retired high school teacher. love high end music, but my limited budget has taken me over the yrs. to 5k amp+ 1.5k preamp+ 300 cd+ 2.8K speakers+ 4k tt . so im close to 15k investment. I still considered modest by high end standards. |
Locksmith (jack of all trades)
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I have had alot of different jobs in my life .I'm now a private chauffeur with my own customers but this coronavirus has crushed me.Alway been a stereo equipment buyer ,albums ,cds,tapes.I have plenty of time on my hands now I'm 68. |
I’m a letter carrier. I’ve been doing this for 25+ years. Hopefully the USPS will be around for another 3 1/2 years so I can make it to retirement. I also hope my body can make it another 3 1/2 years. Winters are getting tougher on these bones! |
50 yo hospital based physician which is growing very tiresome in the current environment. Be safe.
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This hobby of ours certainly encourages "champagne taste on a beer budget." As many previous posters have attested, this can be accomplished if you buy smartly, whether that be used equipment or new equipment purchased thru industry sources. Count yourself lucky if you have any industry contacts. Or, count yourself lucky if you have a friend on an unlimited budget that shares our hobby, so that you can see what can truly be achieved.. |
J wall - great question - I have enjoyed reading all of the replies. IMO - we are all Audiophiles - regardless of our budgets to spend on this hobby. I am 66 - just retired from being a Chemist - left the bench in 1984 and moved into sales and marketing. Lucked out and am still married to my original wife - 43 years and counting. I have pursued this hobby since college. First system was Dynaco amp and preamp, EPI speakers, and Advent cassette deck. Became a Magnapan owner in 1985 - now on my third set of Maggie’s - graduated to Krell integrates 10 years ago - on my third Krell - run two High Quality systems now - feed them both via my LUMIN T2. Updated my current costs all in for both systems I am around $20,000. Very happy with both systems - my wife can hear the quality!! I lead a blessed life!
Enjoy the music! |
I have always lived well below my means. That has allowed me to retire at age 64 and with a nice comfortable lifestyle. My audio affection all began as an 8 year old, with a "stereo" that I played the Beatles. I was hooked. My parents Magnavox console was the next level for audio playback and that lasted through high school. Then, during my first years of college, I got my first serious system; Marantz 2270 receiver, Philips turntable with Stanton cartridge, and Altec 12" 3-way speakers. After graduating college I went to work at Pacific Stereo in order to save up and go back to graduate school. Well, graduate school never happened but my career with Pacific Stereo took me into management. I bought my first house within just 2 years out of college and bought a grand stack of Accuphase components, large Infinity speakers and a Micro Seiki turntable and tonearm. I got married and had 2 children. My career path continued in consumer electronics as a sales rep for Dual, Ortofon, Luxman, Triad, and Alpine. The Alpine car audio got me hooked on that fun. I then went to work directly for Alpine and climbed the corporate ladder. I managed the Western states for sales & distribution and the sales force. That was a great ride for 29 years and I retired from the workforce 2 years ago. I managed to put both children through college (1 with a Masters and the other a Ph.D) and paid off my second house (much larger than the first house) about 12 years ago. During those "kids years" we had a great home theater system for family entertainment but nothing even close to my big Accuphase system regarding high-fidelity. Now that I am retired I am back into building a grand high-fidelity music system. I'm up to about the $65K level and future plans will add about $10K more. That should do it for me for quite a while. Of course, being in the consumer electronics industry for so many years I still have a ton of friends and contacts. So, most of my purchases are at around dealer cost, sometimes about 10% or so over dealer cost, and for some items I still am able to retain industry accommodation pricing directly from the vendor. The system sounds amazing!
More important than anything now is to maintain good health. These are scary times. I stay home and listen to my hi-fi system...a lot!
I wish you all the very best in health. Be good and do enjoy the music. |
Own a aerospace fastener distribution company for over 35 years.
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I went to college for electrical engineering. But am now a maintenance man. HVAC, plumbing, electrical. I'm only working part time these days. Leaves me more time with my system. Very modest system compared to most. |
Real estate appraiser, 33 years. Cleveland / Akron. Was out of audio for about 25 years then on day 8 years ago I was appraising an old house in Akron and owner had a beat up pair JBL 100's'. All he wanted was $5.00.Got back into it with full steam ahead since then.. Somebody stop me. |
I own a mid-sized architecture firm but have a large sized equipment collecting habit. Help! |
Structural CADD draftsman for 30 years. Big audio geek in my youth, just got back into it cuz 1) bought, sold motorcycle to relive my racing youth 2) bought, sold 2 seater convertible cuz it's safer than a bike 3) buying audio equip now to fill consumerism void left by 1) and 2). And loving it. |
People's hobbies always seem crazy to others in terms of the time and/or money they put into it. What gives one person pleasure may not make any sense to another.
