We have purchased approx. 300 CD's in the past year. 90% of the CD's were purchased on the used market in the range of $1 to $5 each (the current going rate being a little higher now at $3-$5 each). I gave 50 or so of the CD's to my parents (all of the big bands and classic female vocals), so we are down to 250 CD's. The total actual cost of the CD's so far is well under $1500. A low retail estimate (for the CD's) would be $4500. Our main system (without cables and other accesories retails for approx. $6000 (we payed a little over $3000). At this point we have averaged 50% of our expenditures on source material. I have spent most of the last year at home and listen to music an average of 8 hours per day (at least an hour of this time is spent doing bio-feedback exercises while listening). When I am in the computer room I listen to a Sony mini system running inexpensive Polk Audio speakers and often listen to old cassette tapes on this system as well. I do not consider myself to be an Audiophile, but do enjoy the hobby and music in general just the same. Yesterday at the flea market I picked up two compilation CD's on Verve plus Counting Crows and an early Ry Cooder CD for $12, it was a slow day.
Audiophile spending
We all say it’s about the music, but when a recent post came up and asked how much do you spend on equipment vs music I did an actual check and found that I spend about 2/3 equipment and 1/3 music. There were some interesting comments in that thread, one said that he would not increase his music spending rate, because he could not find time to listen to more material than he was already buying, but that his equipment rate of spending continued to increase. It’s also interesting that the rate of spending might not correlate to the value of the equipment vs the value of the music since we audiophiles tend to sell off our used equipment as we upgrade, but probably don’t sell off our music (at least I don’t, of course some do—there is used music for sale on Agon) So the questions to this post are:
1. What is the ratio of your spending rate on equipment vs music
2. What is the ratio of the value of your system (retail) vs your music (retail or fair market for collectibles)
3. Is your spending on music limited by the time you have available to listen to music or by budget
There's no need to post dollar amounts (you can if you want--but it's really a matter of what gets spent in relative terms)
1. What is the ratio of your spending rate on equipment vs music
2. What is the ratio of the value of your system (retail) vs your music (retail or fair market for collectibles)
3. Is your spending on music limited by the time you have available to listen to music or by budget
There's no need to post dollar amounts (you can if you want--but it's really a matter of what gets spent in relative terms)