This is plain silly. I have owned and sold a great number of high end "gimmicks" and on average have made a pretty good profit after keeping and enjoying them for a few years. The very few "sensible" audio pieces i have bought have almost entirely lost their value in comparison. So what CAN you get out of those cigs after five years of enjoyment?
What a mental boost, just what i needed.
Had i not given fags a blow job for the last 40 years, a quicky calculator estimate says it would have saved a net present worth of $203,785.-
Just think how much remained in my wallet since i quit smoking 32 days ago.
On the other hand, i feel 24/7 like giving anyone of you lot the National Tattler treatment , after a solid Buffalo Bill shave session in the barn.
Secondly, the cost of smoking is less than twice as much here, compared to the US, while cars and audio gear do more than a factor 2.
YouTube - Red Dragon Wheelchair
Which leaves us free to try ideas which are guaranteed commercial death. For example, I prefer balanced low impedance between components, which implies XLR connectors and either solid-state or tricky tube circuits. I think IEC connectors are low-power toys, so my gear has a twist-lock power entry on the back panel (my next house will have one on the wall). Spade lugs strike me as a fiddly annoyance, hence the sturdy AMP connectors on my systems.
And that's just wiring. DIYers have a whole world of customisation open to us which would cause a commercial vendor to be ostracised as incompatibly weird.
There was high-end audio gear in the years before WW2. McMurdo-Silver made sets with as many as 23 tubes; Scott with 33 (and more). The extremely rare Scott Quaranta was triamped, weighed 620 pounds, and used either 40 or 48 tubes. List price was $5000, which could have bought you one luxury car or nearly ten V8 Fords at the time.
http://home.ca.inter.net/~hagelin/dubois.html
However, this stuff did warrant the price based on sound engineering principles. Unlike, perhaps, some modern high-end stuff that merely provides a veneer or an illusion of quality.
http://home.ca.inter.net/~hagelin/dubois.html
However, this stuff did warrant the price based on sound engineering principles. Unlike, perhaps, some modern high-end stuff that merely provides a veneer or an illusion of quality.
I am curious about modern well regarded HiEnd audio brand that is just an illusion of quality (Accuphase, Esoteric, Krell, Magnepan, Macintosh, Mark Levinson, Conrad Johnson, MBL, Stax, Wadia, Wavac etc?). Brand name, model and description why would be very helpful.
BTW for my DIY projects a custom but nice venneer (case) is the most complicated part. imho right looking exterior is an important subject for audio gear taking into account that at home it becomes a very eye-catching part of an interior. The only thing is about speakers cabinets they are better be covered with acoustic absorption material unleast they are not a planar or electrostatic type ones.
I am a big fun of Wadia decoding computers and Italian Graaf gear (OTL tube stuff Black Gates internally - out of production nowadays as I heard).
In US Maggies is a must have imho. They are very pricey and rear outside of US but in US could be purchased second hand at ridiculous low bargain price being lucky enough. A little bit tricky in setup and amplification in order to reveal full potential of these speakers however vocal and organ records reproduction on Magneplanars is absolutely astonishing.
Cary Xciter setup looks very intriguing designed to be used for direct computer playback.
In US Maggies is a must have imho. They are very pricey and rear outside of US but in US could be purchased second hand at ridiculous low bargain price being lucky enough. A little bit tricky in setup and amplification in order to reveal full potential of these speakers however vocal and organ records reproduction on Magneplanars is absolutely astonishing.
Cary Xciter setup looks very intriguing designed to be used for direct computer playback.
I know minimum wage in 1978 was $2.65 an hour because that is when I got my first job and it payed me $2.00 an hour but did not ask me for proof of my age. I was 14 and you had to be 16 to work so I said I was 16 and they took my word for it but they obviously knew I wasn't and that's why they paid me 2 bucks an hour.
This reminds me of a doctor(Physician).
There was this doctor who was charging in par with the other general practitioners. He had very few patients/customers.
One day he raised his fees, and from that day, he started getting more patients.
Now see the effect. The doctor, his treatment and other parameters r the same. Only increased cost and people think he is good.
That's human behaviour.
Gajanan Phadte
There was this doctor who was charging in par with the other general practitioners. He had very few patients/customers.
One day he raised his fees, and from that day, he started getting more patients.
Now see the effect. The doctor, his treatment and other parameters r the same. Only increased cost and people think he is good.
That's human behaviour.
Gajanan Phadte
^^ I know of a struggling beer brand that was marketed the same way. It worked. I agree that the same thing applies to audio, but I don't think it's near the whole story. Quality certainly has its price, but more expensive isn't always better (quality).
But since you brought up medicine, a recent point of discussion here, a person could argue that a placebo-type effect for the doctor's new patients would help cure them. So he's providing the needed treatment and the patients are receiving it and paying for it. Likewise if someone needs to spend upwards of six figures or more for an audio system to feel better and "hear it the way it's supposed to sound" there is someone out there to cure that jones. To summarize... "just" no, "lots" yes.
But since you brought up medicine, a recent point of discussion here, a person could argue that a placebo-type effect for the doctor's new patients would help cure them. So he's providing the needed treatment and the patients are receiving it and paying for it. Likewise if someone needs to spend upwards of six figures or more for an audio system to feel better and "hear it the way it's supposed to sound" there is someone out there to cure that jones. To summarize... "just" no, "lots" yes.
well, an old thread but my first comment:
high end audio is a bit like high end automobiles...
Chrome makes it go faster and sound better!
I think the best advice is the oldest that I know: use you ears!;
unless you have to show off to your friends the magic beans you gave lots of cash for...
I have heard my share of bs and argument for 'which snake-oil works best,' but generally there is just enough good equipment to serve the market and a lot of crap to sell to the unwary.
high end audio is a bit like high end automobiles...
Chrome makes it go faster and sound better!
I think the best advice is the oldest that I know: use you ears!;
unless you have to show off to your friends the magic beans you gave lots of cash for...
I have heard my share of bs and argument for 'which snake-oil works best,' but generally there is just enough good equipment to serve the market and a lot of crap to sell to the unwary.
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