How can anyone afford this ?


I consider myself a dedicated audiophile. I am 36(which I am guessing is a little younger than the average here) and single. I have been interested in high-end audio since I saw my uncle's Mcintosh and Threshold equipment for the first time when I was 5.
Since joining the workforce and saving a little I have always been trying to put together a nice system on a budget. I do OK financially(I am a systems engineer) but I do live in NYC which may put some of this into perspective.
Over the last 6 months I have struggled to buy(all used on Agon) a pair of Dynaudio Audience 42s and a Threshold CAS2 amp, Chang CLS3200, and cables(I haven't gone out[I don't have a girfriend], purchased anything else and really haven't eaten too much to be able to afford these and it is still a real stretch). I am using the amp with a direct connection from my CD/DVD player(Cambridge Audo Azur 540D...slightly modified[op amps, PS caps, bypass caps] that I have had for almost 10 years). A fellow has a Threshold FET2 series II(to match with the CAS2) he is holding for me but that seems like a pipe dream at this point along with a turntable.
A few years ago the analogue bug hit me.
I had a setup consisting of an Audio Analogue Settanta integrated and a Nottingham Horizon SE turntable with a Rega RB300 tonearm with the Incognto rewire and structural mod. This was not an expensive kit by any stretch but for me it almost put me in the poor house. I had to sell the entire rig to pay my bills and it hurt.
It seems over the last 10 years or so I have not been able to keep a kit for more than 6 months before I had to sell it. Whenever I don't have a rig I am constantly scanning the online Ads lusting for the next bargain to set up a system and cannot even listen to music on a mass market rig(I have been spoiled).
Anyway, I guess my question is how can anyone normal afford this hobby? What type of money do you have to be making to be able to enjoy this hobby.....$100,000/year? $500,000/year? Do you need to be worth millions? $5,000 barely gets you in the door(some interconnects cost more) and you could possibly spend millions. I am not looking to put together a $10,000 system(not even close...and that is modest in this hobby) but if I wanted to I don't see it ever being financially possible. If I had a girlfriend or a family(hopefully someday) I would not event be able to think about this hobby with a good conscience. I guess I am wondering if all these people in this hobby are millionaires? I am close to selling my rig again to pay the bills(the amp needed repair/recap and that was $450). Any advice for an audiophile who lusts to put together a nice rig but can't afford it? Should I get out and save for 5 or 10 years and then try again? Maybe I am in the wrong hobby but it is more addicting that crack to me(and more expensive). Maybe I should be a crackhead instead...that might be the only thing to make me forget about it. Thoughts?
adamd1205

Showing 5 responses by raquel

I lived on the Upper East Side for fourteen years and commuted in for most of three more. The majority of people who live in the city would likely say that by the time they get home from work (assuming they in fact get home), they're so fried that the thought of going out after work for live music is like going out after work to climb Mt. Everest. I got so annoyed at spending $70 to sit in Avery Fisher Hall and then having to constantly look at my Blackberry or force myself to listen to the performers instead of drifting back into some deal point we were obsessing about that I pretty much stopped going. NYC is nothing like the glamorous life portrayed on TV shows - it's bare knuckles survival for most of us, and in this regard, people seek refuge in things like high-end stereos. People work hard everywhere, of course, which is why taking in music on one's own time, with a great stereo, appeals to a lot of people. As for the prices of some of the gear, yes, it's lamentable, but the hobby is dying, and with it, anything approaching the economies of scale that would make gear more affordable.
Onhwy61: Sounds like you managed to maintain the habits of a tourist. Congratulations.
$100K is what a good shoe salesman makes in NYC - the cost of living is 40% higher than the next highest city (San Francisco). $10 will barely buy you a mediocre sandwich at Starbucks here. $2k/month will get you a tiny dump of an apartment, even since the recession began - that's what kids out of college rent. There was a study done in the mid-90's, well before the crazy salaries really started and began to bid the prices of everything up, which concluded that a family of four that aspired to private schools for two kids, two vacations a year, a bit of savings, and to own their own apartment needed to make $325K-$350k/year to even have a chance at such a lifestyle. Anecdotally, it feels far more expensive now. $25k for a good private kindergarten in Manhattan is on the low side ($30k-$35k is typical). Speaking of shoes, the lowly house brands at Barneys, Bergdorfs, Paul Stewart, etc., start at $450-$500/pair now, and if one is so disposed, you can drop $1,500 (before the 8.25% sales tax) on an unassuming pair of black wingtips at these places. It costs me $250 to fly to Austin to see my mom, and $125 if I have to take a car service home from the airport when I get back. Those big apartments on Friends and Sex and the City are pure fiction - $1 million buys you a two-bedroom, one bathroom apartment, with a miserable excuse for a second bedroom and if you’re lucky, shared laundry facilities on premises – once they hand you the keys, there’s an additional $2k per month for common expenses for as long as you own the place ($2K if you’re lucky, that is). In short, life is very different here than the other places I've lived in the U.S. (Cincinnati, Richmond, Northwestern Ohio, L.A., Boston, Detroit / Ann Arbor), and most people who don't live here do not understand just how different it is.

The really big, cosmopolitan cities – New York, Paris, London, Sao Paulo, Tokyo - have extreme costs of living and correspondingly extreme professional situations and lifestyles (Brazilians are laid back? Really? ... I have former Brazilian colleagues who bill 400 hours a month at their law firms). So to respond to your question, yeah, a lot of people can indeed afford it (but as someone once eloquently said, it's costly to have money).
I was talking about Manhattan below 96th Street - what borough are you talking about? Paul Stewart is not that great of a store - here's the shoe page from their site:

http://www.paulstuart.com/category_template_viewall.cfm?MainCatId=14&ProdCatId=1008&subProdCatId=0&headermenuid=1

I was afraid to look to see whether they still carry Edward Green.
I lived in a pre-war building with concrete walls - no one ever complained in my building, but someone in the next building over once felt compelled to chuck pennies at my window until she got my attention ("I really like Neil Young, too, but I can't hear my T.V.").

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