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Just looked at an Ad for a turntable costing more than I've ever paid for a used Car

When I owned a Thorens I spent months looking to upgrade my stereo. I was not wealthy, ran an old sportscar and was fed up with breaking down. I thought I'd buy a Golf but, while I was shopping around discovered the LP12, which begat a basic Naim pre-power and meant I couldn't afford the new Golf. I bought a new 2CV, happy days. Better stereo, better car (certainly better than the Golf). The Citroen was half the price of the Golf so my new (fairly basic) set up cost me about 10K in todays £. Over the years I've changed most of the system and the LP12 plinth and lid are about all that's left, if I were to buy my Linn now it'd be crazy but I still love music. The Klimax may be crazy but it can be achievable if it's what you want.
 
Paul L said:
the one that amazes me is electric cars. Like an unwritten rule of £15k to £20k as a price point for ordinary non-elite combustion engine cars year after year, bigged up of course for versions with toys or premium brands. Yet suddenly every EV ad or article seems to say £35k with a straight face for non premium, and I have to pinch myself, who is it accepting this is suddenly an okay price for an Everyman.
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It’s all on credit so nobody actually paying £35000. The economics of the credit deals seem mad to me though.

I remember my wife ordering and buying a new petrol VW just over a year ago. She negotiated a price and offered the dealer cash. The dealer offered her £2000 off that price to take their credit and pay it off a week after she had taken delivery. Plain mad if you ask me.

That said everything in my current system is new from dealers. I’m in a public sector job I’m decently paid and I think we all need to be putting cash back into the economy if we can.

Paul L said:
Yep, just the nature of toys I think. A Seiko is £300 as said, or £3000+ for a Grand Seiko or thousands more for a Rolex up through Piaget, Patel Phillipe, Vacheron Constantin, Lange a Sohne and so on. All hobbies are like this, have you seen the price of Cervelo or Pinarello bicycles?.
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In 2005 I bought a Rolex Explorer and a Rolex GMT II for a combined cost of around £4000. I got to wear one or the other most days since and I’ve spent around £1200 in total getting them serviced over those 15 or so years. They are now worth a total of around £12500. I wish all my toys offered that much fun:)
 
kabayiri said:
The more I think about it, the more I have sympathy for the approach adopted by Mr Darko the YouTuber.

He has 2 turntables, neither of which is that expensive. Each brings a different quality, and suits a different mood or quality of medium.

Is that any different to the person who has an estate car for normal use, and a cheap roadster for the occasional summer blast?
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It’s more like having an estate for daily use and then an old hot hatch and a cheap roadster... the streamer is the estate car.
 
Ianp said:
I believe this to be true, not across the board of course. I think it's fair to say many of us have experienced anxiety surrounding the hobby at some point. At a further end of the spectrum I knew a chap, through the hobby, who had genuine diagnosed OCD and it wasn't good to see.

And of course it's a relative issue, someone struggling to put food on the table might think spending £500 (a figure plucked out of the air) on a pair of speakers or whatever is close to insane. I think it's always healthy to have a reality check in life from time to time, but of course we all have our own truth.

Blimey, anyway, keep happy out there :)
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It’s caused my anxiety in the past, I’ve lost sleep thinking about financing everything... then I sold it all and downgraded to a considerably less expensive (but still quite tasty) system. It’s liberating... will I ever upgrade anything again? Yep, but I won’t be losing sleep over it. If I have the cash to spare, and an opportunity arrives, I’ll probably take it, but I’ll never worry about paying for HIFI (or a car) again.
 
In 1985 I bought an old Ford Taunus (Cortina) for, I think, a bit shy of £400.

A year later I got my LP12 for something like £550.

There is a big difference between them, I kept the car for only half a year, the LP12 is still with me. The car was a waste of money, the turntable was an investment.
 
notevenclose said:
Yes. It's the least interesting to drive.

Or listen to...
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I do actually have a very, very good, streamer, think Audi RS6 of streamers... but I still find myself still engaging with physical media, be it vinyl or CD when I have the time, and especially when I’m listening with a friend, and really enjoying it for all of the usual cliched reasons.:D
 
Having a read, I maybe should have said that I'm more upset that people are loosing vast amounts selling on high priced gear than taking a bite at folk that can afford it. I'd love a Continium ?Turntable but not to the extent of having to sell my house to buy it. If you can afford, it's your money but I rarely see much hi-fi appreciating in value with exceptions. Remember years ago an ex-BBC guy offered me as many 301's as I wanted for 70 quid each. Another chap that had worked at STD had a shed full of their decks and was asking the princely sum of 30 quid each. Oh for hindsight. As to car comparison, I bought my first RS Turbo for 8K on a dark,wet night. Under warranty and at the ford garage 16 times to no avail. Sorted it myself and because the insurance companies went nuts bought a newer one for 4K and sold the first for 2K. Not a smart move but hey ho, it's still in the garage with 64K on the clock and my only pension as some b'stard is sitting in the Bahamas drinking my Pension since the Tories opened it up as another tax collection and licensce for scammers. Incidentally I think anyone buying a new car is a screwball. My last Honda was a 27K car bought for 2K and would have done me all my remaining days had I not enjoyed it's performance a tad too much.
 
I was talking to my sister years ago about how stupid it was to spend ten-grand on a handbag. She let me prattle on for a bit then quietly said 'Actually, I've bought handbags that cost that'.

And she's not an idiot. Some people just have reference points that are vastly different to our own. Who is wrong? Well, try going to Africa and justifying your 'budget' hi-fi system to someone who's house is made of mud.
 
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