A guy who used to hang around my shop has a similar affliction.
He lives in an apartment down the street from the shop, his mom lives in the apartment above him.
Anyhow, he's friends with the landlord, who owns three other buildings next to this guy's place (row home duplex apts).
Each one has a basement, acessed from the front of the building.
This guy, who I believe has several mental issues including OCD, bi-polar, and bible-thumper disease, has collected many types of audio equipment through the years.
Stereo components, speakers, some test equipment (that he has no clue about), and even a couple of console stereos.
Some are flea market finds, others are from cleanouts that he happened to find.
It got to where he was running out of room, so he got permission from the landlord to use parts of the other basements for storage, and even rents (last I knew about) 5 storage sheds.
His apartment is also used for storage - closets, the living room (with boxes stacked to within an inch of the ceiling) and the bedroom.
The basement is lined with rows of utility shelving, with just a narrow walkway to get to the washer/dryer, and also stacked to the ceiling with stuff
We're talking about multiple rooms of storage - 3 basements, 5 rental sheds - PACKED full.
Literally hundreds of receivers, tape decks, turntables, speakers, consoles, of all makes and models - mostly mid grade stuff.
Can you say........ pack-rat!...... hoarder?
He believes it's worth a fortune, and even had told me he was offered $500,000 (half a mil) by someone - but as of this writing, the stuff still sits in those places.
I told him he was a hoarder, which he firmly denied.... of course.
Like anybody with an addiction, they're in denial of their sickness.
I took photos once of his basement - this is just a tiny, tiny fraction of what I'm talking about.
Multiply this by a few hundred times and you'll get the idea.
He lives in an apartment down the street from the shop, his mom lives in the apartment above him.
Anyhow, he's friends with the landlord, who owns three other buildings next to this guy's place (row home duplex apts).
Each one has a basement, acessed from the front of the building.
This guy, who I believe has several mental issues including OCD, bi-polar, and bible-thumper disease, has collected many types of audio equipment through the years.
Stereo components, speakers, some test equipment (that he has no clue about), and even a couple of console stereos.
Some are flea market finds, others are from cleanouts that he happened to find.
It got to where he was running out of room, so he got permission from the landlord to use parts of the other basements for storage, and even rents (last I knew about) 5 storage sheds.
His apartment is also used for storage - closets, the living room (with boxes stacked to within an inch of the ceiling) and the bedroom.
The basement is lined with rows of utility shelving, with just a narrow walkway to get to the washer/dryer, and also stacked to the ceiling with stuff
We're talking about multiple rooms of storage - 3 basements, 5 rental sheds - PACKED full.
Literally hundreds of receivers, tape decks, turntables, speakers, consoles, of all makes and models - mostly mid grade stuff.
Can you say........ pack-rat!...... hoarder?
He believes it's worth a fortune, and even had told me he was offered $500,000 (half a mil) by someone - but as of this writing, the stuff still sits in those places.
I told him he was a hoarder, which he firmly denied.... of course.
Like anybody with an addiction, they're in denial of their sickness.
I took photos once of his basement - this is just a tiny, tiny fraction of what I'm talking about.
Multiply this by a few hundred times and you'll get the idea.
Attachments
Last edited:
I don't have TEAS or GAS.....No, not me. I can count 4 working HP8664A 3 GHz signal generators plus a parts unit, 1 working HP8644A (better phase noise) and a working HP8643A (it was cheap and dead) and a pair of HP8642B's, one working, and one mostly working (they came first)....that's just the RF generators, there are two working spectrum analyzers, an HP8753C network analyzer, about 6 or 8 power supplies from low voltage to 600 volts at 1.7 amps, and several specialized HP RF test sets. All were bought cheap often non functional on Ebay, at hamfests, and in other surplus equipment situations. I spent 10 years in the cal lab at Motorola so I can fix this stuff. That's just the RF workbench. There is another workbench for vacuum tube audio, with an HP8903A, a HP6448B power supply (650 volts at nearly 2 amps), a Fluke 407D, and a Knight Kit KG-664, and a TEK 2232 DSO and a DIY FFT analyzer. Then there's the music synthesizer design bench. With the exception of the TEK 2335 and the modded Rigol DS2072A, most of the test equipment is self designed and built. Did I mention music synthesizers? I can count 7 commercial synths from the 90's to some current Behringer clones, plus 6 DIY synths, and a growing Eurorack modular setup....no GAS there, just Shiny New Module Acquisition Syndrome.....did I mention guitars? NO, I didn't say anything about them, all 10 of them.........
I did give away all of my 70's through 90's audio equipment when I left Florida, though. Most of it worked.
I did give away all of my 70's through 90's audio equipment when I left Florida, though. Most of it worked.
Actually a lot of those old amps are worth a small fortune now. Not likely 1/2 million but the prices have skyrocketed in the past couple years.
If you saw those 9 (at the time) spaces, 50 feet long, 20 feet wide, LOADED from floor to ceiling with shelves of equipment - off the top of my head there's likely hundreds of amps/receivers, probably a few hundred turntables/changers, tape decks both 8 track-cassette-reel to reel, dozens of pairs of speaker systems... it's mind boggling, jaw dropping.
Vintage radios too - all types.
Those few photos I posted do not do real justice to the amounts.
Isles and isles of shelves, crammed full, you can barely walk down the narrow isles.
When I visited there, and saw all that stuff, I just shook my head.
More photos....
Attachments
Last edited: