advertisement


Absolute Sounds ££

Of course, if 80% of homeless people were female you can be pretty sure that the problem would have been solved by now. As it is, no one in government gives a rats ass.

Note that the figure of 80% of homeless being male is an approximation based on scant evidence but it's a very valid hypothesis. There was a move recently to do some actual research on the subject and find out (using a well known quant/qual agency) but as far as I know that work has not been given budget approval.
 
I literally cannot think of anything more obscene than one person dying on the street for the want of warmth and a roof over their head whilst someone else pays 10's or 100's of £K on trinkets, watches, jewellery or wine etc.
Yep, fair point!

Not sure where you draw the line though… if I had millions in the bank though, I’d have some focus on helping people, but then I and my family have been on the breadline, it gives some perspective that many just have no concept of.
 
It’s difficult to find out exactly how much money Absolute Sounds makes by selling HiFi as it is really part of a raft of companies including property companies where Ricardo Franassovici is or was listed as a director of. 12 companies total. All based at 58 Durham Road. There 6 where he is still listed as an active director. Most of the assets seems to be in the two Import / Export companies Mont-Joye and Highflow Ltd. rather than Absolute Sounds.

See Companies house here’s: https://find-and-update.company-inf...cers/dXEguNsi-M5J_tuuR4Bokh4NYUI/appointments
 
Hi, i think the problem is with perceived value, when a pair of magico speakers M9 cost the same as a Pagani Zonda https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Pagani_Zonda_C12_'chassis_001'_Genf_2019_1Y7A5539.jpg
you have to ask where has all that money gone, and what is the mark up of a pair of six drive units and a carbon shell to put them in , against the thousands of parts for the zonda, and a carbon shell,

I've no idea what the mark up would be on the car but the mark up a distributor and dealer has on a high end hifi product is gob smacking large amounts.
 
Yep, fair point!

Not sure where you draw the line though… if I had millions in the bank though, I’d have some focus on helping people, but then I and my family have been on the breadline, it gives some perspective that many just have no concept of.

Oh I've been well below the breadline before and even, for a couple of weeks and many years ago, homeless. It does tend to sharpen one's perspective yes!

With great wealth should come great responsibility.. "noblesse oblige" etc. I just can't get my head around how someone can live with themselves knowing the £30,000 they've just spent on wine in one meal (yes that happens all the time in really posh restaurants) could have paid for two life saving operations in a backward country that has no NHS. I'm sure few would disagree as to how awful it is to murder, to take another's life.... so how in the name of all that's decent can anyone think it is simultaneously perfectly OK to not lift a finger to prevent someones death if they are lucky enough to be so wealthy that £20,000 is just lose change to them???

We live in a world where the richest 1% has so much money that they could not only end all famine in Africa etc but could give every one of the worlds poorest 30% a house and car! And still be very wealthy! One has his own private NASA FFS!! They choose not to as it suits their business interests and desire to be even wealthier for there to be millions of people in abject poverty and willing to work in their sweat shops and warehouses for a bowl of rice. To me this is genocide/crimes against humanity on a scale greater than any Stalin etc has perpetrated! Yes I lose sleep over such things. To be perfectly happy at this situation defines what it is to be a tory or republican....
 
<moderating>

I don’t mind hosting general comment on the high end audio pricing, Veblen goods etc and even the politics. I know absolutely nothing about the dealer in question and won’t publish negative, personal or potentially libellous comments. No further posts naming any person or business please.
 
Some folk buy expensive hifi. Others spend probably an equal amount over their lives getting booze and fags, gamble, whatever. Their business only.
 
Feck me, a record player needle at £8.5k?

can’t decide on the colour of the onyx though
 
Oh I've been well below the breadline before and even, for a couple of weeks and many years ago, homeless. It does tend to sharpen one's perspective yes!

With great wealth should come great responsibility.. "noblesse oblige" etc. I just can't get my head around how someone can live with themselves knowing the £30,000 they've just spent on wine in one meal (yes that happens all the time in really posh restaurants) could have paid for two life saving operations in a backward country that has no NHS. I'm sure few would disagree as to how awful it is to murder, to take another's life.... so how in the name of all that's decent can anyone think it is simultaneously perfectly OK to not lift a finger to prevent someones death if they are lucky enough to be so wealthy that £20,000 is just lose change to them???

