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Article: Realism vs Accuracy For Audiophiles | Part 2: The Real Sounds Of Live Music


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15 hours ago, Jud said:

 

Amen.

 

I've mentioned before a record collector friend years ago in Miami who would not open the shrink wrap on his albums since they would lose a tremendous amount of value as collectibles.  This being Miami, humidity had penetrated tiny holes in the shrink wrap of nearly all the records and caused the cardboard inside to swell against the plastic, bending the cardboard and severely warping the records inside to the extent that they certainly must have been unplayable.  But they were supposedly worth quite a bit of money as collectible "recordings."  I didn't (still don't) see the point.  My recordings (vinyl and otherwise) exist to be played.

YUP I agree. Never understood the thrill of coveting, polishing, covering and admiring a collectible. Life is too short. I collect first editions of early American History and in particular Lewis and Clark. I have passed on some "great investments" such as Sgt. Gass 1807 Journals, printed on crappy Pittsburgh paper because the book could not be opened or read. Nice to have but of limited appeal to me as a book should be able to be read. 

 

Some of the best things about indulging and learning are the people you meet and learn from along the way and thankfully my hobbies have done just that. 

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13 hours ago, bluesman said:

Apropos of this theme in music, the market value of original (ie unmodified, unrepaired) vintage musical instruments is highest if they have the original strings, reeds, pads etc. A Fender Nocaster (the original model that became the Telecaster and Broadcaster) is worth the most if, in addition to being all original, it has its verifiably original strings.  It will be unplayable with 70 year old strings, which will probably break if plucked. It will sound terrible even if the strings don’t break and the pickups are functional.  They’ll be so oxidized and the insulation on the windings will be so broken down that there will be no output. Yet a collector will pay top dollar for the instrument, despite the fact that it’s unplayable.

 

Likewise, a vintage Selmer Mk 6 or cigar cutter will have hard pads that leak so badly the horn won’t play a clear note.  The springs will probably break the first time a key is pressed, after sitting for decades under a bed or in a closet.  And entirely original tube electronics from 1950 will bring big prices despite being useless.

 

Vintage wines trade at exorbitant prices but will probably never be drunk.  The buyer of a rare old bottle has no assurance that it’s not salad dressing - yet auction prices keep rising.

 

Sadly, the value proposition for such stuff is severely warped.

LOL. 

 

Same with 1st editions. As an avid collector of early American history, in the early days these books were printed, most people who could afford a book also were wealthy enough to get them bound by the bookbinder replacing the "original boards: the original boards being nothing but a front and back piece of cardboard with a loosely bound spine.  The reason was they could display them was those who could afford to wanted beautifully bound books on their shelves. All of Jefferson's books were beautifully bound and getting a Jefferson original maintains a higher value strictly because he annotated in the margins and because it was Jefferson's BUT the same in original boards, the so called hoi polloi versions always carry the highest price. 

 

200+ years later, those with the most value are those with "original boards", which like your guitar reference, you could never open or use. I was notified of an auction at Sotheby's of a Lewis & Clark Biddle 1st edition in ORIGINAL BOARDs. I asked a person I hired from a NY bookstore to represent me at the auction and my expert felt what I was willing to pay would get it. Well long story short, my top line of what I was willing to bid was topped by 50K with the first bid. How these books came to auction is an amazing story for another time. 

 

Sorry for the diversion from topic but collectibles of any type seem to have common themes. 

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