Digital Generation, Analog Retro Chic

securitas writes "The New York Times' Juliet Chung writes about the latest technology trend: the growing popularity of analog technology with a generation that has grown up digital. 'Yesterday's technology designs are becoming popular among those in their teens and 20's eager to usher back a time they experienced only barely, if at all.' An MIT graduate student interviewed for the article, Ali Rahimi, was tired of the 'impersonal, unthinking' nature of modern technology, so he hacked an old telephone handset together with his mobile phone with the rationale, 'The handset has been going through about a hundred years of evolution in design and ... have the perfect shape.' According to Brown University technology historian Steven Lubar, 'When the available technology converges at a certain performance threshold ... consumers begin to base their choices on nontechnical considerations'. Chung also includes a sidebar that lists some of the new retro analog devices and interpretations, ranging from radio PC case mods to ancient clunker cell phones. Any other cool or interesting retro analog devices or hacks out there?" I've personally enjoyed owning tube amps on and off - the sound warmth, whether it be psychological or real, is definitely different then solid state amps.

Its briefly not barely

[Anonymous Coward]

"usher back a time they experienced only barely, if at all.' " it should say briefly not barely. Learn grammer..

It's novelty, not design

[Anonymous Coward]

People want something different, not something better. The handset of an old analog phone is by no means better or more ergonomic than a good cellphone, but it looks odd and you can't buy it, so it sets its owner apart.

Imagine that...

[garcia]

it's really hard to believe that old trends are coming back! It's never ever been fashionable to wear/use items that existed before you could remember them.

No one wore bell bottoms before the late 1990s. No one wore sweat shirts cut strange so they would hang off one shoulder before 2004. No one wore Daisy Duke cutoffs before 2002!

Sadly, in this day and age everything that comes back into style isn't original. It's made by companies that are out looking to make a buck. So yeah, it's going to start out that trendsetters will make their own stuff for free but companies will pick up on it and resell "retro stuff" for the same amount as it costs to have something "modern".

Bah.

Tubes are our friends

[samberdoo]

Actually, solid-state does not equivocate to "digital". Tubes did produce a slightly "warmer" sound. Audiophiles have for years advocated the old analog vinyl and tape technology over digital CD or DVD for the quality of sound. Of course, mp3's and other compressed digital media are even poorer quality. Humans are predominantly analog (except for politicians).

My interpretation

[Anonymous Coward]

"'When the available technology converges at a certain performance threshold ... consumers begin to base their choices on nontechnical considerations'"

Electrical engineering is OVER, folks, unless you enjoy spending your whole life in front of a computer trying to get that 0.01% edge over your competitor, until you lose your job to outsourcing and STILL have to pay the cult dues, errr student loans.

I believe this is a result of...

[Dagny Taggert]

...the commoditization of so many high tech items (cell phones, PCs, etc.). We all want something a little different from the beige box or the grey flip-phone. Manufacturers (check out Nokia's new stuff, for example) try to hit us with "out there" styles, but retro is cool because, at least for a while, tech companies won't touch it. After all, we're not going to see a Pentium4 boxed up in an IBM PCjr box any time soon.

Re:analog is obsolete

[bsd4me]

It is also interesting how many digital problems turn out to be analog in nature: termination, noise, signal coupling, power, etc.

Sometimes analog is just plain better, dammit

[brxndxn]

It seems to me that in the digital bandwagon, many companies ignore the potential utility in analog. A lot of our technology is mere digital representations of an analog data.

I know I really miss the analog dials for quickly finding radio stations. With analog, it was just spin the dial quick to get to your station fast; with digital, click and hold, click and hold some more, tap, tap, tap. Though, I do tend to like digital tuning, analog tuning sometimes allows you to get that pesky hard-to-tune station where digital tuning would just skip it.

Also, I have heard that analog amplifiers have better sound quality than digital. They should, if you just look at the basic properties of sound. Maybe if companies spent some new research money on making a better analog amplifier, analog would turn out to be better overall.

Re:it's true

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, cause obviously all modern trends can be traced back to a single incident that didn't kill even a tenth of the number of Bangladeshis who have died from floods over the same period.

