bits and bobs I've collected over the years. It's the oldest bit of technology I have that I use regularly. I have a film camera that may be older but I don't use film any more and I thought the Quad would be more interesting.
Thanks for asking and I hope you find this worthy. I'm happy to answer any questions about all this if anyone feels compelled.
Bang & Ollufsen record player from 1977
1975 Gibson Grabber bass. Instead of having multiple pickups, it has one pickup that you "grab" and slide across the pickguard. I had to get the fretboard re-set, as it had been sliding down the neck and making it impossible to intonate.
Terrible design, but it's a unique piece of music history that I enjoy having on hand.
A 1960s electric meat slicer. Use it every Thanskgiving. That thing is built like a tank and a probable fire hazard.
A 70s crockpot/fryer. Another fire hazard that is relegated to hot buttered rum and frying food.
More recent would be a 720p Samsung TV hooked up to an AppleTV HD we still use in our Master bedroom, mostly for classic movies on TCM. We’ve had it for 15 years and she’s still kicking.
Back in the '70s my parents got gifted an electric hot dog cooker. It basically had two rows of electrode spikes and you'd stick a bunch of hot dogs between the spikes and electrocute them. Dangerous as fuck since it had no kind of guard or anything - and how hard is it to just boil hot dogs anyway?
That’s crazy! I’ve never heard of that. I love hot dogs and haven’t had them electrocuted. Any good?
I don't remember us ever using the thing. My parents were sort of proto-hippies and we didn't eat stuff like hot dogs very often.
I have a 70s meat slicer as well. Brings back a lot of memories (growing up, my parents used theirs at least weekly).
My dad has a 65+ year old tube radio that still works great. Sounds amazing too. It was my grandfather's radio and it's older than my dad is we're not sure how old it is exactly.
A pair of vertical speakers with three elements each made by my father in the early 80s and the paired amplifier that he built at the same time
Any chance of a photo?
sure thing, right now I cant but I should be able to do it in a few hours !
This isn't entirely uncommon, but my 20 year old car is in perfect shape, fully paid off, and can do any job. I'm proud of that thing.
Sounds like a treasure. Toyota?
That's a super safe assumption in this case, but this one is more of an anomaly. It's a Jeep Grand Cherokee.
My mom's morantz receiver from the late 60s.
10 year old Dell machine that I’m using as my home assistant and Plex server. Picked it up on Facebook for $30, tossed new ram in for $10, and a new SSD for $40 and it’s snappy and does a great job. And the SSD will go to any new machine.
One of the first projectors that could do 720p from 20+ years ago. Kinda crazy how bad it seems now while being state of the art on release
A Singer sewing machine from before the Great War.
Should be able to dig up a fully functioning Sony Minidisk player. Owned and lost quite a few of them over the years. Damn things were sleek and small, but they meant the world to me. Napster and then Limewire provided the mp3s thanks to the old 56k dialup modem, then a mini jack connection from PC to the Minidisk. It took a hell of a long time to get everything set up just so, but it was worth it. Every time.
Those things were sooo cool!!!
1940 Turkish Mauser (8mm), at the newest 83yo. But that year's production was cobbled together from old stock receivers and barrels made just before 1900. So parts of it could be ~120yo.
Might not be tech now but in the late 19th c. the Mauser bolt action was absolute tech.
Until recently, my daily driver laptop. ThinkPad x200s from 2008. When covid hit I started using my desktop and a month ago I tried the laptop and it doesn't turn on anymore :(
Nowadays nothing noteworthy... maybe my smartwatch, Samsung Galaxy Watch 1.
If it's not just the battery finally giving out, it might be the thermal goop on the CPU / GPU. Late IBM Thinkpads could eat fans annually. Early Lenovo models can't be all that different. Thermal cycling is a rude source of stress... as is the sudden end of routine thermal cycling.
Also the BIOS battery. At least some from the late 90s refuse to do anything if the Bios battery is dead.
Quadrophonic 8-track player. I use it as an amplifier.
