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Why is so much of the gear for sale on ebay, Craigslist, and A-gon dented and scratched? I'm not just talking about the the typical low-fi shit, but McIntosh, HK, Eico, Fisher etc....
I don't know how it's even possible to damage hifi gear. Are there a lot of people that have batting cages in their living rooms? Do they have weekly keg partys? Are they so pathetically weak that they can't lift a 50 lb amp without dropping it?
Wait, I know; They're bored so they amuse themselves scraping paint off of transformers with a steak knife. Or, maybe they wrap their thumb and forefinger with 150 grit sandpaper before their listening sessions so they can scratch the shit out of the faceplate(s). Or, maybe they play everyone's favorite game - Blind vacuuming! You know, get out your 1960s Hoover, have someone blindfold you, then race around the house and ram the vacuum into everything including speakers as hard as you can in hopes of causing as much damage as possible.
I don't get it. The gear I use sits on a rack, while the gear not being used sits in a box where it won't be crushed, soaked, or fall.
It makes me wonder what type of pig pens these people live in.
Meat; It's the right thing to do. Romans 14:2
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Over the years, I have bought and sold a lot of gear, and along the way was given a lot. Nearly all of it was cosmetically good or better. Some of the speakers did have water rings on the top from drinks or plants, and most electronics were dusty on the inside, and had greasy fingerprints on the face plates and gunk on the knobs; but very little that couldn't be cleaned up.
I guess I must move in different circles, as I really haven't seen that much stuff that was really abused. No, wait, I take that back. I used to drop in at a local shop that had a small repair bench. That's where the atrocities are found. Kids like to put coins into the slots in receiver covers. One receiver had cherry flavored cough syrup in it. Speaker center domes regularly pushed in, cones with tears, and missing knobs.
A lot of minor stuff seems to come from stacking components. That leads to scratches in the covers and knicks in the top edge of the face plate as a piece is slid out of the middle of a stack. It also leads to damaged RCA's and cover dents as the piece on top slams down on the one below. Bottom cover screw heads also take their toll as the back feet slide off the top of the lower piece, and the screw heads hit the top cover and the edge of the face plate. When most consumer grade stuff went to aluminum covers in the late 80's and into the 90's, dents were a lot more common. My NAD C350 has a thin aluminum cover that I can dent by staring hard at it.
Jerry
talking to people about fragile 78rpm shellac discs. Broken 78s can be artistic though.
For a long time, what we consider as "classic" gear was essentially obsolete to most.
Who wanted tubes?
Who wanted coffin sized speakers?
Remember the days when a Mac or Marantz tube amp could be found for $100 ?
As late as the mid 90's you could find a Dyna ST70 for $50, and it was usually in someone's garage, our hauled from flea market to ham fest and back while the owner waited for someone to buy it.
I purchased my first Fisher 500c for $50 and passed up 2 more at the same price because I thought 1 was enough.... They were sitting on the dirt, stacked on top of each other, in the boneyard of a hamfest....
Goes in cycles. When we are dead and buried, our now "classic" tube equipment will be worthless once again. While aging milenials will seek out original ipods to get that retro sound they remember from their youth.
It's been a long time since people found e--y to dispose of their wares. Tube gear became a hot item I suppose because of it. I'm sure all the good stuff was dug out and sold off because there was a market. Now what is left are the barn finds that would have been left behind in the past.
Nt
While taking back roads to get home from a business trip, I stopped in an old TV and electronics repair shop. The proprietor had an old HK Cit-II less tubes on its side and was using it as a door stop. Ignorant on what I was getting, I got it for like $25 or $40 with the criteria I move it due to its weight. Is it scratched up, yeah. But the best door stop I ever bought.
When I was around 12 or so I remember a story on the radio, yes the radio, about a guy that was in a hotel somewhere in the Midwest. Long story short - it was a 20 pound gold metal block.
Keep in mind the time when most of the stuff we collect was new. I strongly suspect the that many of the users were under the influence of a combustible extralegal amusement aid.
Dave
Ah, a Jersey response! And that's why I don't live there anymore.
Well MY!!! theory is more simple and elegant. The good stuff is already nicely tucked away in the closets and cabinets of collectors. Leaving the busted, dented and electrically mauled stuff to hover (not hoover) around like planes stacked for a landing at JFK.
I'll bet if you looked at the serial numbers you would find that they ARE the same stereos just being bought and sold.
Funny story. One day someone posted about a stereo for sale. It was MY old stereo. And it DID have problems and a significant amount of work done on it. And not well at that. But by the description, heck I would have bought it back!
The equipment is at least a half century old! It was at one time consumer electronics, then old out of date electronics, and then after another few decades classic gear. It has been moved perhaps a half dozen times, lived in dorm rooms, hippy houses, and living rooms with children. It was used and abused because that's what happens to consumer electronics.
There was even a time when an entire class of audio enthusiasts thought that the best use of this old gear was to modify it extensively or even gut the chassis to be used as a platform for a new build. There was a series of articles in Audio Amateur on building a preamplifier into a Marantz 7T chassis after gutting it. Back in the late 1970s and 1980s, audio enthusiasts were much more active in building their own gear than today and the 20 or 30 year old equipment provided transformers, chassis and a solid foundation for new ideas.
So is anyone really surprised that a half century old consumer electronics is scratched and dented?
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