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In Reply to: RE: Tympani 1d ad posted by Green Lantern on August 02, 2012 at 11:25:30
The selling price of 1-D's has been increasing steadily. Audiogon has the last sale as $970, the high as $1410, and the average as $1070. By way of comparison, I bought my pair, slightly used, in the early 80's for $700 and they went new for $1550.
I'd expect a refurbished pair to sell at the high end of the spectrum. Whether they're worth more than an early III, I'm not so sure -- I think that depends on application. The III's of course have the magnificent ribbon tweeter, but the 1-D's are *bigger* speakers in the sense that they'll really rock out in a way that the single panels won't and they're virtually indestructible. So it's basically bass, level, driver blending, and overall tonal balance vs. better highs and imaging.
Follow Ups:
Well, the current bid is $1100, and although the reserve has not been met, 6 days remain. It could be that I'm more interested in this auction's outcome than is the seller himself. (No, I'm not the seller, nor am I in any way associated with him.) Maybe we should take up bets on whether or not it well sell at Audiogom? :-))
If Magnepan's willing to assist in this arrangement (that is to say that they are even aware of it), I can't help but wonder if after this auction is over, and should this appear a way to make a buck, what would Magnepan do if a several dozen other Tympani owners were to attempt to join the fray?
I doubt it's much of a problem for them, just a matter of shipping them out to a different address from the one from which they came. Plus they have plenty of room to store them briefly, here's their repair department. You can see some of the speakers that were working on in the background:
Of course, I have no idea of what their policy is on this kind of favor.
Edits: 08/07/12
There's a non-working pair of 1-D available locally - I might snag them and send them back east for upgrade.
I put in the $1100 bid to probe his reserve price. The early bids mean nothing until they exceed the seller's reserve.
I found the same speakers offered elsewhere for $4K, so the reserve is probably pretty high.
$4k is far too much for Tympani I-D. Even for a fresh pair of IVa. I think the cost of refurbishment is somewhere between 1300-1500.
Roger Gustavsson
Funny you should mention it - there's a pair of "single-owner" unrefreshed IV-A's on eBay - asking $3950.
Which is insane -- they go for about $1800. (Actually, not insane given the quality of the speaker, just way above their usual selling price.)
Agree with Roger, that 1-D selling price is too high as well. By way of contrast the price on Audiogon is for a newly refurbished pair so you can expect them to be worth about the usual + the cost of the refurb and shipping, although I've noticed that refurbished units don't seem to bring quite that much of a premium -- which makes them a better deal than buying unrefurbished ones and having Magnepan do the work yourself.
All of which probably puts the selling price of the pair on AG at maybe $2300 on a good day, and the IVa on eBay for less (being original).
Yeah, I've never watched Audiogon auctions, but on Ebay auction prices seem to double on the last day. 1-D's go for $800-$1000 now (more than I paid for my slightly-used pair in the early 80's!), so if you add the cost of the refurb and shipping to that, it probably gets pretty close to that anticipated selling price.
Interesting - I just talked to the Repairs lady at Magnepan about costs for a 1D rebuild.
She tells me that the basic refresh, re-glue, re-cover, etc. runs $400-600, After that, if you need new membranes, they are $200 each, xo electronics perhaps another $200-300. If cracked frame - another couple. I'd also pop for replacing the horrible original screw-connector panel with the newer version, ala IVa.
So I'm pleasantly surprised. Apparently the $1300-1400 figure I've seen bandied about would probably include 2-way shipping, so the total for a renewed speaker might well run under $2K.
Heh, answered my question a second after I'd posted it!
The seller has added:
"As of this writing 3 days to go....the bid is $1,100.00. The auction reserve on the speakers is $3200. of which we would have the winner pay Magnepan the remainder due which is about $1850-2,000, and the rest to us. So if the speakers sell for the reserve minimum of $3,200... you would write a check to us for around $1200 and the rest you would pay Magnepan directly- we would write a bill of sale giving you ownership of the speakers and have them shipped wherever you wish."
Roger Gustavsson
Hmmm . . . that sounded a bit high to me initially since I checked the Blue Book price of 1-D's for another thread a few days ago, but then it occurred to me that he's probably including his shipping cost to Magnepan in the $1200. So I guess it's about right.
http://app.audiogon.com/listings/magnepan-magneplanar-tympani-1d-new-in-box-shipped-dire
I can't help but wonder how that will play out. Considering the amount of the reserve, it's a bit wierd the highest bid was only $350 short. Perhaps the purpose was to try to negotiate a deal privately, if permitted(?) at Audiogon.
I think that does happen sometimes with auctions, not even sure what Audiogon's policy is on that. But I wouldn't make any accusations.
None implied.
I'm going to look at a pair locally - one side not working. Asking $400-500. Add in $500 for 2-way shipping and maybe $1400 for the rebuild, and $2300 total would do it, so the two guys asking $4K are a bit high.
That's a better price than you'll usually see online, though it may be because one side is completely dead. This is going by the Audiogon blue book and they say nothing about condition. But it's clear from the graph that 1-D prices have been steadily rising in the last couple of years.
Have you asked Magnepan how much the two-way shipping and rebuild would cost? I'm guessing you're right that it would be less expensive but it's worth calling Sheila to find out for sure.
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