I also keep a copy of "Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk" by Meco loaded into it. It's a disco/jazz fusion that's truly horrible, but authentically 70s.
If a razor counts my Gillette Fat boy (~1954). If you're wanting to know about electronics the motherboard/ram in my media server(2011). I have older stuff around but not in active use.
Probably my speakers. They were custom built by one of my dad's mates in the 80s. Not sure when exactly.
I’ve got planes and a chisel from late 1800s, some of the best tools I own. The steel of the blades is fantastic, and the feel of the handles after more than 100 years of being handled is fairly unique
Best I have is an old Midland Gun Company double barrel shotgun that belonged to my great-grandfather. Passed through the Birmingham Proof House and bears 1904-1925 proof marks, but doesn’t actually have a date stamp, my understanding is that they didn’t start date stamping until 1921. The company was bought by Parker-Hale and the records were subsequently destroyed in a fire, so I’ve never been able to find out exactly how old the thing is.
HP Touchpad from 2011 that was given to me.
I try not to hoard stuff in case I ever need to relocate, so my list of owned items isn't big. I would love to collect retro consoles otherwise.
I miss my Touchpad. Palm was ahead of its time by making all mobile apps web apps.
Oh well. The HP firesale was one hell of a send-off at least.
That tablet was the bomb at the time. I ran android on it when webOS was discontinued. It kept up for a while but i saw an OLED tablet that gave me eyegasms.
I had to sell off/donate most of my stuff before moving abroad. If that’s a goal for you, nothing wrong with keeing minimal stuff.
I’ve got plenty of stuff that’s older than I am. I’ve got mechanical cameras dating back to the 1930’s, electronic camera’s from the 70’s, watches dating back to that time as well. And there’s game consoles dating back to the NES, like many here.
I like old tech. Just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s bad or unreliable. If you treat stuff well and maintain as needed, a lot of things will outlast you. I’ll be shooting film in cameras that are a hundred years old in a few years.
Got my grandpa's Minolta XE7 in the bag on my way to visit my daughter for the holidays. Not my oldest camera, but he's not around anymore so there's some nice sentiment capturing family moments with his camera. Security hand checked the film, no questions asked, so that's nice. Couple rolls of HP5 to push for inside, and some Gold 200 if we get some sunny weather.
I own a few Minolta's, including the X500 and X700. Those were basically the last of their manual focus SLR's. I love classic bodies like that; metal built bricks that feel solid and chunky to use. I also bought a ton of Minolta glass back in the 2010's when they stuff went for pennies on the dollar on Ebay. Good glass is good glass, right?
I've never shot HP5 myself; I tend to be more of a Fuji shooter in general with Acros for my B&W needs. I've developed my own rolls, especially when I had to shoot that in cut-down form in Minox cartridges. Not exactly the kind of thing you take to a one hour photo place :D
Though I've also shot stuff like Tri-X 400, Ektar and a bunch of other stuff from Kodak and Fuji over the years. But the thing I absolutely LOVE to shoot is slide film. Velvia 50 & 100 in particular. Absolutely amazing to see slides on a lightbox. You get a lovely depth and color that you just don't really see in other negatives in my opinion.
I actually just bought a Fuji X-S20 camera which includes a bunch of film simulations, including Acros and Velvia. That's how much I love shooting those, that I want to bring that fun factor to digital as well :D Also own a Fuji X100S, which I found out is a 'TikTok trend' apparently...
AKAI S-1100 sampler. It is still in mint conditition, released in 1990. It was a studio standard in those days. I don't use it that much these days, but the time stretch on that machine is amazing. For Jungle and Drum & Bass it's an essential piece of hardware imo. The Prodigy for instance had two of them 1100's in the studio and on tour if irc.
As far as "daily driver" tech, Motorcycle is 43 years old. My razor is 103 years old. Luckily I'm closer in age to the motorcycle.
A microwave from 1997. I give it most of the credit for staying alive. It's a brick house.