Honestly, stop whining about 9-11, OK? We're sick of hearing about it.

Sincerely yours,
The Rest of the World

Re:it's true

[vrai]

People wear analogue watches because they look much nicer than tacky digitals. Wrist watches are essentially jewellery that is culturally acceptable for both men and women to wear. That fact that analogue displays are more readable at glance is merely a bonus.

Re:It's novelty, not design

[julesh]

The handset of an old analog phone is by no means better or more ergonomic than a good cellphone, but it looks odd and you can't buy it, so it sets its owner apart.

I disagree. Standard phone handsets have been designed to be comfortable to use. They fit around the side of your head, and can be pressed against your ear while the mouthpiece is reasonably close to your mouth. You can hold on to them by gripping between your shoulder and your head.

Mobile phones are designed to fit in your pocket. They're too small, they're flat and they have buttons on them, all of which prevent them from being as good for the purpose of being a handset as a proper handset is. But of course, proper handsets aren't ideal for putting in your pocket...

"Post 9/11"???

[Dogtanian]

i strongly suspect this all goes back to the comfort things that people are seeking in our post 9-11 world.

I'm fed up of the phrase "post 9/11" being used to explain changes in fashion and taste. Frankly, it would be easy to 'explain' most trends in this way, and I believe it's impact in this area has been grossly overstated.

Fact is, digital watches have not been "cool" since sometime in the 1980s, and they are now coming back into fashion, this time as *retro*.

I don't accept that *this* is down to 9-11; it is more likely to be another retro trend. The early 80s were a *long* time ago now; too long ago to be passe' any more, so let's revive it, goes the reasoning.

Re:Watches? Just say no.

[micromoog]

if it any moment I need to know the time I can look at my mobile phone

So you still carry a mobile timepiece; it's just not attached to your wrist.

Re:Watches? Just say no.

[mindstrm]

Try getting a simple watch and ditching the cellular phone.. you'll find that much more liberating.

The case for Mactintosh

[theolein]

According to Brown University technology historian Steven Lubar, 'When the available technology converges at a certain performance threshold ... consumers begin to base their choices on nontechnical considerations

This is one of the reasons Apple's products sell so well: The company puts an enormous amount of thought into the design. It's one of the reasons I have a Mac, the fact that the design, although not retro, is very smooth, the materials are top quality and Apple evens puts thought into the placment of screws. That and OSX, which exhibits the same processes, but in an OS.

ENIAC is digital;

[Sunnan]

It's using the tubes in a digital way.

God is generation z stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

As far as I'm concerned - these kids are stupid.

Why not start replacing all your light bulbs with kerosene lamps? While you're at it, why not replace all your MP3's with cassette tapes?

This is plain stupid. Analog chic? Please.

You want to know what analog is? Its getting a different radio station every time, without changing the dial. Its noise, its distortion.

Thank god for digital media. Even though my MP3's and Vorbis's might not sound as good to some people, at least they carry a signal to noise ratio as high as the d/a convertor in the final stage, and have no total harmonic distortion. And I don't have to pay $5 for a Denon Metal-Oxide tape in order to get full frequency response.

I'm Gen-X. I grew up with a hodge-podge of digital and analog technologies, and I don't miss analog one stinking bit. I don't miss the tape hiss, the muted highs or distorted lows. I'm happy I don't have to waste any more time of my life fast forwarding or rewinding.

Oh yeah, solid state amps (like Onkyo or Harmon Kardon) kick the crap out of tubes. My HK integrated amp is going on 20 years old, without any problems. No tube amp lasts that long, without replacing the tubes, not to mention the damping factors that kick the crap out of mosfet amps.

I don't listen to the radio any more, because it sucks. You can pay for XM, or get mobile internet and listen to streaming audio. Either way, you get a much cleaner signal than any broadcast tower. Digital kicks ass.

You know what else? Digital is cheaper. Back in the analog days, in order to interconnect audio components, you needed beefy ass expensive cables. Now, with digital, all you need is a basic 75 ohm cable for coax digital and any old Toslink will do. It either works or it doesn't work. And I don't buy any of that audiophile signal drift or any of that shit. Its all snake-oil.