I have a client who is an actuary and a life-long singer songwriter. He said, "I would be embarrassed if l told you what I spent recording my albums." That's his hobby.
That being said, I am a psychotherapist and executive coach. My hobbies entail multiple expensive purchases of guitars, audio equipment, bicycles and cameras. |
Ill make a list and tell you ASAP!! |
I'm a software engineer. My system was about $10K, but since around March this year, with the COVID-19 lockdown, I've added $30K to my system. I bought everything online except for my new speakers which cannot be sold online. Thank goodness for retailers like Audio Advisor and Crutchfield, which offer great return policy. I cannot see myself spending thousands of dollars on hifi gears without testing it at home. I can never trust myself auditioning gears in a hifi store. There are just too many variables involved, and it is almost guaranteed that what you hear in the store will not be what you hear at home.
I never considered myself an audiophile, and I don't think I'll ever. There are just too much engineering and science behind this stuff that I don't understand. One thing for sure though, this hobby is a slippery slope. Money just get sucked out of you like no tomorrow, and you can never be 100% happy with what you have, and always looking for the next upgrade.
Anyway, I digressed. Another question I think might be interesting to ask this forum is how many men and women are into this hobby. My guess is probably 90% men and 10% women, but I can be wrong.
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I drive a freight train but I was an electronic tech for the US NAVY then as an audio tech, installer and salesperson for some audio stores and I still do that on a part time basis, which provides me an opportunity to upgrade my gear at less than retail.
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I'm an audio engineer. I spent the first 20 years of my career producing music, but migrated to post production sound over the last decade. The reason I got involved with professional audio was a love of music. I played in a band in college in the early-mid '80s, and when I graduated the economy was in the tank. I had some very limited recording gear and my band's rehearsal space. The rest is history. One of my most favorite things about this job is that I get to buy toys... Toys like microphones and amplifiers and speakers. I've always been an audiophile of sorts, but in 2019 when I set out to buy my first new set of main monitors in almost 20 years I became intrigued by JBL's flagship M2s. I realized they had found more homes in audiophile systems than pro studios. I assume it's owing to there being a larger market among audiophiles- there are simply more of them than there are studios. In the end I bought 3 of them and couldn't be happier. I have nearly a million dollars tied up in my business, about 60% of which is the studio building itself. 35% is audio/ video/gear and musical instruments and 5% is office equipment and furniture. The one thing about audiophilia that flummoxes me is the amount of credibility afforded to the most minor tweaks and the retail price of components and cables while proper room design, construction, and treatment often gets little more than a passing mention. Some things I just don't get. Being intimately familiar with how recordings are made gives me a different perspective on what a playback system ought to be able to do. |
@j-wall, I went through a similar reality check a number of years ago as I drove through areas that had 1M plus valued homes. I thought "how can there be this many people who make this much money?" My wife reminded me that when we took out our last mortgage, we qualified for a 850K loan. The reality is that many, perhaps most, people are leveraged to the max. I saw this back in the 90's, when many of my colleagues had to sell their cars and a few had to sell their homes after a market correction. They were paying bills by day trading equities and commodities on the side. I've seen a lot of esoteric gear go up for sale on Audiogon after similar economic downturns. BTW, instead of taking out that 900K mortgage loan I took out a 200K loan and payed it off in 7 years. Later, I retired at age 60 with 3 kids still in college and all of them got through school with no loan debt. I was a chemist and made decent money, but not crazy money. In life, it is not just what you do for a living and how much you make, it is also what you do with what you have. The same can be said in building an audio system. My current system, including room treatments etc., retails for under 40K. I've put another 10K into flooring and HVAC for the room. My components work well together. I've made good choices on tubes. I put about 1.2K into rebuilding my speaker crossovers, which utterly transformed them. I've worked hard on optimizing MLP and speaker position, and I am nearing completion of a long effort in treating the room. I've heard systems that retailed for 4 to 5 times what mine cost that didn't sound as good. I see Audiogon virtual systems that are just stunning- systems that make mine look rather pitiful. So, I turn off the lights, close my eyes, listen, and smile. It occurs to me that some of the most knowledgable people here don't necessarily have 100K speakers. I'm guessing their systems are superb. |
I did logistics management and professional recruiting. I thought I was was the pauper in this bunch as my main, 2 channel system investment of about 2K is what I thought most of you would spend on a power cord. I am not disparaging any of you, I just never found the funds to put that much into a system.