My rather ancient audio setup: a Yamaha RX-496RDS stereo receiver with a Vestax PMC 17A Mixer and T+A Triton R130 speakers for 2 (lame ass) Gemini PT 2100 Turntables (through a preamp) and some PC-Audio. Most of this stuff is from the 90s or early 00s. Wasn't the best setup in the first place but it still works fine to this day and probably even beats some of the contemporary bluetooth thingies.
Lmao same with my audio setup
Have there even been much development in sound quality of speakers over the year, that is hardware?
I'm not an expert by any means, but I don't really think so. I think hi-fi audio is one of the few fields in which technical development is stagnating or even lagging behind in terms of sound quality. This is probably mainly due to the fact that the quality of streaming files is much poorer than that of lossless formats on data carriers such as CDs anyway. The same probably applies to wireless solutions. Streaming and wireless audio transmission is of course much more user-friendly, but in terms of audio quality it is probably not a step forward.
Old speakers had enormous, heavy magnets and were great at reproducing audio, especially on the low end. The only major "development" with modern speakers has been the ability to sort of reproduce sound with lighter-weight, cheaper materials.
Clock radio is from around 1979 I think. Stereo tuner from 1978 (Sansui TU-9900!).
Oh, I have two functional tube testers from the 1950s. Also a short wave radio from about 1950.
I like old stuff.
1979 Sanyo Record Player. It was my mom's and she bought it in high school
1961 Gibson Discoverer Amp. Found it in the basement as a teen. Replaced the fuse holder and fuse. Powered up all the tubes no problem and still running strong today.
altec lansing speakers from 2000.
I was still using my Yamaha speakers I bought in 1999
Nokia 3310, it even spent a good 20 min submerged because a 9lb pike pushed my parents out of the canoe and had to walk back to shore
60's electric drill.
Not sure how loose you define tech, but mine would be my motorcyle, a 1981 Yamaha XS400 that my grandfather gifted me. It's certainly feeling it's age, so it requires a lot more effort on my end to keep running than most bikes made this century. It's not made for modern highway speeds, it's not happy when I try, so I keep it off the interstate, 50 and under. That said, when the weather's good, I've never had a carbeurated engine start so easily, and it's a joy to ride!
What gives you the most problems? Fuel delivery?
Some old corded drill that my dad had. It's supposed to have a reverse function but it only goes one direction now.
I've got no idea when it was made.
My toaster, similar one here. It was the toaster that I grew up with. My father in turn bought it at a garage sale. I recently tracked down the history and found that it was manufactured in the 50's, so it's been in near constant use for around 75 years.
My Amiga 500 is from 1987.
But I think the stereo & LP player in the living room is from the early 70s.
Pinball fantasies anyone?
My microwave from 1985 which came with the house.
The original fat PS2 I got for Christmas 20-odd years ago. It still plays games perfectly fine if the discs aren’t too scratched up (RIP my bro’s copy of Marvel vs Capcom 1).
I was thoroughly impressed by Technology Connections exploration of the Sunbeam automatic beyond belief toaster. Bought one cheap off Craigslist a while ago and added a ground wire. Works great.
I also picked up an IBM selectric pretty cheap, mostly works.
My Harman Kardon pc speakers. They are as old as I am. Here's a pic of the same model I found online.
Type Mike IBM keyboard......goddMm indestructible.
Technics SL-1900 turntable from 1977, it was a pretty midrange model for its time but it sure as hell is better than any deck you can get new today. The only thing that doesn't work is the dampening on the tonearm lift/lowering.
That's a nice turn table and you should be happy to have it. But, it is definitely not better than any deck you can get today.
Oh? Like which one?
Rega Planar series, for sure. They are pricey, though. I'd hazard that there are some Pro-ject models that are likely superior at a lower price point than the Rega's.
Again, nothing against yours, it's a good one. But there's almost always something better, and in this case that holds true.
I mean, Rega turntables are pretty highly regarded but I doubt they're better than my Technics (direct drive vs. belt drive pretty much). Rega doesn't list specifications like wow & flutter or rumble on their page as far as I know which makes them kinda hard to compare, though.
