This is not a conversation about guns. This is a conversation about items that have withstood abuse that are near unbreakable.
Some items I have heard referenced as AK47 of:
Gerber MP600: It’s a multi tool
Old Thinkpad Laptops
Mag lights
Toyota Hilux
That metal toaster we got for a wedding present. It was apparently someone’s parents wedding present from the 60’s. We had it for several years until a friend jammed a bagel in it and melted the cord. I replaced the cord and we used it for another several years before losing it in a move.
I like to believe someone found it and it is still toasting to this day.
Bodum French Press
Dynavap DHV
Buffalo Bicycles
Vitamix Blender
Aeropress coffee maker.
Its like 20$, works really well, very simple design with few things to break.
There is a Sub-Lem for that: https://slrpnk.net/c/buyitforlife
Akai 4000ds Reel to Reel tape player. So many are still working, built like a tank. They’re super cheap on the used market.
Shure SM58/57
SM57s still can get roughed up pretty bad with the plastic covering on the front of the mic (especially if miking a snare drum with a less than precise drummer). SM58 will survive a nuclear war.
Pre-2010 Toyota Corolla
Gotta be the KitchenAid mixers no? Especially the older ones. I have a friend that has one from his grandma that’s over 50 years old. If anything breaks, it’s usually a gear or something simple to fix, and the parts are easy to buy and generally cheap.
The EV 635A. Built. To. Last.
http://recordinghacks.com/reviews/tapeop/electro-voice-635a/
I swear to god - on a dare I used one as a hammer and it lost 0 range on the SA.
Toughest mic and best DR of it’s 1965 class. Still a viable non-phantom , mono drum or ambient mic.
True believer!
MSI motherboards. I’ve seen one fail out of 1000+.
Concept2 rowing machines. Even if they break, you can still buy spare parts at reasonable rates even for the very first model, which is decades old and only sold a few copies. Fantastic engineering.
It’s a real baader-meinhoff phenomenon: once you notice them, you notice that every gym has them.
The Logitech x3d Xtreme or whatever the hell it’s called. it’s a $34 flight stick, best one you can get for cheap, and after having and abusing it for years it only had any issues after a rottweiler puppy chewed the cable. Would recommend.
Japanese-made sewing machines from the 1950s. Most are all-metal and overbuilt, and will work like new with a few drops of oil, maybe a fresh belt. In the US they were imported and had local brand’s names put on them; what you’re really looking for is the “Made in Japan” on the back or bottom. Granny sewing machines also qualify, but most of the Japanese ones have zigzag
A discontinued product from AKG called the K-330. The sound, even though nothing to get excited about, was decent, but the durability of these, in my opinion is legendary. When I was a teenager, I was not careful with them at all, and would often forget them in my sweatpants pockets before throwing them into the washing machine, and that happened hundreds of times and it’s not an exaggeration. The cable was mostly tangle free, while everyone else had to untangle their earbuds (something that most modern earbud cables can’t seem to do as well). These went through abuse more than any other device I’ve ever owned, and they kept working no matter what. Audio quality wise, they are overpriced in my opinion (I think the MSRP was $100, but because not many bought them, I got them on sale as a teen), but the durability is Nokia level in my opinion.
AKG Q701 headphones also. I’ve been using the same pair for well over a decade.
Glad to hear it. How’s the sound of these? I’ve never heard any Quincy Jones signature headphones from AKG.
I’m a bit of an audiophile and the Q701s are the best I’ve listened to. They far out pace anything else under $200 in terms of soundstage and clarity. The bass is a bit low, but this is to be expected from open backs.
That’s awesome. My brother has the AKG K7XX, I’m guessing they sound similar, because I remember being impressed with these. I assume the QJ are just a different tune, and more padding on the headband.
I recently ordered the Sennheiser HD 58X, but I was looking at the AKG options too.
Pre GM SAABs. I’ve personally gotten 2 of my 5 to over 1,000,000 miles on the original engine and transmission. Both manual transmission. A couple hundred of them have made it to 2,000,000 world wide. The lowest milage I killed a SAAB at was 789,000 miles. I hydroplaned into a semi on I-75, and the car still technically ran, but I gave it to my parents as a parts car. Just read the owners manual, and be absolutely religious about basic maintenance.
Oh, and the turbos don’t like low octane fuel. It gums them up.
How does a turbo that intakes air get gummed up from low octane fuel? Maybe oil is the issue since turbos have oil seals. Maybe I’m missing some unknown factor on turbos.
It’s not the actual turbo that gets gummed, the fuel system is what gums up, but for some reason it’s far worse on the turbo versions of the cars. I could put low octane into the non turbo SAABs I had, and it didn’t gum up the intake the way the turbo versions did. I don’t know why.
Fuel lines degrade under lower octane perhaps. Sounds like a design flaw. I’ve always heard from my car auction and dealer friends that SAABs are junk through and through. I’ve heard it countless times. Hmm…
Nah, Americans just don’t like to read the manuals, and they got a bad reputation in the late '70s and early '80s when they first put turbos into the cars, because you had to pull into the driveway, and let the turbo spin down for at least 30 seconds to a minute. If you didn’t, the turbo would seize and then shred itself when you turn the car back on.
Also American mechanics don’t like the fact that the engine is not in the configuration they are used to. It’s rotated 90° on the z axis and 45 on the x axis. Absolutely solid tanks if you actually read the manual, and followed the routine maintenance recommendations.
