The 90s Audio Thread

prime minister

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Staff member
As my golden age of audio was the 1990s, I thought it would be fun to see the 90's vintage gear that was loved by Haven members. Doesn't have to be pretty or high end. There was some homely looking, but wonderful sounding, gear made in that decade. The first half of the 90s in particular was great, with the Japanese being at the peak of their competitive over engineering, while the flat earth Brits were going nuts with homely, but lovely sounding, black boxes.

So what gear of the 90s did you, or do you, still love?
 
You want ugly? I got Ugly. Paradigm Titans (v1) that I bought new in 1997 as part of a 5.1 surround set-up. On their way to the basement as they have been replaced on my desk by the new SVS Prime Wireless speakers. Black Ash, rectangular boxes with non-removable grills. Meant to disappear in a darkened home theatre, but butt ugly in the light. Yeah I've come to despise black ash.
That's my 1987 vintage Yamaha with them. Not quite 90s but has the same look of many 90s receivers.
Oh and my 1980s sectional couch in the background.

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My parents got me this for my 12th birthday (showing my young age) and I still use it in my garage well over two decades later. I still enjoy its sound.

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These are the only pictures I could find as sadly, they are now gone. Pass Aleph 0’s and Aleph P preamp. Fantastic sound and, to my eye, really cool looking.
 

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I remember Kyocera components from the 80s, and liked them for their unusual looks. Revox also had a killer looking CD player and turntable at the time. The only cool looking amp I owned was the Carver M-500t (those meters!), but in retrospect it was long past its prime.

I think my "golden age" would be the 80s, as I stupidly got married in '89 and that killed any audiophile aspirations until the mid 2000s (post-divorce, of course) or actually, just over the past five years as I've made major changes to my system and found some of my end-game components. I was able to sneak a few things into the house but for the most part, the changes were sideways.
 
Did not buy much during the 90's but fondly remember Epos ES-11 and RA Labs Mini Reference speakers and Rega Planet CD player (the first one I could stand to listen to for very long).

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Love the 90s gear in my main system.

Amplifier is an early 90s Exposure XV integrated


Speakers are mid to late 90s Royd Squires

 
I own a fair bit of 90's gear, but I only actually bought a few of them during the decade.

KEF Reference 102, bought new in 1990. Still have 'em, too.
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Adcom GFA-535 - the smallest, and some say the best sounding, Adcom amp. Bought new in 1990, it made beautiful sounds with the baby KEFs. Still have it, as well.
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