Edit: Just had a look at a Pro-Ject deck (the classic evo, which is $1,999) and both the wow & flutter (0.11%) and the rumble (-70db) are worse than my Technics (0.03% and -73db).
They're still really good specs but on paper they're worse than those of the SL-1900.
My friend has two of the current 1200 series (1210mk5?) and they are very nice. Not sure how they compare but it would be interesting if you know how to find the specs?
The 1210MK5G ran from 2002 to 2010 I think. Yeah, it's even a little bit better than mine actually, not by much, though.
It's got the quartz lock, which is really nice. I'd love to have a 1210MK2 but, as you can probably imagine, their status among DJs has made them pretty much unaffordable for more casual listeners like me.
Original Xbox console with a copy of Halo Combat Evolved though the console would probably pop if I plugged it in
Open it up and see if any of the capacitors are leaking! Soldering is a great skill to learn and you can fix it yourself.
The biggest problem people have is buying a bad soldering iron that gets way too hot. You can get an excellent iron for only 10 or 20 dollars more than the garbage out there. I used to recommend the TS-100, because that's what I use and love, and they used to be way cheaper. The TS-80 was an upgrade to that, which was also nice but I never liked. If you've got the money, I still recommend them. However for the budget minded, the pinecil is almost the exact same thing, it's well made, and it's still like $30-40 bucks. In fact some people prefer it over the others. You can power it with a beefy USB-C charger if you have one, or an old laptop charger if you want to cut up the end and put a barrel jack on it. The thing pulls about 90 watts at full tilt, but only for brief periods.
Next you want to buy yourself some practice boards, you can get soldering kits from AliExpress that will let you build little flashing trees and hearts and stuff. Or even small handheld games if you're getting better at soldering.
Then you watch YouTube tutorials, find several. You want to focus on quick work, at low ish temps like 280C, keep the tip clean, and flux is your friend. The very tippy tip of your iron should always be shiny, if it starts turning black, it's building oxides from being too hot and not enough flux. Clean that thing with flux. If you leave it that way too long you'll ruin it, that's why most people struggle to solder.
Then once you've learned, and you're ready to go. Watch YouTube videos on fixing the Xbox, buy the caps, crack that thing open and have fun. Caps aren't that hard to replace, compared to other soldering projects. You'll do fine 👍
Hey thanks. I may need to solder something in the near future, and it's always felt a bit daunting to start/learn for some reason. This comment was super helpful.
I bought a cheap learn to solder kit and did that project before fixing an old Dell motherboard. It came with a soldering iron but agree with the poster above that a better soldering iron makes a big difference.
2004 Wacom Cintiq 21UX. Drawing on a screen that large and heavy is awesome. I built it into my desk and can raise and lower it from flat to nearly 90 degrees. The brightness has faded over the years, but I won't let it go until I can afford a new one (equivalent $3k + today). I can barely work in PS with just a mouse anymore. It spoils ya.
I have a Sunbeam Radiant Control toaster from the 1960s. It’s an elegant, automatic design with only one control for the amount of toast. If it had slots wide enough for bagels it would be perfect.
Video door-phone from the eighties. The screen is crap but hit a few times and it works lol
I have Lenco turntable from 1969, making it roughly 54 years old.
It's been over a year since I unboxed it, but my Nintendo 64. Last game I played was Majora's Mask and it suffered a hard reset in the stone temple that made me box it back up.
My hammer.
Also, an axe. Arguably, …fire?
Only if the fire has been continuously running. Otherwise you started a new fire.
My old and trustworthy Kenwood KRV75R receiver. From around 1985 and still rocking!
If a pocket watch counts, then my Hamilton watch from 1908. Oldest electronic would probably be my NES.
Playstation 2 slim and an original PS2 controller. Still runs really smoothly, at least for tech at the time. Disc drive is really cool.
Still have running? Probably my Sega Genesis model 1, bought a month before I was even born in 1991, though I rarely use it as emulation is easier.
Still use daily? Probably my gen 3 iPod touch, circa 2009.
Octopus Game&Watch from 1981.
The gameplay is still fire.
