Only 3% of US Population can afford High End Audio

[gmgraves]

Accommodation pricing on new gear is typically 50%.

 

 

 

Yep, a nasty circle. There are some reviewers who adhere to time limits on gear loans.

 

I try to return gear as soon as I'm through reviewing it. Sometimes I don't even wait for them to issue a call tag, I just return it when I'm finished reviewing. If I like a piece of gear and want to keep it, I ask my editor to arrange a purchase, and yes, the savings is generally 50% over retail. Sometimes, the company doesn't want the equipment back but I never know that until after the review is submitted. If I get to keep the unit, and it's something that I like and want, sure, I'll keep it. But believe me, if the unit is not something I actually can use and want, it goes back anyway. I know that some reviewers keep such "gifts" in their closets for a time and then sell them on. I won't do that. I send unwanted review samples back to the manufacturers' agents. The only exceptions to this personal policy are CDs, SACDs, Blu-Rays, DVD-A's etc, and phonograph cartridges. Nobody wants the discs back, it's not worth the effort on either end of the transaction, and nobody wants a used phono cartridge back either. They can't be sold as new because the stylus assembly has wear on it, and usually they aren't worth re-tipping either (because they still can't be sold as new).

[firedog]

+1

Wish I had the space and the money for it.

 

 

I'm sure your experience is common. Hey, a grand piano makes for very nice furniture. I don't play, but If I had the room (and the money), I'd certainly want to put a nice looking grand piano in my parlor! Of course mine would have a Disklavier mechanism installed. Talk about the ultimate fi!

[NotRick]

...Or blackjack and hookers. (OK, I agree... not very funny).

Only if you want the taxpayers to cover the bill

[NotRick]

You shouldn't test neither of them because you will discover the need.

 

It's why I never go to hi end audio stores - I'm terrified that I'll hear something better, then I'm just screwed. I try to keep my changes to maybe once every 8 to 10 years. If I did this all the time, I'd never get anything done (oh wait... I already have that problem...) and I'd be broke (oh, wait....)

 

My rule - NEVER listen to anything you can't afford to buy, it just causes insanity. Although given the chance to listen to Mikey Fremer's system with all that wonderful vinyl... no I don't think I could turn that down. And it's so far out of my price range I'd probably be fine.... probably.

[wgscott]

The middle class (i.e, the median-containing class) ain't doing so hot anymore:

 

[astrotoy]

My wife is a pianist, and once I took her to the Steinway-dealer in the place I lived. I asked the salesperson if it was OK for my (then still) girlfriend to play some of the pianos, although we were not potential customers. "Sure, go ahead", he said. So, while my wife played several of them, I talked to the guy for a bit. We were standing close to a EUR 125,000 Concert Grand, and I asked if he sold many of those. "You would be surprised", he said. But he explained that most were bought by rich people to serve as furniture without being played.

 

He also told me that he, the week before, sold one to a guy that "wanted the best (read:L most expensive) piano for his wife who had lessons for 2 months", and he closed the deal within an hour!

 

My wife, too, is a serious amateur classical pianist. Back in the early '80's our dream piano was a Boesendorfer, an Austrian piano which she had played when she was taking lessons from someone who owned one. It was, at that time, very expensive (still is). However we found ourselves in Europe in 1985 when the US Dollar was reaching its all time high. Everything was cheap in Europe, including pianos. We found out that the Boesendorfer model 225 (225cm long = 7' 4") which was about $60K in the US, was $24K in Europe (including air shipping to the US). The dealer we met arranged for us to go to Vienna and tour the factory and my wife played several of that model and chose the one she liked best, and even had them tweak it to sound the way she liked it. A few weeks later it was delivered to our home where it sits in our living room. If you look very carefully at the bass end of the keyboard, you can see four extra keys, all in black. The big Boesendorfers have either 4 or 9 extra keys in the bass. It was a big stretch for us at the time but now a new one costs about $110K, not quite the $150K in the OP's post. We didn't know at the time we were doing currency speculation! The British pound hit a low of about $1.08 that summer.

 

She has made good use of the piano, winning a prize in the second Van Cliburn amateur competition in Fort Worth back in 1999, and as her prize she played the first movement of the Beethoven Emperor Concerto with the Fort Worth Orchestra.

 

[Sam Lord]

Never forget the single malt (or the Woodford Reserve Bourbon, for that matter).

 

George Stagg...you taste every % of its 70%...

 

My rule - NEVER listen to anything you can't afford to buy, it just causes insanity.

 

"Penalty, logic on the shopper, 10 percent."

 

The middle class (i.e, the median-containing class) ain't doing so hot anymore:

 

Bullseye.

 

I try to return gear as soon as I'm through reviewing it.

 

Well done Sir.

 

My wife, too, is a serious amateur classical pianist... ...as her prize she played the first movement of the Beethoven Emperor Concerto with the Fort Worth Orchestra.

 

Wow, what an honor!

[Vincent3]

Don't forget that the popularity of headphone listening and file playback has reduced the cost of high quality audio dramatically. In addition to a computer (which most people already own), you need a DAC/headphone amp and a headphone. Depending on the definition of high end, with a budget of $2000, the sound quality will be close to it.

That's why I'm here. I already have the computer and headphones, and EAC and Foobar are free. Researching source quality, ripping, and organizing are free. I buy most of my CDs used. Even when it comes time to shop for hardware, the price for a satisfying system is within reach of many more than the top 3%.

[firedog]

I was recently in a high end store - Goodwin's High End near Boston. I heard a system that cost several times what mine costs vs a similar system to mine, and discovered that I prefer the sound of what I now own.

 

Not that the expensive system wasn't good - it was. I'm sure many audiophiles would prefer it. But it was VERY detailed and transparent, and sounded "artificial" to my ears/taste. (It included Magico stand mount speakers and Spectral amps.)

 

My system sounds more musical and real to me. I could have spent tens of thousands on that other system and I wouldn't have been happy with it. I'm not criticizing the equipment, just noting that what's better to some may not sound better to you. Personal taste matters.

 

It was a good lesson for me - praise about how great something is in the audio press doesn't mean I will like it. I'm sure I could spend money and improve my system, but I have to do it based on what sounds good to me, and not based on reviews, high price, and reputation.

 

It's why I never go to hi end audio stores - I'm terrified that I'll hear something better, then I'm just screwed. I try to keep my changes to maybe once every 8 to 10 years. If I did this all the time, I'd never get anything done (oh wait... I already have that problem...) and I'd be broke (oh, wait....)

 

My rule - NEVER listen to anything you can't afford to buy, it just causes insanity. Although given the chance to listen to Mikey Fremer's system with all that wonderful vinyl... no I don't think I could turn that down. And it's so far out of my price range I'd probably be fine.... probably.

[spdif-usb]

I heard a system that cost several times what mine costs vs a similar system to mine, and discovered that I prefer the sound of what I now own.

Welcome to the club.

[sbgk]

The middle class (i.e, the median-containing class) ain't doing so hot anymore:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]14408[/ATTACH]

 

surely that means more second hand bargains. Was it not a plan by the elites to level the wealth of nations in the west with those of the east, which mean't the US middle classes got it in the neck. At least chinese high end is affordable now.