Unreal prices

mahgister, I'd bet that when we owned and enjoyed what is now 'vintage' (and most of us now having become 'vintage' as well), the means and methods to attain that true potential was unattainable or unaffordable.

Awareness of 'how to' may have been a factor as well.

"Youth is wasted on the young."  Or just simply, wasted youths...;)

mahgister, I'd bet that when we owned and enjoyed what is now 'vintage' (and most of us now having become 'vintage' as well), the means and methods to attain that true potential was unattainable or unaffordable.

Vintage myself ….  :)

You are right, when i takes out of the box my Vintage Sansui i was not thrilled nor so impressed.... 

But when after some years I have learn how to embed it in my room, the  difference was night and day...

I know first hand that, never mind the electronic components, the key is how to implemented it in the 3 dimensional embeddings: mechanical, electrical, and more important acoustical....


That is my point...


The other point is vintage top of the world engineering of the past is enough good today, if rightly embed, to beat more evolved engineering, not so rightly embedded….

My best to you and thanks for your humorous and friendly posts....

I was in the serious audio business for most of my life and spent a good part of it also raising serious show horses. I have rubbed shoulders with a few of the 1% and can echo the earlier comment that those with money can obviously be extra extreme in their unpredictability or irrationality. I think that’s why they need the money--so they can feed their inner freak. Aren’t most of us the same except our income limits our irrationality to $500 AC cables, outdated electronics and vinyl records?
Witness any edition of the classic car auctions on cable. I would pay damn near anything to reacquire the ’57 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser my dad had when I was in high school--or an unreasonable price for my original DQ-10’s. The memories will be gone eventually. Let’s hang on to them while I can still find the PAS-3 and Stereo 70’s to complete the hookup. We’re lucky to be living when the memory aids like photos, recordings and gear are so easily retrieved. I say preservation efforts are a great idea for those who can afford it. We all benefit. Old gear triggers memories!

Someplace, in storage I still have my mothers old SX750 receiver, her Pioneer PL100 TT. with a Shure cartridge. and Denon (can't remember the model) cassettes player. She also had a pr. of HPM-100 speakers, I think went to my sister.
I never really considered it to be high end audio back then, but it did make a lot of nice music for her.
Not sure what any of that would be worth now, but I sold my vintage Nakamichi ZX-9 cassette player, a few years back and was surprised at how high the bidding went, so who knows what vintage gear might be worth to some....Jim

To miller's point, you see this with a lot of nostalgia items. Price peaks about 30-40 years after introduction, when those who desired them in their youth, finally have the money to buy, and time to enjoy. Then they tend to decline in value as that group of people's health declines, and priorities change. Some true classics will maintain value.