I don’t think I’d change much (I’m discounting financial value as a motive, e.g. going back and buying shed-loads of TL12.1s, LS3/5As etc isn’t what this thread is about for me).
I view the whole thing as a journey, a learning curve, and one framed by some very precise context. Even if I knew 40 years ago that huge vintage Tannoys or whatever were where I’d end up, which I certainly didn’t, I was living in a succession of tiny flats and the Kans I used for so many years were vastly more suited to that environment. The only thing I maybe wish I’d known earlier is how much I seem to like vintage idler-drive turntables. I could have done that aspect of my journey far earlier had I say heard a really good well setup 301 or 124 back before I went off down the ‘80s belt-drive route. The irony here is I did really like my first GL75, but I hadn’t learned enough to articulate quite why. I just knew that whilst I’d gained something by ‘upgrading’, I’d also lost too.
I think we live in a very different and vastly more democratic time now in that huge swathes of information and opinion are now in the public domain for instant access. A magazine review or dealer sales pitch is vastly diminished in stature now. They are far more easily assessed as what they are, and just sink back into a whole sea of opinion from which, given enough time, the better products and thinking will always emerge. That’s where I now live. I have pretty absolutely no interest in current trends or rave reviews. I’m obviously in the position that I created a job out of it, so maybe I value the journey/learning-curve aspect more than some. I never thought I’d ever get quite as hands-on with servicing etc, but again that is the power of shared knowledge and interaction.
To throw a political perspective on it I view where we are now to be back to the early hobbyist/pioneering days of the 1950s and ‘60, but with vastly improved information distribution, exchange and free interaction. I really like where we are now. It is the same with music (the major corporations are marginalised and music is back in the hands of creatives). For audio the 1980s, at least in the UK, were probably the most marketing-led/Thatcherite in spirit where the focus was so strongly on ‘the new’ and was a far more consumerist and mass-trend mindset. It gave a lot of small businesses a break, but it did end up too ideological, too ‘flavour of the month’, too dismissive of good products both old and new that didn’t ‘fit’ IMO. I see things now (at least here in the two-channel enthusiast/hobbyist arena) as being a far more democratic, green and sustainable thing with vintage/classic audio finally finding its correct place and respect in the market. I hope this mindset will shift into other areas of consumer electronics hence my firmly backing Right To Repair etc.
The amusing thing is I’ve pretty much done a full-circle. I started out with a GL75, 33/303 and JR149s in the late-70s, and I’ve ended up owning a fair bit of that again along with other stuff that conceptually and historically sits happily next to it. Obviously digital has been a huge thing too. I very much enjoy the instant access to new music modern technology brings, and it seamlessly integrates into classic audio systems. I still prefer to buy physical media, but it is all good. One of the things I actually like the most is my iPhone with its 100GB music library that I can take anywhere. The 16 year old me would have viewed that as better than Star Trek technology!
tl;dr: buy the tried and tested classic stuff second hand, ‘Linn tight’ is a lie, do not trust anything with spikes!
