Things STILL made today worth buying

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TPA

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A couple of months ago I started two similar threads on discontinued things which you wish you could still buy today:
In general: https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/discontinued-things-you-still-wish-were-made-today.489886/
and flashlight specific: https://www.candlepowerforums.com/t...ashlights-do-you-wish-were-still-made.489884/

What items are still made today which are still worth buying and the en$h1tification private equity monster hasn't destroyed yet?

I'll start by posting about the Sony MDR-7506 and Sennheiser HD 600 headphones. They've been in production for 35 & 29 years respectively. I got my first pair of 7506 back in 1994 when I started broadcasting. At some point I ended up replacing them so I'm on my second pair during that 32 year time period. Still good, still performing. My HD 600s are 29 years old. Sure, I've replaced wires and cushions, but those are wear items to me. Still working, and they still bring a smile to my face when I use them.
 
There are a lot of mechanical items that could be listed in this thread, but I’ll just mention the Abu Garcia 5500/6500 series reels (made in Sweden versions). Been in production since the mid seventies and you can still get parts for the originals. Very satisfying to use and own something built as well as a fine Swiss watch. Still one of the best catfish reels available, IMO.
 
TPA said:
A couple of months ago I started two similar threads on discontinued things which you wish you could still buy today:
In general: https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/discontinued-things-you-still-wish-were-made-today.489886/
and flashlight specific: https://www.candlepowerforums.com/t...ashlights-do-you-wish-were-still-made.489884/

What items are still made today which are still worth buying and the en$h1tification private equity monster hasn't destroyed yet?

I'll start by posting about the Sony MDR-7506 and Sennheiser HD 600 headphones. They've been in production for 35 & 29 years respectively. I got my first pair of 7506 back in 1994 when I started broadcasting. At some point I ended up replacing them so I'm on my second pair during that 32 year time period. Still good, still performing. My HD 600s are 29 years old. Sure, I've replaced wires and cushions, but those are wear items to me. Still working, and they still bring a smile to my face when I use them.
Click to expand...
Sony 7506 has had several iterations, and as many say, the sound has changed somewhat, and not everyone likes the current version. The HD600, HD650 have they retained their properties in a more preserved way. It's best to buy extra ear pads, several pairs for future use. The sound will improve if you replace the cable with a higher quality one :) I replaced the cable with one that has thicker copper wires, each wire is insulated from the others (litz wire), and I immediately began to hear more information.
 
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Got one when they first came out in the 80s'
..they are still made today

1784590985689.png
 
desert.snake said:
Sony 7506 has had several iterations, and as many say, the sound has changed somewhat, and not everyone likes the current version. The HD600, HD650 have they retained their properties in a more preserved way. It's best to buy extra ear pads, several pairs for future use. The sound will improve if you replace the cable with a higher quality one :) I replaced the cable with one that has thicker copper wires, each wire is insulated from the others (litz wire), and I immediately began to hear more information.
Click to expand...
I did A/B test my original 7506 vs. second 7506 and they sounded very, very, very similar. I attributed any differences to break-in/years of abuse and the differences certainly not enough to change a mix. These are typically driven by a dedicated Crown D-45A or Crown D-75A amplifier. These have a headphone output...which is directly connected to the speaker output. No speakers attached. With that much "grunt" on the supply side, you could probably use wet dental floss and you're still going to hear every detail. That also means mishandling things could give hearing damage.

On the road I have a portable Solid State Logic DAC, although my current Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen 13 internal DAC paired with these headphones still brings (literal) tears of joy to my eyes each time I have a listen.

I've standardised on the 7506 because of how ubiquitous they are. I'm working on a production now where I'm working with crews all around the country. We're not coming together until a week before the event. So, make it sound good on the 7506s, we'll match the event system/room to mirror what we heard on the 7506.
 
Posting in here gives me some pause, because who knows if something may have changed since my last purchase ... or if this will (with my luck!) be the very next thing to be "quality optimized and efficiency adjusted"

Anyway, my Channellocks only have about fifty years of use on them, so they're still in good shape. Can anyone here vouch for those made today ?
 
archimedes said:
Posting in here gives me some pause, because who knows if something may have changed since my last purchase ... or if this will (with my luck!) be the very next thing to be "quality optimized and efficiency adjusted"

Anyway, my Channellocks only have about fifty years of use on them, so they're still in good shape. Can anyone here vouch for those made today ?
Click to expand...
That "optimization" is such a PITA...if the product is good, it's good for a reason! That's the issue with corporatized engineering...it's not best effort, it's least effort.
 
leukos said:
There are a lot of mechanical items that could be listed in this thread, but I’ll just mention the Abu Garcia 5500/6500 series reels (made in Sweden versions). Been in production since the mid seventies and you can still get parts for the originals. Very satisfying to use and own something built as well as a fine Swiss watch. Still one of the best catfish reels available, IMO.
Click to expand...
Abu Garcia is having a decent sale, currently. Their Ambassadeur Pro Rocket BE 6500 is available for about one-third off. Made in Sweden model.
 
archimedes said:
Anyway, my Channellocks only have about fifty years of use on them, so they're still in good shape.
Click to expand...
Have a ~50yr-old pair of Channellock "dykes" (basic diagonal cutting pliers), too. Used for fishing excursions, along with some camping and many tasks around the home. Good, hard-wearing tools. Could use a sharpening, but they're still going strong.
 
