There was a belief back then, definitely wrong, that uglier the audio gear was, better it sounded.
Anyway with grill removed and the tubes lighted on it was really romantic
I am with Dimitry on this one, had tubed preamps, power amps, integrated amps, even a tubed phono preamp. For me it was a lot of fun and money consuming, now I am stick with SS stuff, throwin money in exotic cartridges
Yeah, some BN are like wines, if you bought a case of Chateau Lafite Rotschild before the first WW you were lucky, like the caterer that traded Van Gogh paintings for lunches.
Anyway it's part of the fun
About wristwatch I think that nowadays a watch is like a jewel: its function is useless. You look at the time on your cell phones, on your car dashboard, on your computer and on the countless monitors you find in subway, shops etc.. A watch should be nice, better gorgeous.
I think one can follow one genre, classical music or jazz, but if one likes "music" in its entirety, nowadays should have a AI drone that makes the work for him.