Will a healthy market for classic hi-fi continue?

[fay spook]

It truly is an art getting people to spend fortunes on stuff with little intrinsic worth. The emperor's got nothing on.

Derailing worth it.

There music industry for many years was based on selling a piece of plastic and cardboard for a lot more than it costs. You are paying for record company profits, videos and something to the musicians. A piece of vinyl has little value, just as oils and canvas don't either, it is the information in the groove that means something to some and nothing to others.

I could name a lot of records where all the artistic endeavour means little to me just as easily as I could name a spiral scratch (natch!) that means so much to me I can hardly play it. You will have sleeves that you only need to look at to be transported to a time in your life. It might be the band's forgotten album that apparently only you like or it could be Michael jackson. It is these emotions that got me loving music and keeps me in this hobby.

For classic hi-fi we can get the systems we always wanted years ago. We can try to get the wonder product from a few years ago. If you want to be smart do you buy a Halcro or a Mana Stealth? Possibly not or will a Dartzeel or Nagra be the ones to make your money grow?

I mention art because music is art.

 

[James]

If you want to be smart do you buy a Halcro or a Mana Stealth? Possibly not or will a Dartzeel or Nagra be the ones to make your money grow?

It's a bit like vintage Lego. They are much more valuable in a sealed box than used, however lightly.

I suspect anything higher up in their respective ranges from classic makers like Quad, Audio Research, Yamaha and Pioneer would sell more much MUCH more than their original retail prices if they are unsullied new old stock in sealed boxes.

 

[Music freak]

I think it will contract somewhat, hence my implication to only 'collect' the seriously good stuff in exceptional condition, though I do think younger folk are coming in. Even in my own example I am using a lot of kit dating from a generation or more before my own - I'm 53 and first became interested in hi-fi as a school kid in the mid to late '70s, yet I use and enjoy a 301, 124, Leak Stereo 20 etc. I'd never even heard of this stuff when I started as it was all belt or direct drive turntables, big silver Japanese amps etc (plus Quad etc). The Beatles still shift records, and not all to 70+ year old folk who went to The Cavern etc. I use this stuff because I think it is the best/most interesting kit out there - it is the 'golden age' IMHO, the period where very clever people were making very real advances and basically writing the rule book.

I have a feeling the market won't be as resilient and wide appeal as say the vintage guitar market, but I think there are some parallels and I'm sure the top-tier will continue to go up in value. I need to run another pfm age poll at some point to try and get an idea of who we are at this stage, but I was very pleased to notice some folk posting in a recent thread very obviously younger than I am. I'm pretty sure some younger folk are buying stuff as in many ways it is a frenzy at present with some very average or poor condition kit demanding too high prices.

PS As for battleship Japanese CD players... that is a very interesting one. I'm certain there will be a market, but only if they are serviceable long term and will still play CDs. I actually fear for the future of CDs as I know many of us will want to play our collections for decades yet, but the machines seem to have a very limited service life. They are very different to say a tube amp or pair of 60 year old Tannoys which can still be fully restored as the parts and knowledge are out there.

On that last note...... about Japanese CD players , besides other CD players in my collection, I have a pair of true 'battleship' build construction Pioneer PDS 802S CD players, that play the CDs on a TT , upside down. Plus , they have 'digital output ' facilities to a DAC. Used in that fashion, the step -up in performance is "real". They have been in solid use for 22 years. In the same time, I have witnessed other brands of very expensive CD players fail.

Just as one brought up one or two leading brand new VHS 6-head stereo video players ( for around $100!) to play one's valued VHS tapes that were never transferred to DVD or Blu-ray.....it is time to buy one or two spare decent CD players.... if one is a sceptic and does not believe in the longevity and security of download or 'cloud -stored' music.

P.S One day I expect to see an article where -because of the supposed 'continuing wonders of computerised facilities'....that someone's computerised music allegedly stored securely - has suffered a full 'remote' hack attack.
Something - that is already a great fear with the idea of what could happen with a complete, total 'futuristic' computerised - operating mechanism home .

 

[Music freak]

It's a bit like vintage Lego. They are much more valuable in a sealed box than used, however lightly.

I suspect anything higher up in their respective ranges from classic makers like Quad, Audio Research, Yamaha and Pioneer would sell more much MUCH more than their original retail prices if they are unsullied new old stock in sealed boxes.

Possibly I think , some Marantz stock could be included in this grouping.

 

[Yank]

Possibly I think , some Marantz stock could be included in this grouping.

A new-in-box Marantz 10 FM tuner would make a nice down-payment on a house.

 

[Julf]

it is time to buy one or two spare decent CD players.... if one is a sceptic and does not believe in the longevity and security of download or 'cloud -stored' music.

Etched on a thin layer of aluminium on plastic or cloud storage are not the only two choices. I am pretty certain that my digital music collection, kept on off-line backup media and rewritten to newer media every 5 years or so will last much longer than the crates of plastic discs in my attic. The only CD player I need is the CD drive on my computer.

 

[Tony L]

Possibly I think , some Marantz stock could be included in this grouping.

Unquestionably, though I suspect there are parallels with Quad, Tannoy, Klipsch etc in that it will be the Saul Marantz era kit in mint condition that will retain the big bucks. Once companies change hands they tend to lose the collector cache.

 

[h.g.]

Etched on a thin layer of aluminium on plastic or cloud storage are not the only two choices. I am pretty certain that my digital music collection, kept on off-line backup media and rewritten to newer media every 5 years or so will last much longer than the crates of plastic discs in my attic. The only CD player I need is the CD drive on my computer.

+1. I was about to post the same thing plus a point about the two (or more) copies being kept in different physical locations to protect against theft. Standard stuff with computer backups.

 

[James]

A new-in-box Marantz 10 FM tuner would make a nice down-payment on a house.

If not a Marantz 10, I'm sure there'll be some super collectible NIB vintage kit out there. My object of desire is a NIB pair of Yamaha C-1/B-1 with the UC-1.

 

[sls4321]

Important to differentiate between "Classic" and nostalgia.

There is probably a relatively short list of truly classic pieces of audio equipment, LS3/5a, Garrard 301 etc. I would buy one of the latter just to look at. They then have to be fairly rare to be collectible. The Quad 909 is a classic and is both a classic and worth the money for its actual performance. I'm selling one today, I just mentioned I might have one for sale on someone else's thread and had several offers. (I'm replacing it with an all-in-one for reasons of practicality in my office, but my main system is Quad QMP).

There are then thousands of items for which individuals have nostalgia, their first turntable, but what's a Pioneer PL-12D worth? £50? A classic? Don't think so.

 

[Mick P]

Chaps

I really do think you need to keep this topic in proportion. Yes classic hifi will hold its value and will more than likely increase in value over the years. However the profits are unlikely to fund a Caribbean cruise, so it's peanuts at the end of the day.

The best bet is to buy what you like, hold on to it and enjoy it until you meet your maker.

Sometimes holding on and not changing all the time is the best bet.

Regards

Mick

 

[wylton]

I have noticed recently, that prices of classic equipment have started to settle to more realistic prices; Garrard 401's for instance, can now be purchased for reasonable prices, around £500 or so even in tip top condition. Likewise Naim NAC12/NAP120 that used to be as rare as hen's teeth have now started to surface at quite low prices, whereas a few years ago, you would have expected to pay almost £1,000 for this combination.

So it's a buyers market at the moment, which all in all is a good thing; Mick's right, you can't expect to retire on the proceeds of selling hi-fi.