We live in a world where the richest 1% has so much money that they could not only end all famine in Africa etc but could give every one of the worlds poorest 30% a house and car! And still be very wealthy! One has his own private NASA FFS!! They choose not to as it suits their business interests and desire to be even wealthier for there to be millions of people in abject poverty and willing to work in their sweat shops and warehouses for a bowl of rice. To me this is genocide/crimes against humanity on a scale greater than any Stalin etc has perpetrated! Yes I lose sleep over such things. To be perfectly happy at this situation defines what it is to be a tory or republican....
I know you’ve had a tough time buddy, I’ve never been homeless as and adult but I have been properly brassic, going without food myself and switching heating, lighting off whilst my daughter was at her Nan’s and selling my belongings so as I could feed her and keep our home… my ex left us totally high and dry. My family would have helped but I kept the situation to myself to protect my ex… long and messy story. I got back on my feet and she tried to take money from us again, going after child benefit and tax credits for a child she hadn’t even seen for weeks.

My dad worked about 80 hours a week at one point trying to keep us above water when we were kids, I do come from very much a working class background… and thanks to thatcher’s antics and the industry my father dad worked in, we were made homeless in the early 80’s… my brother was born in my grandparents dining room, which was doubling as my parents bedroom at the time. We moved from there to a high rise flat which was in a horrific state of disrepair and which three dogs had starved to death in… with all the grim evidence left behind. I and my family all live a comfortable lifestyle now but it wasn’t always that way at all… hence my personal desire to help others… as I say, it gives you a perspective that many people just couldn’t comprehend.
 
£5k+ for a CD player and "vfm" cannot exist in the same sentence.

All depends how good it is and how long it lasts!

Feck me, a record player needle at £8.5k?

can’t decide on the colour of the onyx though

That’s peanuts! It is surprising just how much choice there is in the >$200k turntable market (SAT, TechDas, OMA, Continuum etc) and if you are dropping that on a deck you are hardly likely to be sticking an AT95E in it.

PS I don’t have an issue with genuinely successful people who pay their way in life. Good on ‘em. As long as they are not evading tax or breaking any laws what’s theirs is theirs IMHO. If we want to tax them more that has to come from political will, basically it’s on us not to accept the shite regressive politics on offer from our political parties. I absolutely detest the snide “anyone richer than me is an arsehole” politics of envy thing. It is just spoilt child toy-throwing bullshit and impedes any sensible discussion or forward movement. Properly implemented fair and progressive taxation and maybe Universal Basic Income is the way forward.
 
I think the basic idea should be that no-one should be more than x times richer than anyone else. (And obviously no-one should be homeless or sleeping rough). As Tony says, this could be achieved by a combination of UBI and steeply progressive taxation.

I’ve never been exactly poor, maybe hard-up, but I can all too easily see how I might have ended up destitute.
 
I really dislike the uber bling end of Hifi & I just don’t believe it will sound any better. There are high priced products which perform, anecdotally DCS for example, but a quality DAC/Pre into active speakers will outperform most of this guff.
 
Beautiful stuff, especially some of the more affordable highend. Not affordable for me sadly but that's part of the desire I guess.
 
PS I don’t have an issue with genuinely successful people who pay their way in life. Good on ‘em. As long as they are not evading tax or breaking any laws what’s theirs is theirs IMHO. If we want to tax them more that has to come from political will, basically it’s on us not to accept the shite regressive politics on offer from our political parties. I absolutely detest the snide “anyone richer than me is an arsehole” politics of envy thing. It is just spoilt child toy-throwing bullshit and impedes any sensible discussion or forward movement. Properly implemented fair and progressive taxation and maybe Universal Basic Income is the way forward.

The problem is alot of these 'genuinely successful' business people know every loophole, dodge and move possible to avoid paying their fair share of tax as a percentage directly from their income, that's why the aforementioned gentleman is a director in half a dozen different business interests, some of which in their second incarnations.
This is something that's never going to change especially if you're relying on a political party to introduce fair taxation, it just wouldn't be in their best interests, doesn't matter if they're wearing a blue or red tie, it's all about the money.
 


advertisement


Back
Top