End of the World system

I'd get some of those magic sticks and stones for sure.

Another key detail is it is the REMAINS of a high end audio store.
This leads one to assume it is not habitable and the equipment is in danger of being ruined by the elements, so you have to prioritize what you are taking before it's useless.

A nice boom box and a case of beer, well maybe two cases of beer

Just move into the store and make it home stupid. Then, after depleting the goods, move to the next one. 

Music is so important. I would obviously start building a road/path to the stereo shop.

Oh well, I did it again.

I made a list of great gear I would get. Very pricey stuff that I wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise. I even wrote the prices next to each item to make myself feel better about carrying them back home. As I was about to walk out the door, my wife saw the list and said "Do we really need that?"


SAF strikes again.

If we were the only people left on earth, I'd be too busy fishing in all those private e lakes that people have never been able to fish before. 

GIK. Too funny! 

The correct answer is:

-Move your food, renewable energy source and preferred family members to the HiFi store.

-Send one of the expendables on a mission to find a great vinyl store.

-Send another expendable off to ravage RedBox vending machines.

What have I left out?

(...J salutes Erik as he swan dives into the Deep End....and yells down...)

"I've heard that it's the impact with Reality is Really Annoying....."

OK....gather up the laptop, get out of the woods so I can see the trees....
Find a Tesla and all the solar panels I can drag....
Move here:

https://www.theverge.com/2014/12/14/7390749/this-spectacular-home-is-at-peace-with-the-california-desert

(If I'm 'IT', dammit, I want something Better than a F'n shack....)

Set up panels....scavenge any damn thing I want....(Y'all are history, Right?)...

Go slowly absolutely insane in style....Name all the bugs and lizards....before I eat them.....

Carve the limestone wall with my greetings to the aliens....
"Sorry you missed the party."

(Y'all really need to get out a bit.....)

Ok, so playing by your rules—I would haul back every high end cartridge I have always wanted. Koetsus. Light, easy to carry, and I assume Peter at Soundsmith wouldn’t be around to retip.

Then, if I needed more exercise or found a nice Radio Flyer wagon , I’d bring back some Shindo gear. 
Once I got my Mercedes diesel jeep converted to run on biodiesel and ready for off-roading it, a pair of KEF Blade Two’s. In the blue, because WAF in the woods probably wouldn’t be a thing. 
And the really nice SME deck.

Thanks for the fun. 

Blurnoin, I too had the same concerns when I was your age, But that was 34 years ago. LOL

+1 corelli, if there's anything recent consumer habits have prooven, it's that you can never have enough toilet paper in an end of World scenario!

bluorion, unless you have a chronic disease there's no reason to believe you won't outlive the duration your father lived. We all make those same decisions, how much to invest in the future needs, and how much to invest in the present. I hope you have a system that you enjoy, now, right now.

My log cabin is fully ready, photovoltaic system with battery supplies are charged ready to power my system. This is my fantasy response, so it's a damned good thing the neighbours horse will carry myself and the cache of hifi and projector gear back to my cabin. Where my wife will still nag me to take walks with her, probably work on her car despite lack of fuel and shovel the horse manure as well. I'd get myself a valve amplifier, and dammit I'd learn to tube roll (spare no expense, well.. horse rides) but I'll still be playing all the Wav and Flac files off my music server.

eric_squires, there's a place to get all the latest 4K movies near the high-end store right? Otherwise, your scenarios are lacking a bit... Hahaha
I'd have my shack on or near a beach not a lake, after all I grew up on an island. A bloody big one! And maybe I'll need just a little less nagging for those walk I'll be having, no doubt.

Stay healthy and safe everyone.

In my end of the world fantasy I would fashion my own musical instruments out of whatever natural materials are available.I would also breed and train crickets to chirp in different keys so we could play music together.

With only 4 years to live the sensible thing is to buy GIK. Then with EQ and REL you can easily make it another 40.

Great question! I've been thinking of something similar lately---I'm 55 and my dad passed away at 59. I'm only 4 years from that 59 and it scares me to death. I'm in the process of doing some upgrades and part of me still likes to budget---the other part says 'get what you want' just in case. So my question is: if I've got only 4 years to live, should I just get what I REALLY want or be sensible and buy what I can afford. Hmmm.

Assuming they had a bathroom, I'd grab the toilet paper.

You may be the only two people left on Earth, but we all know there is no scenario where you will not have zombies. So plug your ears and don't forget the double-tap.

Well, eventually, probably everything left in the store. Nothing but time. No hurry. Provided it would all fit in the cabin......

With my bad luck, the only two people left on earth would be me and Bill Walton.

So I assume you have no existing equipment to play music. Radio stations, streaming gone. Physical media only. Got those? I’d grab an all in one record/CD player. A light one You could carry 32 km and then played won’t drain your power. If you could carry more, get as much physical media as possible.
Good hypothetical.

OK, wow. Can't have no fun around here.

