the one that got away - how do you handle grief?

how are the Kingstons @roxy54 ?

I have seen one and it wasn't cheap. The problem with the 600si is the condition, usually they are in bad shape.

@parkergetdean 

 

I’m here not to give you life advice… but to commiserate with you.

I too know the pain of  “ the one that got away” :-) 

I have two of them :

In the early 2000s  I encountered MBL 101 Omnis at a CES show and I had never heard anything like them.  The most gorgeous realistic sound I’ve ever heard.  For me a blew actually everything at the show away.

So I became somewhat obsessed about those speakers.  Not long after I got to listen to a pair in the home of a TAS reviewer, and again mind blown.

Later, I was able to get some more demos  at some AV stores.  

Unfortunately, they were just way too out of my financial reach.

But then after a couple of years I got a word through the audiophile reviewer grapevine that somebody with MBL 101D  speakers had to sell his speakers fast due to a divorce.  I was put in touch with this guy and his price was absolutely amazing.  Never seen anything like it.  It was still very expensive so I said I have to take a bit and discuss it with the wife. 

She gave me the go ahead  so I got back to the guy excitedly, but by then he told me he couldn’t wait anymore and he had listed them for auction on audiogone.

I was so disheartened, but now, of course, I needed them even more .

He started with a low price and I decided how much I was willing to pay for them , which I was pretty sure would win the auction.

I looked up how to win online auctions … putting in the last high bid seconds before closing.

So the night of the auction I started putting in my bids , and it felt like I was bidding against one other guy who kept upping his bid just over the bid I would put in (maybe he had his own automatic I don’t know).  But I was keeping my big guns until the last minute.

So it came to the last minute of the auction I’m looking at the second counting down and it gets to 15 seconds before the auction closes and I fire off my Big Bid to leap frog over the other bidder.

But then… the system had a glitch!

My bid would not go through.  I kept trying, and it kept glitching and wouldn’t go through.

Aaaaagggh!!!

The other guy got the MBLs at an insane price!

I was so bummed.  There was no way I was going to have another chance at those speakers at that price again.  Dream crushed.

In fact, I ended up finding out who won the auction and I got in touch with him via email to ask him what he thought of the speakers.

Turned out, he was some rich guy who liked how they looked, was curious  about them, and he ended up putting the MBLs in his gym so he could listen to music in the background while working out!

Hardly appreciating those speakers as I would have.  That was a big life isn’t fair moment. :-)

Anyway… fast forward years later, and I was lucky enough to hop on another amazing deal for a set of MBL 121 stand mounted Omnis. 

A dealer had sent them brand new to a customer, but they got damaged in shipping and therefore rejected.  So the dealer had to get rid of them quick and I got them for about 1/6 price of new.  I thoroughly enjoyed those speakers for about a decade.

The second one that got away;

One of the most amazing listening sessions I ever had was hearing John Otvos’ Waveform Mach 17 tri-amped  speakers in his wonderful country home.  Not long after I was able to review the smaller passive Waveform Mach Solo loudspeakers for an online magazine.

They were absolutely incredible, both with solid state and with some tube mono blocks, I had.  They were like electrostatic speakers with balls and with and endless sweet spot.

They are the speakers that my wife always wanted me to keep.

But I had just recently bought a pair of Von Schweikert VR 4 gen 2 speakers, so I wasn’t about to suddenly buy new speakers.

I could’ve got those waveforms at accommodation pricing…. But I let them go.

Those speakers kind of haunted me for years.  I always wanted a chance to get them back into my room.

So for years, I would check now and again on the used market for Mach Solo speakers.  The problem is they just started producing those when waveform went out of business, so very few were produced, and owners did not like to get rid of them. So they just never showed up on the used market.

20 years later I’m on canuckaudiomart (I’m Canadian) and I see a pair of Mach Solos for sale!  I couldn’t believe it. Not only that they were the last pair ever made.  They were John Otvos’ own pair that he actually modified with better drivers!  And the price was insane! Just over a couple of grand.  Even more amazing… the seller lived not far from my own home, so there would be no shipping involved. I could just pop over there and pick them up.!

It was like a dream come true.

Except….. I happened to be broke. :-(

There had been a strange downturn in my freelance work which had put me into the red JUST at that moment.  So literally just when those dream speakers came up I happen to be experiencing the one time in the past 20 years where I couldn’t afford to buy them!

Naturally, they sold very quickly.

And of course, not long after I got back to work and had money again.

Worst timing ever.

 

That one still haunts me.

 

I still check listings for Mach Solos….(even though I’m out of the audio equipment buying game at this point.) 

Years (decades) ago I was miffed about losing an auction for a pop artists's painting of MiLOU, but I bounced back by winning an auction (same artist) for 3 individual paintings of Snap, Crackle and Pop (for less than the MiLOU sold for).

But recently (just last night) I splattered Sambal Oelek on my favorite White T-Shirt and things are looking bleak again.

Hopefully voting this coming Tuesday will help offset those stains.

 

DeKay

Disappointment, grief is the wrong word.

The older you get, the more likely you will forget to bid like that. I did once, on something quite rare, not expensive, just a rare opportunity for a belt kit for a Viking 2 Track Tape Player from 1958. Unique flat textured belt.

Forgot, felt quite foolish, but, you win some, you lose some, like any experience, anger at someone, it’s best to let it go.

And, shorty thereafter, a new kit popped up, got it. Now, where the hell did I put it?

@prof those are wonderful stories!  Thanks for sharing. Vintage speakers definitely have a soul and character, they decide their own advanture.

And several times I had the glitch too, 8 seconds away, my bid rejected and then lost.