Try it out here at archive.org
Oh nice. I have a Mario Bros game watch. Think it's from 86 or something like that.
My Yamaha speakers that I got in 1996. Beautiful sound from them. The receiver and other things have long since been replaced.
My oldest piece of tech would probably be my C64 or maybe an old camera I have. But the one that I'm actually proud of is my car, a Mercedes W124 from 1988. It'll be hard to find a bolt on that car that I haven't touched and I'm finally getting it where my even my perfectionist self is happy with the way it looks and drives.
Probably one of my CRTs from the early 80s, unless we're counting basic stuff like my house wiring or gate speaker.
Dynaco ST-70 stereo tube amp, probably from the 60s (no date on them that I can tell).
Very proud of it, got it for free at a garage sale. Replaced selenium rectifier with silicon diodes, a few new caps, and new tubes. Sounds great.
My ps1 probably. I just played with it yesterday and I loved it.
I would say my Sega GameGear, but I just went to turn it on, aaaaaaand it's probably well past time to replace the caps. And screen. And motherboard...
I have a Milling Machine with a 1902 patent date on it. It was converted to an electric motor, but the line shaft pulley is still on it.
1901 Edison victrola. Listen to Edison's band.
An Acetronic MPU1000 games console, from the 1970s - 76 or 78 I think. Still worked last time I powered it up, I also got some extra games cheap off eBay a while back, interesting playing something other than the three or four games I remember from childhood.
My dad bought an amplifier in the 70s, I still use it for my TV audio system today. Super solid stuff.
NAS, 2015. Not too old.
The oldest thing that runs on electricity in my house is probably a tie between my washer and dryer. Both are Kenmore 80 series from the early 90's. I've repaired them a number of times and will continue to do so.
I also have a late 90's vintage Magnavox tube TV which is in working if slightly twitchy order. I set it up every now and again to play SNES games on. The picture's gone slightly orange and depending on what's being displayed there's a notable coil whine, I'm sure it needs to be recapped.
I still have my original SNES, it doesn't work and I'm not sure why. One of its controllers and all but one of my old cartridges is still working. It's not going to be long I'm going to have to change the batteries in the games. Weird to think my copy of Link to the Past has had RAM turned on and running for 33 years straight.
I've still got my RioVolt mp3 CD player. The in-line remote died but the machine itself works fine. I've had it since 2001. I'm very fond of it.
As far as computers, I still have my high school HP Pavilion desktop, and it does still barely boot to XP, but I don't use it for anything. I have a Dell Dimension with an old 3-digit Core i7 circa 2009 that does still see some use as it's supported by modern Linux and yet it's got old shit like a PCI slot, optical drives, firewire, extrenal SATA, so it's a useful tool to have around if I have to play with Dubya-era electronics.
Outstanding!
My Nintendo DS.
Somehow the battery is still charged and went multiple times from red state to a green state.
A few, a silver Pikachu Gameboy color, some synthesizers from the 1980's, a unique guitar that I've only been able to find documentation of 1 other one online (Ibanez Nitro full wood body finish - it's certainly a custom). And I think the last pride and joy is my Sony MDR-V600's.
Anybody remember Cube World? Those little electronic cubes that you could magnetically attach to others and they could interact? Got a set of those too.
The music stuff is the oldest but it's mostly second hand so it's harder to claim. The headphones were a gift and new back then though, so they're for sure, same with the Gameboy color and Cube World. Heh :)
Oh come on, I need to know more!
Ah I guess some made it sound a little cooler than it is, my apologies for the hope!! It's just a Casio HT700 that I got at a thrift, it's not bad but it's not anything super special.
I had bad syntax, I have some aged synthesizers, one from the 80's... That's the only one lol, I think my others are mostly from the 2000's, like the gakken sx-150 and the midiman oxygen 8, an Ibanez Bass Synthesizer pedal (SB7). Oh, speaking of pedals I do have a Snarling Dogs Bootsy Collins Wah/Fuzz which is pretty neat!
Seems to me you're more of a musician than a gear head, which is a good thing.
