New Wilson Shasha W/P Series 2

Samhar ... just looked up your system. Gorgeous system and gorgeous room. Just love the back wall.

Did you use sound treatments for your room? My wife has given me permission to "refresh" the decor in my basement/soundroom, e.g., paint, new sofa, etc. Looking for some decorative ways to tame thye nodes in my room.

Knghifi .... kinda agree with you. As I said above or elsewhere, that's why I buy -- for the most part -- hi-end preowned or factory "refurbed" demo gear. I can flip it for almost what I paid for it.

Case in point. I recently sold my "old" ARC VS-115 amp for $4K. I bought it about 4 years prior directly from ARC as a "refurb" demo for about $5500. So ... some quick math: $1500 delta ($5500 less $4K)/4 years is $375 per year. Not a bad annual "user fee" for a piece of gear that provided me with a lot of pleasure. And now, my Buyer will get a chance to enjoy an excellent amp in mint condition already broken in courtesy of ARC and me.

Incidentally, the VS-115 is still part of ARC's current product line-up and has a MSRP of $7000. So why pay retail for a piece of top end gear that may have a useful life of 20+ years??

Guess the answer is someone has to buy retail or how else would folks like me buy preowned gear?? :-) Unfortunately that puts a lot of pressure on the B&M middleman. Sorry .. I ain't rich.

P.S. I used the cash to buy a preowned 2-year old ARC Ref 150 that had about 1100 hours of time racked up for about 60% of MSRP. Frankly, I was grateful for the prior use because that meant I could plug and play the Ref 150 right-a-way. I'm happy because I step into an amp that I've had my eyes on for a year or so.

And guess what .. Al you'll be happy to know this ..., the Ref 150's output impedance off the 4 ohm tap is .4 ohms less than the VS-115's 4 ohm tap. That means the output voltage regulation of the Ref 150 is slightly tighter than the VS-115 and my speakers sound slightly less bright. Isn't that just wonderful?? ;)

The ARC dealer who sold me the amp is happy because he took the Ref 150 in trade from a customer who stepped up to ARC Ref 250 monos and made some coin for the flips. And his customer is happy because he bought Ref 250s. I'd be happy too.

See -- everyone is happy. :) :) :)

I assume the same paradigm (pun not intended) applies equally to Wilson speakers and other hi-end kit.