Techno blasts from the past

But Oliva says he's hanging on to an aged analog amplifier he owns - and not out of nostalgia.

Like many audiophiles, he cites analog's wider frequency range for "dimensions of sound that you can feel more than hear," a warmth that is often mentioned in defense of vinyl records. "When you move from pure function more toward art," he says, "the analog technologies have some real advantages."

Similarly, although digital photography excels as a way to capture, store or delete, and transmit photos, some consumers have begun to be less than satisfied with affordable digital imagery. Digital prints lack, as Oliva says, "the incredible range of colors, textures, and approaches that chemical photographic process gives you."

Other experts point to commercial technologies whose time appears finally to have come - or whose qualities simply have not been superseded. "Your definition of retro kind of depends on your frame of reference," says Anne-Taylor Griffith, market-research specialist at the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) in Reston, Va.

"Certain technologies have proven themselves to be reliable and of quality," says Ms. Griffith, whose organization tracks sales of devices by function, not design. "A great example is the cathode-ray tube in televisions," she says. "Even though we made a transition many years ago from black-and-white to color, and now from analog to digital, there are still CRT digital sets on the market because it's an established technology that gets the job done."

As manufacturers have been able to recoup their research-and-development costs, prices of the resulting new products have fallen to where they appeal to the mass market, Griffith explains.

"That's when, from the manufacturers' perspective, they say 'OK, we know that this works, and consumers like it. What are some other cool, interesting things we can do with this particular product?' That's where a lot of the really creative design starts to have a major role."

Oliva cites the work of Tom Kartsotis, president of Fossil, the watch and handbag company whose name perhaps evokes retro like no other.

"He tapped into this very early on, this idea that for all of the blazing chrome and silver-and-black kinds of things people are seeing, there's a balance of people who want something organic, earth-tone, rounded, and that led him into this retro look, even in his highest-tech stuff," Oliva says.

That old-school-hungry market now appears poised to keep registers ringing. In recent weeks, record players have been carted out the door in significant numbers at Restoration Hardware. "Sales have been great," says Jane Olszewski, associate manager at the Boylston Street branch in Boston, declining to cite specific figures but putting the buyer demographic at 30-something to 40-something and up.

"People love the [rotary-style] phone and the record players" in particular, she says. "I think it's the look of all of this 'memorabilia.' "

Still, at least half of the shoppers roving the retro-tech section at the store on a recent weekday had cellphones glued to their ears.

"Electronics are fun," says the CEA's Griffith, "and people use them to stay connected and entertained and informed. They've moved on from being a luxury to a necessity." She predicts wireless handhelds and new flat-panel TV displays will be the hits at the Las Vegas show. This year, they won't be the only game in town.

"There are a group of people," says Oliva, "who would rather have it funky."

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