I have had a record player [simple Sony separates for the first seventeen years] since 1982/3.
Before that I had the use of a quite adequate record player and radio for Radio Three. Not as good as now, but at the time quite good.
In year 1999, I was persuaded by a friend that my old Sony integrated amp was really not longer quite up to snuff, and sometimes it would start with only one side working. Often turning off once would cause it to restart properly, but it was definitely getting worse. I did not really mind, but I went and auditioned some new things at Audio Excellence in Worcester. Yes they were in some ways very obviously better, and yet on the whole a trifle dull ...
I commented that if that was the state of the art for entry level quality equipment then that would have to do. As this is no ringing endorsement, I shall not mention the name of the admirable UK made kit.
So just at the end the sales guy suggested letting him make a recommendation. Naim CD 3.5 and Nait 3, which was fine, it being slightly less money than what I had thought of. I have to confess that I then went on what is a fairly normal path of Naim upgraditis. To be fair to Naim, they had a clear hierarchy back then and each exchange did bring qualitative improvements. The best thing I had from Naim was the CDS2 and XPS. If not the XPS, then whatever the suitable PS was. This was a gift from my Norwegian grandmother and therefore was something with an emotional attachment that did not all come from the actual quality of it with CDs. However and despite this player being a "gift from a warm hand" as my grandmother put it - she died two months later - I eventually had to sell it because of rising rents and static wages in the food industry at the time. To sell it, it had to be serviced as the transport was wearing out, and the hinge top cover also was worn out. Shiela at Naim said that she had never seen the hinge worn so far in all her years, and was amazed the transport could have kept up. New Transport, PIC upgraded and new top cover [including ultra-smooth] new hinge fitted gratis ... And then sold as a nigh mint machine with a two month old work-sheet from Naim HQ ... sold easily in fact. The new owner could not get over the fact that it was actually mint cosmetically to match its back to new performance.
I went hard disc using iTunes after that. Did it matter? Not really. I still am using iTunes, but these days using the headphone outlet on my MAC Mini [rather than a dedicated DAC] as electrical source for a reasonable Sanstrom speaker, which was really intended, I suppose, to make a good quality for a flat screen TV! I listen as much now as I ever did, though slanted more towards radio these days.
For that I have my veteran wireless set of Leak Trough-Line mono VHF/FM tuner [made in 1957 and restored two years ago by John Casswell of this Parish], a second-hand Quad II Forty, and a single ESL also made in 1957 [rebuilt at Huntingdon four years ago]. So nowadays my wireless and my recordings come from two entirely separate sets. The radio wins of course, but I do enjoy listening to live evening concerts, or Choral Evensong on Radio Three. It has to be added that this radio set is absolutely horrible on pop music, but that is alright. I would not wear high rent valves on it in any case. Youtube is fine for that on headphones from the MAC.
The point of this is that the value of my equipment all totted up would be less than £2000, for radio and recordings. My musical appreciation is actually something that has helped me, from time to time, enter a happier state over the last twelve months. Yes Covid has brought circumstances where one questions everything, and yet the old radio set is a total comfort.
I am not prescribing selling or keeping much more exalted kit than I have, but if you love music, I can definitely assure you that spending five figures plus in pounds sterling, is not necessary to achieve a sufficiently enjoyable quality to be drawn effortlessly into music. In reality what I have now on the radio side is the most enjoyable set I have ever had. Okay the digital side is what most would call definitely second or even third rank, but it does nicely enough.
My advice would be to obtain a carefully chosen new, used or even veteran [priced as you think fit] replay set that does what you need, and live with it for a while - say six months - and if you find that your listening is as much or even more ... Sell the posh stuff.
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In my double bass playing days I had two really good instruments. One was Fendt bass made in London about 1770 to 1780. This could be attributed with some precision not just from the characteristic work of the maker, but also the typical use of joined narrow planks in the front. Later, even double basses would use a single plank cut and joined at the centre-line like a violin. This dated it to circa pre-1790, when more expensive broad planks would be sacrificed to the double bass. Don't forget you can make about twelve violins from the same wood that goes into the front of a double bass. Well I knew it was a very valuable instrument, but I was frightened of it being damaged. I loved the way it projected and played, but was really not happy about leaving it unattended say between a rehearsal and evening concert. It was valued in 1991 at £14,000. This was not good, because insurance [with the British Reserve Company] was something like ten per cent of insured value per annum, and valuation was essential to ensure that claims were not scaled back [for repairs] with an under-valuation. Consequently it was not insured at all, and it inevitably met a bad and expensive accident when left unattended. I was carrying another bass to a friend's car after a concert in Stroud, and returned for mine after tackling the artists' stairs with his.
I got home and had a very bad feeling. I took the cover off ... Tears came to my eyes. I had spent about £3,500 on a complete restoration eighteen months before, and it was little better than it had been before being brought back to life. I bought the relic for £200.
I sold it to the trade, after it was rebuilt, for £7,000. That netted me £4,000 after repair costs. So I owned it for two years at no financial loss. No gain either. A string set for it [Viennese gut strings] was about £600, but the experience was tremendous. I bought an Ex-BT Maestro van as my VW diesel Golf had lunched its engine, and put the rest towards a newly commissioned double bass. By now I was getting proper ad hoc paid work in the West Midlands, so needed a first quality instrument. I had to borrow one of two instrument from my former teacher [ex-player in the RLPO] for twelve months and that was just as worrying as my old London bass. That had the interesting provenance of having been owned by Gustav Holst from before 1914 to 1934 when he died. It then lingered in a school music department unplayed and unloved till I had it rebuilt.
Anyway I had a five stringer made such that it was fine enough to work with the same Viennese gut strings used on the Baroque bass. I had that bass for seven years [1995-2002] and never feared for it. It was valued such that I could afford to insure it. In reality it was the better instrument with fantastic tone and the best projection of any instrument I ever played. It could be a real dynamic monster in Romantic Music!!! While still delightfully pure in JS Bach.
The bombshell that occurred with respect to the Fendt was that its actual valuation was out by an order of magnitude. Anywhere from £100,000 to £150,000. and I sold it for seven grand! Those days it was the Japanese collectors who put a real boost in these old instruments' value.
That piece of intelligence came from my third bass teacher [in 1996], who is still the first bass in the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. This revelation caused my second teacher [who loaned me either of his two Old English basses in the interegnum] to give up playing as he himself took serious advice and found that between them his two instruments were worth more than his nice three bedroom house - at that time in the mid-nineties. Sad really. Too valuable to use.
If I had known the value of the Holst/Fendt, I would never have used it.
It shows that too much value really does spoil the fun actually.
Sorry for the ramble.
Best wishes from George
Thread on the two basses mentioned...
https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/two-great-english-double-basses.228871/#post-3690985