Analog signal quality can always be improved or degraded, while still working. Digital, on the other hand, is either working at 100% or 0% (or intermittent). If you can hear it, it is properly set up.

And one more rant - how many of these snotnosed brats would be on the internet if it meant a 300 buad modem, and all that entails?

Huh.

Thought so.

Re:Carbs vs Fuel Injection and Electronic ignition

[cayenne8]

"Don't mean to flame, but getting those older technologies working well was a lot of work. Yes, I've rebuilt carbs, changed timing etc... on an older car. I'm glad my current car has none of those."

On the other hand...at least back in the day, you COULD be a shadetree mechanic...and work on your own car. Today, with everything so computer controlled...you are often hard pressed to work on your own car without special equipment that is often either only available to dealers...or too expensive for the common man to attain.

I had one of the first year C5 vettes...WAY too much computer for me...ditched in 3rd year after 'electrical demons' started appearing. I'd put the key in...seats and mirrors would go to weird positions. Dash board and engine would go tits up on occasion with no reason...and dealer could never find the problems.

I'm much happier with my '86 911 Turbo...sure, it breaks down, but, you can always find a mechanical reason...and pretty easily fix it.

So, definitely a sword that cuts both ways...

Re:Who is preserving the trinkets of the 20th cent

[HeyLaughingBoy]

The PC components he placed inside that wooden case probably cost the same, but will be obsolete in a few years due to the speed at which we are updating technology these days. The radio however, was probably in use for well over 20+ years until a tube burned out and the previous owner could no longer get a replacement.

Don't confuse the two. Just because the PC won't run today's software, doesn't mean it ceased to function. For all the tasks it was doing before, it is still just fine and can continue to do them for 20+ years. The difference is that the external standards the radio was designed to deal with (frequencies, modulation method) didn't change while the ones for the PC (software, perhaps network connection) did.

There are computers decades old still chugging along just fine doing what they were originally designed for.

Re: Rolex et al as status symbols

[mik]

While I understand and agree with you to a large extent, I'd also like to point out that there are other possible reasons to purchase such items. For instance:

• You want or need quality beyond the "standard". I cannot stand the typical disposable culture mindset - I bought an automatic mechanical watch (Omega, not Rolex, btw) after throwing out the nth quartz watch that died shortly after replacing the batteries.
• You want or need a custom product. If you are 7 feet tall, you just cannot buy pants from the local megamart. If your house is more than 50 or so years old, home depot isn't going to serve your needs very well...

... just raising the issue that "high quality and hand-made" doesn't always equate to "empty status symbol". That said, there are plenty who pay for the most over-the-top stuff in order to make a (tacky) statement.

Technology and magic

[ndogg]

I think we're getting to a point where technology is so complex that, as Arthur C. Clarke once noted, technology is indistinguishable from magic. Some people like magic, but many most certainly do not. It's not necessarily comforting to not know what is going on behind the scenes in technology.

This "rebellion against digital" is really an attempt to find technology that those people understand. Older technology provides a decent base from which they can understand the more complex technologies. This is the evolution of learning.

Re:analog is obsolete

[Komi]

Analog will always be around. Why? Because the world is analog.

Digital is popular because much of the design process is automated. This is why you can have 200 million transistors on a chip. It's cheaper and easier to create digital circuits. Naturally, it would be nice to put as much into digital as possible. But there's a limit.

• You have to create the digital infrastructure. You need to create the voltage levels from a power supply. Sometimes different digital blocks use different voltage levels. Also, you need to be able to control these levels to go into low power mode, or sleep mode. And finaly, digital circuits are delicate, so they need protected from power spikes.
• The environment is analog. So to bring in data, you need to measure it. Sensor applications (temperature, weight, impact, etc.) use analog circuitry. Also, these signals need converted to digital, so A2D converts are important. And if the chip wants to output back to analog (play some sound on those speakers), you need a D2A converter.
• Wireless transceivers need to get their signals up to and down from the carrier frequency. This is done with amplifiers, filters and mixers.

That last bullet is actually in the RF realm, but these blocks use analog circuit theory.

So, analog is definitely here to stay.

Komi