Audiophile spending


We all say it’s about the music, but when a recent post came up and asked how much do you spend on equipment vs music I did an actual check and found that I spend about 2/3 equipment and 1/3 music. There were some interesting comments in that thread, one said that he would not increase his music spending rate, because he could not find time to listen to more material than he was already buying, but that his equipment rate of spending continued to increase. It’s also interesting that the rate of spending might not correlate to the value of the equipment vs the value of the music since we audiophiles tend to sell off our used equipment as we upgrade, but probably don’t sell off our music (at least I don’t, of course some do—there is used music for sale on Agon) So the questions to this post are:
1. What is the ratio of your spending rate on equipment vs music
2. What is the ratio of the value of your system (retail) vs your music (retail or fair market for collectibles)
3. Is your spending on music limited by the time you have available to listen to music or by budget
There's no need to post dollar amounts (you can if you want--but it's really a matter of what gets spent in relative terms)
abstract7

Showing 1 response by costrosk

Abstract:

Interesting post. I'm roughly 40/60, music to gear, but that includes the recent build up of a secondary system. I want to catch my breath and hear what I've assembled for a bit before doing too much more. The split is probably roughly the same on music/system values, but my lp collection is 30 years old, tapes probably 15 years worth, cd's as source only in the past 4 years (and not very extensive at that, as I generally can't bring myself to duplicate existing product). My 78 collection is fairly large, but probably isn't more than a 1/4 of the total software dollar. And lastly, listening time is definitely limited by time and not dollar. Time also limits my spending - I don't get to the store all that often (though when I do, beware Mastercard!)

A tag-along question I'd be interested in is how much time do people spend in "active" listening vs how much music gets played as background to daily life? For me, stopping and just listening is probably less than 25%, but music plays at my house pretty much all the time I'm there. It's wonderful to just park and ride, but the laundry needs doing, the light bulb is blown, the kitchen chairs need a paint job, etc. But the one place where I always have good tunes going and enjoy them the most is in the shop - whatever I'm doing out there always goes best when supported by good music. I love music, I love shop work, and the two combined are always better than either alone.

chas