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In Reply to: Diminishing Returns - 50% more for 5 % better sound posted by elto on March 30, 2007 at 08:50:42:
With prices like these and the level of scamming and crap being sold this hobby has been reduced to dumpster diving, freebies and luck. Buying and trying gear has become far to expensive for us married guys to explain away. Hope you held onto your favorites. Because what coat you $100 a few years ago is not $400 and most likely broken.
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In a way, we can't complain. It's people like ourselves who said how good this stuff is, who restored it, who kept it going. Eventually, other people paid attention and started being willing to pay money for it. When a group of people say over and over how good something is and what a great bargain it is...it won't stay a bargain for long. Maybe that's unfortuate, but it seems to be true. C'est la vie.
I'm glad I got the bulk of my gear when I did, or I'd probably be listening to a plastic Circuit City stereo right now.And that would suck.
I'm with you Bobbo. I'm keeping all of my gear for that reason. In the past I only took a bath selling my gear. I have mostly bought new over the years and kept them mint. Curse the lucky stiffs who bought my mint gear for 30 cents on the dollar!
When I was a teenager in the early to mid seventies, everybody wanted a good "stereo". Everyone I knew eventually had at least a receiver, turntable and speakers. A lot of those systems ended up in the attic after marriage. But some of my old friends are still into music and audio.
Now I don't see any kids (I have a lot of nieces and nephews) wanting a stereo system. It's all Ipods, video games and computers. Audio is an expensive hobby now.
Kids could do alright with a used or budget system. I could put together a decent new system for under a grand today, I think. The interest is simply not there.
While prices and availibility of good vintage gear are getting depressing, there are still bargains to be had. Look carefully, at the bay, and places that you used to score. The thrift shops still come up with stuff, as do the flea markets. If you can fix the stuff, the audio exchange stores, which have a hard time sticking it out, these days, can help.
I think there are two major facts that are the reasons. First, and foremost, is the internet, the bay, in fact. Ebay has caused the flea markets to dry up, but it also has brought some very obscure stuff, for the world, to purchase.
The other fact is undisputable. Young Americans don't care about hifi like their parents do/did. While they might appreciate some of our old music, they really have their own agenda. They want nothing to do with records, except to hear what we did listen to, way back when. Although, at every antique radio show, I always see a dad and child seeking to buy an affordable record player for the kid, but not very hifi. Compare this to the rest of the world, where valves and music are cherished. The British want their KT66s back. The Euro collectors pass the heritage down, as well.
But, the largest growing audio hobby is still in Asia. Right now, Korea seems to take the lead in buying hifi. Twenty years ago, it was Japan. What has happened is simple. Parents cherish music and discipline. They insist that their kids play music and play it well. They love their hifi sets. They share the knowledge with their kids.
Asian kids are the largest DIY audio group in the world. Perhaps, not having anymore quality, NON-commercially oriented hifi magazines in the USA, has also helped the demise of this hobby, stateside.
Then again, we have the net. We have these forums. Unfortunately, there are not many affordable resources for gear, despite the so- called world wide web. There is lots of new stuff to be had, but at a cost. I don't buy $2000. speakers or amps or CD players. Neither do any of my neighbors. Yes, this hobby is becoming elitist.
Don't forget, though, that is was always about 1% of the USA population, that still used tubes, since the late 1970s.
I bought my first Luxman integrated SS amp in 1979 for $1000. Bought my first house that year for $1500 down on a purchase price of $40k.
I have about $800 in my Scott 299 and it blows the Lux out the water musically.
To me, good sound seems cheaper than ever.
Audio was the center of social activity in our household back then. Now it has become a solitary hobby that I rarely share other than in these groups. Things change. I guess for many, HT is the big money pit these days.
Larry.
Canada.
It is good eating, dining off the carcase of the 60's/70's/80's hifi boom!
Yep, it is going on in all vintage gear...I see in in tape daecks to..2 years ago I could have got a decent one..now there selling high & most all the good ones get crap loads of bids..glad I have some gear allready..I am doing DIY only for new gear & collect vintage when it is a decent deal & I want it bad enough..I am sick of digital..a damn joke it is..I have spent countless $ trying to get good sound from it..my lowly Sansui Tu-217 smashes my best DAC. I am done with digital. so..tapes -radio, vinyl..will be what my main sources will be , life is to short for self inflicted misery..On the today's kids & most adults not giving a shit about quality music reproduction..2-channel..my teenage kids.didn't give a crap eaither till I gave them hand me down ADS,hey day Onkyo etc..now it is a differant game..I think people just need to hear & know it can be affordable & not mysterious as it seems to them..My kids hear my system all the time, but am sure they think it is some exotic sh...that they don't understand or can afford & it isn't.. The gear they have now is not far off from any of mine..sound wise..My parter @ work had Marantz as a kid, I told him to look @E-bay for the unit..He did...He ran......*s*
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