Very much so :) though I do have a lot of gear! I would attribute that to playing for.. gosh... Nearly 3 decades now!
I have a TI 99/4A PC that still works! It has a super weird version of BASIC and I don't have any tapes for it, but it's a cool display piece. I was able to make an educated guess that it was manufactured in 1982 based on the design
Newton MessagePad 2100. I used it daily from 2008-2011 (well after I had an iPhone) for office work and everyone thought I was crazy but I loved it. I still prefer the ui for calendar/contacts/note taking compared to everything else out there.
Daily? Logitech MX-518. I'd still be using my CeBIT 2003 IntelliMouse if it hadn't been jostled by one too many trips in a backpack. Both are newer than the Max Payne mousepad that is somehow still in tolerable condition.
No, wait. I just glanced at the time on a Westclox digital alarm clock, model 22636, production code 1/10/83. That thing's older than I am. Had to check the underside again: Norcross, GA. I was unsure if "Westclox" hinted at being produced in West Germany.
Probably an nes or vcr. I have an Atari too but it's not hooked up so idk if it still works. I have some old film projectors too
As for daily usage and "tech" - I have a Samsung Galaxy S1. The battery still holds a charge and it's being used on a near daily basis (for very simple stuff). Runs Omnirom with android 4.
An electric turkey-carving knife, made in 1962. GE built it to last.
My N64. I probably have a few pieces of tech older than me, but I can't think of them off the top of my head.
I have a PC from 2004 as well.
I know this isn't what you meant but, this week I restored a large format photo enlarger from the 1950s. A Beseler 45 MCXR. I am extremely proud that I was not electrocuted, and I printed a 4x5 negative as a Christmas gift for my mother in law.
Definitely counts, and I'm glad you lived to tell the tale!
a core 2 duo full tower pc from mid 2000s
first it had win95, XP, 7, now runs void Linux
Wtf? Core 2 duo was released in 2006, so your PC was made after that. Why was it originally running windows 95?! It was built 3 years after windows XP came out!
2006 is mid 2000s and my dad got his old license for 95 from another PC (we didn't had internet back then so I couldn't upgrade to xp for a while)
I have a Core 2 Duo laptop from 2007 running Void Linux too!
And another Core 2 Duo tower PC running Arch Linux.
Core 2 Duos still have some life left in them, and they're extremely cheap nowadays. I think I got the tower PC for 13€ second hand, and I've hosted countless things on it without problems.
The CD player i found on the curb. I had no idea how old it was but i looked it up for this thread and it has user reviews from 2007.
Sony CMT Nez50
Works great, 15 volume already feels loud
Two game boy DMGs, one kept original and one modded with a new shell, membrane, and LCD screen. It's a great hobby restoring them.
Nokia N73 counts?
Is it still running?
Yes Chief like good boi
I have an early 70s waffle/sandwhich maker eletric grill. Was a wedding gift to my parents and i grew up eating food off of it. Works flawlessly. But its just coils hooked to 120v with a regulator. Not much to break
the oldest is one of my portable cassette recorders, a very early GE model that is in near perfect condition. It's so early on it doesn't have much info online, and seems to be rare, but unwanted.
The one im the most proud of is my IBM LexMark model M keyboard, It's older than me, abused to hell, modified, and is still my daily driver because it's so comfortable
I have a Sony M2 Micro card with inside it's USB adapter.
I've used it to install countless Linux distros since 2007 😅
!buyitforlife@sh.itjust.works
Also !buyitforlife@slrpnk.net which is pretty active
Edit: whoops accidentally tagged the community as a user lol
Probably the 20-year-old microwave.
I bet it works better than the new ones. I had a 40 year old microwave at my last rental flat and it was like the big muscly shiba inu from the meme. New microwaves are the crying little shiba inu.
I got an Apple IIc. Drive, monitor, keyboard all work.
I think my PS3 still works, although I haven't used it in awhile.
Twenty- seven year old wireless keyboard. I love it. Feels great and never fails me. Don't know what I'll do when it finally dies.