In my younger years, I did have a more expensive system. Bought in the 1978/79 period, it was lost in a divorce. I still lament the loss (not the ex, the stereo). |
Public servant, buy stuff for the country. |
FINRA compliance officer. |
Retired Record Store owner operator. Did that for 20 years in a small town. Was a chef before that. Didn't make much money running a Record Store but had some good perks. Married with no kids which frees up a lot of cash apparently. My current systems are pretty modest by Audiogon standards. |
I'm an entrepreneur. I own and manage an international gelato franchise chain. I live in Italy. |
I work for a karaoke app company. Also been a professional sound designer, composer, producer, and audio engineer. I make records, and play a bunch of instruments. Been accused all my life of spending all my money on guitars and studio gear, and not on a decent system for enjoying music. That's why I'm here.
Still not buying <$100 USD interconnects.
More than happy to be involved in discussions related to music-making and stereo gear.
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ER RN . Retired now at 65 . |
imThorek
I worked as nephrologist for 40years and now retired. Listening to my music in my audio room every night while seeping scotch before I go to bed kept me sane.
imThorek |
Former PE/Health teacher and coach of several sports for 37 years in the middle school along with running the intramural program for the last 27 years of my job. Loved it all and also listening to music. The better it sounds, the more pleasurable it is. I've been very blessed in the last 5-7 years as I had a long term plan and I'm finally getting there. The room is almost completed and is quite cool and sounds fantastic as does the rig.
I thank God for the used audio sites and times I've been very lucky to secure something for very little money or an even exchange with a fellow 'phile.
Bob
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Kanye West’s executive designer. |
Construction worker. Union YES! |
Former web designer/graphic artist - college degree in Australia
Also built loudspeakers, cables at a boutique speaker manufacturer reasonably famous in Australia - unknown in USA.
Currently working in the Permian Basin oilfield in Texas as an automation programmer and technician, with a college degree in electronics technology and instrumentation.
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Exposure and Human Health Scientist at NIH. Data science side at this point. |
Worked 37 years as a social worker in substance abuse treatment, geriatrics and developmental disabilities. Lost the divorce and the house, put one kid through college (the other wasn’t interested), benefitted from mother’s will (would give all the money back and more just to have her back), and I’m retired 6 years now and doing fine. After most recent breakup with girlfriend, I decided to indulge myself and replace 30+ year old stereo with better quality stuff. This hobby grows on you. |
Where theres a will theres always a way. So my brother joined the military 20+ years ago. I've always loved car audio home audio. Unfortunately with kids college marriage divorce. well the exwife wasn't always so understanding. but he wanted extra money so he got a job at bestbuy. They had accommodations from some decent brands. At least for me. Denon marantz polk audio sonos. So speakers were 50% off. If you did some online classes which I may have done for him. Extra 25% then they expanded to the the magnolia stores and had martin logan McIntosh audioquest B & W and others. 50% off retail at least. I've spent at least spent 25,000 on on audio that would of cost me well over 100,000. Best thing is you can resell it after two years. Unfortunately he retired 3 years ago and quit bestbuy so I'm back to retail. He makes too much in the private sector now. Im still considering taking a job myself just for the discount just over Christmas. Well maybe in retirement or he loses his job. One can hope. |
Retired IT Executive and master goldsmith |
Pro violiinist.....now play for myself
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Dali Rubicon 5s, Simaudio Ace, Innuos Zen Mini and a Denon DP-2000 that I rarely play. I’m slowly selling my LPs. As Col. Walter Kurtz uttered, “The horror, the horror...” |
I own a restaurant in dallas Texas! |
After seeing the post in search of 100k speakers im certainly in the wrong profession or maybe just the wrong forum... |
@rafevw clearly gets the most scratch! So, I wonder what his system is like? |
Tough question. My rez says I am a tech guy. But really I just talk to people all day. Occasionally sign a contract.
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Retired 71 Survived insurance then accounting...!
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I help clean up the messes that cannot be cleaned up in the ER. Call me Winston Wolfe. |
I clean up messes in the ER. |
Union plumber/pipefitter with a very understanding wife. |
I do computer stuff and mostly working from home these days. So looking to build out my stereo audiophile system. |
Retired, 68.
Hung up truck driving career at 55.
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Mozart fan may be interested in socks. |
I sell white socks in Seminole Texas. |
Hey, I am a professional Gardener. (Albeit, a very good one cursed with expensive tastes).
😆
Bob |
