$20K to spend on speakers…. . wait! There’s a catch!


Greetings,

Perfect sense says buy stuff only after you have heard it. Only after an in home audition.

Sometimes we are forced to wing it.

Admit it, best guess trigger pulling happens a bunch because not everything is everywhere.

For some unknown reasons we seem to feel we know what we want or need in spite of never having auditioned it.

Here are a couple scenarios based on a “this thing should work’, “shot in the semi dark” buying practices.

Premise: You have $20K and it MUST be spent entirely on loudspeakers.

Here are the options:
1. The used speakers option.
You have NOT heard them ever. At all. Nada.
The deal here is you’r egetting them for about 50% off retail in quite good esthetic (8/10) condition, excellent working orde according to the seller, and about three - four years old and landed or shipped.

The seller has good feedback. No negatives.

All of the speakers numbers are amenable to your existing power plants. They should do well in your room.

2. brandy new speaker option.

The brand new units you’re paying $20K for include a 25% discount from MSRP and sold by a brick & mortar dealership.

You did hear the brand new ones, but only with modest SS gear and nothing on the level of your own equipment which is tubes, or vice versa for sake of this argument.

These come with warranty. ..and in your color preference.

Lastly, neither of these two sets of speakers are what could be called very popular, loudspeakers. Meaning they aren’t littering the pages of the speaker for sale pages with any regularity.


The carrier arrives. The boxes are fully in tact. No issues at all. Still, there’s a nagging thought. Did I do the right thing?

Shouldn’t I have bought used speakers and obtained still more value given just a bit older speakers sell for much less than MSRP.

Or, I bet I should have bought the new speakers and put up with another long run in.

Man! I hope I did not messs this up!!


What is your choice and why?

Thanks for the ideas and insights..

blindjim
@blindjim

It’s the ‘exit strategy” I’m not getting

20K may or may not be significant to you. I don’t know.

For me, I find it wise to think downstream and long term.

What happens if life throws a curve ball and you need to move the speakers, financially speaking?

Or your system priorities change and the speaker isn’t a good fit?

Or you just feel like something different?

Knowing or being comfortable with or ’projecting' the potential impact of a current audio component decision, into the future, is something I consider.

Some are more present focused, others more future focused. I don’t know where you are on that ’spectrum.’

Your post is about an 'entry strategy’ (approach) which is why I pointed to an ’exit strategy’ (a departure, if you may).
Paladin > … The second time was with a little known company (Voce audio) & man was this the real deal & I sold my Strad's!!!!
Go figure?

Blindjim > yep. I’m fast coming to a wider perspective on getting the most out of an investment. Which for me, is what this amounts to.


david_ten > 20K may or may not be significant to you. I don’t know.
> What happens if life throws a curve ball and you need to move the speakers
> Or you just feel like something different?
> Knowing or being comfortable with or ’projecting' the potential impact of a current audio component decision, into the future, is something I consider.

Blindjim > compelling David. Quite. Thanks. I appreciate the thoughtfulness… and apprehensional inkling.

> 20K? yep. That’s a real load for me. Very significant. Huge.

> Life’s curve balls have been hitting me where it hurts most for the last six or seven years with some regularity. It or these events have been strong to devastating. But here we are again looking to a future with a whole lot of promise. No word yet on its length or its possible severity. Must be a need to know affair.

> Change for the sake of change isn’t me too very much. Albeit I’m sure not immune to it. I’m aiming at speakers which will work with numerous amp types. I doubt seriously the first amp combo will be the Goldilocks connection. But we’ll see. Changes ought to follow with different amps. Not more squeakers.

Excellent and superb are terms that are malleable. They hang on the eyes and ears of the beholder. Boredom is a choice.

To say a rig’s sound is the best in the world, all one has to do is never hear anything else and it is.

> Exit… Looking forward….
I’ve devoted myself to living each day as it is. Being in the moment as I am able. Sure. Pay the insurance premiums. Set some aside. Fine. But stay in the here and now as much as possible. Keep the larder large.

Audio gear by and large loses so much equity so fast, if something drastic occurs well, I’ve been there and done that too. That’s how the last rig was converted into alarms, guns, lights, roofing, a new wall. Flooring. Cell phone. Personal universal GPS alarm.

That doesn’t even cover the medical concerns which are not fully completed.

Yet here we are. Heading for what is believed to be a brighter tomorrow.

That said, and being no spring chicken, my own experience says if it doesn’t kill me regardless its drama, somehow someway things will work themselves out. They have everyttime so far.

It doesn’t come how or when I’d care for it to arrive, but things always end up acceptably enough.

Will the interim be soft and smooth? Probably not. It will pass. Delbert McClinton put it in a song, “Nothing lasts forever”. He’s right. Good or bad.

I’m not gonna live waiting for the next shoe to drop.

I’ve no clue what tomorrow holds. I feel however I do know who holds it.

All I do is trust in that power, what ever it may be as much and often as I can. I’ve come to believe, if you like what you are getting keep doing what you are doing. If not, change what you can, and without exception, the only thing I can change is me or my perspectives. This works. So far. So good. The past few decades anyhow.

This thread is changing a couple perspectives already.


Perhaps, you could consider amp first approach. Speakers first approach is not working. If the amp is right speakers will come. 
It is seemingly more difficult to accomplish but maybe not for you. Just an idea..

Acoustic Zen Crescendos -new

Or used Triangle Magellan Grand Concerts

Happy happy joy joy!