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Best Place for Pre-Owned Cables

I'll start by saying I hate buying audio new.  Many dealer margins are 50%, almost all 40% or more.  I especially dislike buying cables new.  I think I have maybe one or two I purchase new in my system.  I'm constantly looking on A'Gon for cables ( I need speaker cables) and any place else I can think of.  Anyone have any other sites they can suggest?  I've looked on usedcable.com but their prices are absurd.  Most of the stuff they have is YEARS old.  They're selling AQ speaker cables that were released in 2004 at 50% of their new price.  To me, anything that old is scrap.  I might entertain amps/preamps of that vintage but never digital (it's like buying a ten year old PC) and rarely cables.
I haven't found another good site (Audiomart is mostly an overlap of A'Gon) but I thought I'd ask.
Thanks in advance.
ihmeyers
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,550 posts
 
Try https://www.usedcable.com/ 
inna
7,132 posts
 
I bought everything on Audiogon but it took a lot of time and patience. Some cables you will never find used though, so I had to buy two pairs of interconnects new, but the prices were good even if still quite high.
ihmeyers OP
81 posts
 
I will be patient. Usedcables.com is the site I referenced selling 10+ year old cables at basically what dealer cost was then. Seriously?
I saw a couple that might do the trick there then looked up vintage and saw they were near decade old. That’s 2 or 3 generations. Like I said, only thing worse is buying old digital. Yes, it might sound OK but tech has changed so much a 10 year old DAC is like buying a PC with a 4 generation old Intel chip.
I usually find something suitable but sometimes it's a wait.  I wanted an amp platform and had to wait months before a nice Finite Elemente hit the market.

Thanks for the responses.
folkfreak's avatar
folkfreak
1,349 posts
 
@ihmeyers -- while I agree that usedcables.com prices are not competitive I think you are 100% off base in ruling out 10+ year old cables. There's not really truly anything new in cable design and at the right price a 10-15 year old cable can be a great deal. Consider the following examples

Nordost Valhalla V1 -- now 15 years old, but still a good cable in the right application and holds its value in the market very well (and didn't I see someone searching for Nordost SPM just a few weeks ago)

Audioquest WEL Signature -- this is still a current cable, but it was introduced in 2007 or so, and while the color and terminations have changed over the years it's still the same cable (and my system reference for interconnect) -- in fact if you ever see AQ Horizon it's even older but still the same cable (the name was used for a short while when the cable was first introduced)

Synergistic CTS -- again 10 years old but still a good series

I could go on but you get the idea

My rule of thumb (when buying or selling) is used cables should be 40-50% of list if <1-2 years old (and current model) and 30-40% if 5-10 years, maybe cheaper if older and/or not desirable

Note there are some exceptions for especially unobtanium cables like Transparent Ref XL digital which owners hang onto, in these cases you may need to pay 60% of list or even more ...
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