In your scenario Eric, and with quite power etc. no problem, I'd have the MBL Xtreme system, assuming it was in that hi-end store. Lots of Master Tapes, vinyl, and crazy good digital. I mean, ya know, it's the end of the world.

You crybabies don’t worry about it. Nobody asked for your critique of the question. 

I’d stick my big Ohm Walsh speakers out on the porch (goodbye room acoustics), crank em up, and play some Moody Blues. Maybe "Lost in a Lost World", "Blue World", "I Know You’re Out There Somewhere", maybe "Question" or "A Simple Game"........

Portable player, some good IEM's and portable solar panel.  The whole rig fits in your pocket.  Let the  wife/sig other get her own.  Also, since we're living in "A Quite Place" you can listen to your tunes without having to worry.

There's always gonna be those few who have to throw in their kranky-krabby 2 cents worth.  That being said,  I would bring back as many monitors as I could, a decent integrated and a cd player (and cables).  I'll already have my CDs, I would hope. 
That's really all you need, right?  

No audiophile should own a gun, they are bad for your hearing.

I would bypass the high end store and head for the Consumer Beverage store down the road. My wife and myself already have good music.

I would walk to Tekton and drag back whatever I could however long it takes

So here’s a question. You and your loved ones are the last one’s on earth. Your fully stocked with a cabin in the woods, renewable energy, and food for a life time. The roads are out, and there’s no place to get gas.

The remains of a high-end store are 20 miles away. What do you bring home, assuming you have to actually carry it back?

Dude?! Reality check?? We’re the last one’s on Earth! We do not live in a cabin in the woods. We hike on down to the local gun shop and get armed, because with no human beings around its just a matter of time before the mountain lions and grizzly bears take back their territory. Besides, Great Plains, we can live off the buffalo. Then we look around for the best transportation, preferably at this stage a Porsche Cayenne Turbo S but we’ll take what we can find.

Then we head out to locate the best RV with max solar and lithium batteries. Then we spend the rest of our lives seeing all the wonderful nature of the whole planet Earth. Like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day I learn to sing and play the piano. But its too big and heavy for the RV so I pick up a Strad and learn to play the violin. My loved one becomes a master chef. Together we re-write the Kama Sutra. We enjoy all the best wine and liquor anywhere ever. We spend a week at Graceland. Oh, maybe somewhere along the way we might pick up a sweet little SET bookshelf system for the RV. Or not. Why bother? Any time we want really good sound just jaunt on over to CA, Ted Denney got it all set up for us.

Why? What would you do? Stay cooped up in your dopey little cabin in the woods? With the whole planet to yourselves? Well suit yourself. We got better things to do.

Alaskan nickel or copper  cones  3/8 inches (10 dollars)

weight:  few grams...

Power:  transforming the acoustics...

Let me think about it and get back to you. 

I already have a cabin on a lake. The only cabin on the lake, with the only access being two ruts that pass as a road. No electricity, propane for lighting and cooking, a wood burning stove for heat. Good fishing and hunting all around. No need for a stereo or music for that matter. Silence is golden.

I wouldn’t miss civilization ever. Well, not until I need stitches or to mend a broken bone. But even then, a sewing kit and splint would do fine, I just know it. I’ve seen it in the mooovies.

we might miss music, but we’d have a fiddle, spoons and a kettle bass. Rock on!

20 miles through uncleared path. 40 miles round trip. I’d have to clear a path on the way there, so I could get back, presumably with boxes in my hands or a cart I build. Now that I have all the facts, I think I won’t make the trip.

OK guys, key part was : No roads, no gas.

Should have been explicit in saying, your log cabin has no music in it yet. :)

You have too much time on your hands

Yeah, since I'm not a first responder or essential worker, I don't really need an excuse for this right now.

P.s.  if this is a silly thread and there are more important things for you to be doing, why respond to the thread?  In this time it’s nice to find an escape wherever you can.  Thanks Erik!

Sounds like I’ll have plenty of time to make multiple trips, and I have a nice mountain bike in the cabin so I’ll be using that for transport.  I’d possibly look for an off road style wagon to load up and pull behind me while on foot.

I’d probably grab just about everything from the store over the course of a couple years.  If everything is free and only requires a little (or a lot) of effort to get home, well, I’d take it all!

Well, you would need LOUD speakers to hear over the generator, or waterfall making electricity, 

If my family was the last on earth, there would be more things to worry about than a stereo. 

I would camp out at the high end hi fi boutique and try every combination that strikes my fancy. Big power into full range speakers. Big power into “bookshelf” speakers. Ladder DACs, delta sigma DACs. Tube vs ss. Metal vs soft tweeter. Cables. Class A vs all the rest. Ported vs acoustic suspension.

Wait, we all do that already.

instead, I would load everything into a truck, take it home and be in bliss for all eternity.

If youre in the woods they'll be plenty of wood so all youd need is the drive units to make the speaker. So you would need

• 1 class d amp
• pair of woofers
• pair of tweeters
• crossover parts
• 1 cd player

I have everything i need.In today world its NOT important.

Snake oil, lots and lots of snake oil.

You have too much time on your hands