My fat PS3. Still a good Blu Ray and DVD player.
It's either my alarm clock or 5.1 speakers, both of which would be somewhere over 20 years old.
14 year old Wacom Tablet. It still gets regular use.
I have some railroad stock certificates from the late 19th century that I need to frame. They're a few bucks on ebay and really freaking cool
In terms of electronics, I have some model trains from the 60s and 70s that are pretty worthless but keep going despite the abuse and lack of maintenance thanks to electric motors being so simple and easy to maintain. Other than that it's probably a shoe in between my wife's N64, PS2 and CRT TV, an old police scanner I got off ebay, or the early plasma TV that I got from my parents who got it from my aunt who got it with their house.
Technically speaking, it's the 2TB platter drive full of games that I've pulled from computer to computer over the last 15 years or so. Everything else has failed or become obsolete, but it's still kicking, miraculously.
Within reach on my desk, Unisonic LC-384 Dual Power Solar and Battery Backup Pocket Calculator - I've not owned it the whole time, so I looked around and see it was produced on or around 1982. It works just fine.
It has a minimal listing in the Calcuseum (http://www.calcuseum.com/SCRAPBOOK/BONUS/32532/1.htm)
A 1930's Remington mechanical typewriter. My dad used it regularly until he passed away, it still works perfectly and I've got a whole box of ribbons for it.
A OG gameboy transparent hood
The oldest piece of tech I personally own and have running is probably my phone (going on 6 years). In the household it's probably our washing machine ('00s) - unfortunately the magnetron on our late 80s microwave just died :(
A pan-clock, that is a clock that has the shape of a pan. It's probably close to 40 or more years old. pan-clock
It's not too exciting, but I've got an old Lenovo EMC2 NAS that's probably from the early 10s. I was also running a Pi 1B as a DNS server until it gave up on life.
Well, not that old, and even typing this hurts me (and apologizes to all that are hurt too lol), but I just played a lot with my PSP GO and my DS Lite this week, and in a related field Jackie Chan for PS1 in my Anbernic RG351V (old software in this case).
i have speakers from somewhere in the 1980's made in the soviet union
If we're including family consoles, I'm gonna say the family wii my family got in the late 2000s. I was actually pretty pissed when we couldn't find it when it was in temporary storage because there is one mii that I would have been absolutely furious with myself if I couldn't remake it on my switch. Luckily we did find it and I've managed to recreate all the miis we had on there onto my switch, especially the one mii my grandma made.
Olympus OM 10. Bought it second hand a few years ago, when I felt I need film cameras back in my life. Must be from the early 80s. I only use it since maybe 4 years now, but I love that camera.
Oh, while I am typing I just remembered my Braun Paxette from the 1950s. But I don't like that camera and thus don't use it. Planning on selling it tbh.
I have a Vendomatic sewing machine form the late '70s or early '80s. Still works like a charm. I still use it a couple of times per year to make/fix clothes or sew badges on my heavy metal jacket
I have a 600w ham radio amplifier from the 60s. It's a Heathkit SB-200
I'm very proud of it because I bought it in rough condition, and repaired it myself. Replaced all the leaky capacitors and did some other work in there. Now it runs like a dream! It was my first time working with tube gear. The voltages in these things is 2500 volts, that'll kill you dead before you know what happened.
I also have an SB-220 that I got broken. I fixed it up but didn't do a full rebuild on it. It'll do 1200 watts, but I don't need that much power so I haven't used it much. It's in storage. That one is from the late 60s early 70s.
My next oldest device is also ham radio gear, a Kenwood TS-530S from the 80s. There's a lot of solid state stuff inside, plenty of transistors doing all the work. But the final output stage is still a good ole pair of tubes. I bought this in non working condition, and fixed it myself as well. Good fun!
Is a wristwatch considered tech? My daily one is from 1971 and with a service it keeps time way better than a lot of new mechanical watches.
Apple IIe even has a dot matrix printer still in operation (paper running low though)
But probably my oldest piece is my Beale upright piano, made in the 1920s, still beautiful, still hammering out music.