OK, get out your handkerchiefs. This is a sad story.
About 10 years ago, I was forced to downsize from a 3500sqft house to a 900sqft condo. This entailed a 4000-mile move, so most of my stereo could not make the trip.
This included meticulously restored Quad ESLs (1957), a pair of 1950s Class A Quad monoblocks, a beautiful refurbished Stereo 70, a bespoke sub designed specifically for my system and room (14-inch drivers, -6db at 8Hz!), a modified Dahlquist crossover, a couple grand of room treatments -- that’s not everything, but you get the idea. I even had a big box of NOS tubes and 2 NOS Quad replacement panels in their original sealed boxes. Really unique gear, which I’d spent over 20 years tweaking and restoring. And these units, even the half-century-old components, were all at least 9/10 aesthetically. The ST-70 chassis was like polished chrome, ESL’s copper grills were almost perfect.
Well, for some reason -- maybe because I didn’t have the original shipping cartons and needed a buyer who could accommodate local pickup -- I could not find anyone in my rural area of the country who was interested. The time for the move came closer and closer and one out-of-state bottom-feeder, sensing the pressure I was under, offered me $1800 for the lot. He claimed to be a dealer and justified the low offer with the statement that he could only pay half of what he could sell the stuff for. It broke my heart, but he had me over a barrel. Even $3600 seemed crazy low for a set of carefully matched, beautifully restored, vintage components like these.
Well he drove to my place and when he heard the system, he was knocked out and immediately snapped it up. As we were loading everything into his van, he mentioned that he actually wasn’t gonna sell it. He planned to keep it for himself. I didn’t say anything, because I was just days from getting on a plane, but I was absolutely friggin’ furious!!
Regrets, I have a few, but then again, too few to mention. But this one still sticks in my craw. I spent so many years and so much time and money putting that system together and tweaking it into something special...
