The best items of tech you have ever owned

[Nick Armstrong]

Over the years, we've all invested in various items of technology - I started to wonder which 2 or 3 items forumites would single out as their preferred ones ever... in terms I suppose of

a. excellence/fitness for purpose
b. reliability
c. longevity (if that is different from b.)

Gritting my teeth and hoping I won't tempt fate so that the following will pack up immediately, I would single out two:

1. The pair of Cabasse "Yawl" speakers I bought in 1990

After lots of listening, these French speakers suited my ears and I drove over to Calais to buy them. They are going strong 28 years later without missing a beat, and are still delivering wonderful sound. They went through 2 or 3 CD players/amps and most recently (thanks to the Airport Express) deliver streamed and downloaded music from computer and mobile devices thrillingly.

2. My 2010 MacBook Pro

As mentioned elsewhere, rejuvenated by replacing the HDD with an SSD a few years back, it has just been updated with the latest operating system and is still going strong - with its 17" screen (an option which Apple saw fit to eliminate from its range some years back). I don't think 8 years of top-flight operation is bad in computer terms...

[eighthobstruction]

....my Carmen Rollers, of course....

[MrGongGong]

Atari 1040 ST
Monome (this one... this actual one https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/monome-64)
Genelec 8020's

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

1. Acorn RISC PC computer. Now 23 years old and still working impeccably.

2. Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus Technology loudspeakers. Simply perfect. (These are not the really expensive sea monsters that only footballers can afford.)

3. Derwent 2B pencil. So versatile.

[Beef Oven!]

1. MacBook Pro
2. iPhone
3. iPod

Those three items transformed my life - sad, but true :(

P.S. I'd like to have included my Genelec active speakers, but after 4 years they packed in! To be fair, not the end of the world, in that I've had a repair offer of £120. However, keeping within Caliban's rubric, they don't count.

[vinteuil]

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http://amzn.eu/chviPG7

http://amzn.eu/2DJEoww

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[MrGongGong]

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http://amzn.eu/chviPG7

http://amzn.eu/2DJEoww

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I get the gig spanner
BUT saving "left over wine" ?
What on earth

[vinteuil]

I get the gig spanner
BUT saving "left over wine" ?
What on earth

... means you can have SEVERAL different wines on the go at the same time





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[Dave2002]

1. My spectacles.
2. Motion light detector from Lidl which doubles up as a brilliant torch.
3. DeLonghi coffee machine.

[Serial_Apologist]

My brain - not quite as efficient as a few years back, but still reliable enough.

[Bryn]

An AgendA, while it lasted. A Cambridge Z88, likewise.

[Zucchini]

Cricket ball
Rugby ball
Canali linen jacket (quite high tech really)

[cloughie]

My brain - not quite as efficient as a few years back, but still reliable enough.

Memory almost full?

[jayne lee wilson]

... means you can have SEVERAL different wines on the go at the same time





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What, including the stuff...? Doesn't it, you know, go flat? Or maybe it disappears too fast....
(I've got a well-chilled Picpoul de Pinet lined up for my chicken salad tonight...relevance to thread...Fridges are great tech too)

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I would have to list the 2014 Macbook Pro I still use as my music server, but would want to add the Audirvana+/Qobuz HiFi player and interface as software-tech which has functioned perfectly since day one, changed my listening life through CD quality streaming, and given me great solace, joy and pleasure through some very difficult times.
(Then the refurbished 2016 Macbook Air, a great bargain used for - everything else: business, accounts, research, filing, cognitive therapy, taxes, shopping (what would I do without Home Delivery?)...cat videos on imgur and youtube. Life is so much easier with that on the desk)

And at either end of my HiFi System-building life: the 1990s Krell and Marantz CD Players, carefully customised or maintained, now used as transports; and the T&A Dac 8 Processor which all the music sources now feed, bought 2ndhand 5 years ago and which I never expect to replace....

I often gaze upon these objects fondly (especially those slightly growly vintage transports), like my Cat or a semi-tame Wood Pigeon who comes close to feed on peanuts each evening.
Tempora et Technologia Mutantur...

[vinteuil]

What, including the stuff...? Doesn't it, you know, go flat? Or maybe it disappears too fast....
(I've got a well-chilled Picpoul de Pinet lined up for my chicken salad tonight...relevance to thread...Fridges are great tech too)

... you are of course quite right - for bubbles you need this :

http://amzn.eu/bELjG9S

They work very well. But bottles of bubbles, it is true, don't last long here...





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