Equipment can get dinged or scratched in any number of ways. If you are buying a 15 or 20 year old anything and have delusions that it should have been allowed only in a hermetically sealed tent, then you are utterly ridiculous! You have speakers and your cleaning woman bops the hard-edged vacuum cleaner into your speaker does it sound any different? People have kids, parties, something fell and scratched the base. It has nothing to do with sound. Comments like I wonder how the woofers were treated. God lord, look at them, A scuffed dust cap or a fraying grill...the dust cover has zero to do with the speaker itself and can easily be replaced. Or a driver can be if need be, or surround, Say the speaker was upgraded from a pervious version the felt surround will eventually need to be replaced. Costs a pittance. Lazy. The best is I wonder how the crossover was treated. Huh? That's wackier than what happened to a driver that got a burst of high volume or sonic garbage blasted through it once. SO what. I can almost guarantee that someone left the volume on max or you turned the volume up rather than down, or someone did. I've seen speakers invert when a customer did this--in fact, I was a Totem dealer and it was a Totem spealer--careful it may be that very one. These things either toast or have absolutely zero meaning. No they aren't weakened. All these trivialities in the guitar world are equally ridiculous when I read the guitar has never be gigged. Who cares and what hidden goonies lurk in hiding . You want something aged or raspy? Thanks, but I'll take the pre-CBS Telecaster over the crap made today, even the inconsistent custom shop stuff. Would you pay tens or hundreds of thousands for Rory Gallagher's Strat or do you want a custom shop reproduction? Are you hanging this stuff on the wall or using it? Are your $20,000 sitting un your living room with than nasty wife telling you how she feels (maybe you should have lived with her longer) or in a more private space? IF you are obsessed with something being a bit worn from age, well then, you miss the entire point. And this is why I closed my dealership years ago. Audiophiles as a lot are champaign taste and beer budgets. No, you are not owed a shot at greatness. You made your own career choice. If the price tag at Neiman Marcus or Bloomingdales or whereever you buy quality clothes says $500, do you tell the salesperson or store manager, give me 20% off or I'll go elsewhere? Have at it because cheap should mean--you chose price over service. Unforced error.