TPA said:
I'll start by posting about the Sony MDR-7506 and Sennheiser HD 600 headphones. They've been in production for 35 & 29 years respectively. I got my first pair of 7506 back in 1994 when I started broadcasting. At some point I ended up replacing them so I'm on my second pair during that 32 year time period. Still good, still performing. My HD 600s are 29 years old. Sure, I've replaced wires and cushions, but those are wear items to me. Still working, and they still bring a smile to my face when I use them.
Click to expand...
+1 on those Sennheiser cans. I don't have a pair any more but they were amazing.
 
archimedes said:
In a surprise twist on the thread premise, I find that Zebra pens appear to have gotten better over time
Click to expand...
For a basic ballpoint, the Zebra F-301 and F-402 (0.7mm) are my go-to pens. Have been for many years. Durable, smooth rolling, fairly quick-drying oil-based ink. Have a Zebra F-701 as well, and it's just as nice, though more-expensive.

Two thumbs up, for those. Zebra got it right, with the series.
 
I'd agree on the Zebras. Back in my school / college days the Zebras were substantially less expensive than Pentels, BUT, they had writing quality issues or ran out of ink quickly. (am I the only one who enjoyed seeing how much ink they could go through in a day in school?)

Today Zebra's ballpoints are better than Pentel. I still absolutely loathe the Pentel RSVP ballpoint pens. For some reason multiple women who have been in my life love them, but if there's one on the table in front of me and I need to write something, I'll go in the other room to find a different pen. It feels like writing with a glue stick, pushing through mud to me.

In school and college, Pentel's Hybrid gel pens were my go-to. Then around 2008 they stopped making them in normal colours, so I settled on the Pilot G2s. When purchasing at my office landed in my lap, the G2s became the standard there as well. No one complained when I stopped buying the horrid off-brand BICs which didn't work half the time. Switching from Quill to a corporate account at Staples, Office Depot, and Amazon saved enough money to slide the much more expensive pens in.

BTW, if you ever need a bunch of disposable pens, search for Misprint Pens on Amazon. We always kept a case at the office. Always nicer than BICs for the same or less. They write fine. Part of the fun was seeing whose pens you were getting in the box. A few times we got some from rather prestigious places, which people would fight over, or ended up in the conference room.
 
TPA said:
I did A/B test my original 7506 vs. second 7506 and they sounded very, very, very similar. I attributed any differences to break-in/years of abuse and the differences certainly not enough to change a mix. These are typically driven by a dedicated Crown D-45A or Crown D-75A amplifier. These have a headphone output...which is directly connected to the speaker output. No speakers attached. With that much "grunt" on the supply side, you could probably use wet dental floss and you're still going to hear every detail. That also means mishandling things could give hearing damage.

On the road I have a portable Solid State Logic DAC, although my current Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen 13 internal DAC paired with these headphones still brings (literal) tears of joy to my eyes each time I have a listen.

I've standardised on the 7506 because of how ubiquitous they are. I'm working on a production now where I'm working with crews all around the country. We're not coming together until a week before the event. So, make it sound good on the 7506s, we'll match the event system/room to mirror what we heard on the 7506.
Click to expand...
Thank you, this is interesting. But my friends who work in sound, for some reason, are chasing old Japanese releases, and they also highly praise the AKG K240DF, specifically the DF version, as the most neutral. I even bought 3 pairs as spares. Mine record choirs, operas, and classical music. I understand about the sound repeatability, it's convenient. Do you take your own pair with you or just pick up the same model when you get there?
 
archimedes said:
Posting in here gives me some pause, because who knows if something may have changed since my last purchase ... or if this will (with my luck!) be the very next thing to be "quality optimized and efficiency adjusted"

Anyway, my Channellocks only have about fifty years of use on them, so they're still in good shape. Can anyone here vouch for those made today ?
Click to expand...
Knipex and Wiha :)

They have a very good combined hardening of teeth and blades - everything is heated in a furnace, the teeth are immediately additionally heated by an inductor

Good pens are Pelikan, meaning fountain pens. For example, the M400, both now and 70 years ago, has the same internal components. There are, of course, some minor cosmetic changes. I easily unscrewed the nib from my '55 M400NN and screwed it into a modern M400. No problems, the nib feels the same when moving.

In my opinion, ballpoint pens should be completely eliminated and steel dip pens should be reintroduced to all educational institutions. Your hand gets tired much less, ink is much cheaper, fine motor skills develop, and consequently, your brain. As far as I remember, in Switzerland and some other elite institutions, everyone writes with a drip fountain pen from a young age. I think my current carpal tunnel problems started developing after my studies; we wrote a lot and for a long time with Corvina 51 pens. My hands would simply fall off after class. They have a heavy ball movement and poor ergonomics. I didn't know about fountain pens back then; rollerballs and gel pens were too expensive and ran out too quickly. Well, there was also a problem with the paper; bad paper is not very suitable for liquid ink, the letters blur. These are great, they hold enough ink, write thinly, and the tip is curved upwards so it doesn't catch on the paper when you draw a line from bottom to top - Sears Roebuck & Co No.68 Pen Nib
1784793946665.png


Well, or if not the dipping in ink, then at least these, so that children's wrists don't get so tired
1784794936771.png
 
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