2. amps-preamps
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Why isn't better quality used gear being made available?

 

I've been scanning used gear for a while trying to look for an amplifier and a line stage pre-amplifier. To me it seems like quality higher end gear being made available is Limited.  Maybe it's a good thing that all this quality gear I'm looking for doesn't want to be sold .

I have never been able to find used cables that are what I'm looking for from transparent, cardas, ect,  or other worthwhile brands in the mid to upper price ranges. I guess people keep their old used cables in a box and don't even bother selling them . Maybe it follows that Quality used components sit on a shelf in someone's basement not being sold. It's tough giving up quality audio components even if you don't plan to use them and maybe keeping them around as back up or for a third listening room that never happens.

emergingsoul

Showing 4 responses by ghdprentice

ghdprentice
6,447 posts
 

@emergingsoul 

Holy cow. I have had battles with the seller on a $25 item. $20K? You are very risk tolerant.

ghdprentice
6,447 posts
 

I would think the limited availability is because when buying high end gear there are a lot of possible issues. If you can afford this stuff, you are not going to be selling it yourself. I trade in gear when I buy new, I’m not going to be fiddling around. advertising, maybe having people I don’t know come over, worry about shipping and insuring.

Places like Echo and many dealers sell used stuff. They verify it is operating correctly and deal with logistics. No way I am going to buy a $50K original cost piece of audio equipment from I private person I don’t know.

ghdprentice
6,447 posts
 

My experience when listening to a product line up of speakers is that each level speaker sounds better than the lower level one. This is nearly always true. For instance have listened to much of the Sonus Faber, B&W, Wilson, Magico, and Dynaudio lines. Every increment up gets better sound,

Making comparisons between brands is more complicated. There are vastly different house sounds… say Magico vs Sonus Faber. So if you compare a $10K Sonus Faber which you love the sound of with an even $25K Wilson speaker which you simply do not like the house sound, then you may think it is not worth it.

But in general $10K jumps net you very much better speakers in nearly all aspects. Companies design them that way and if they didn’t the market would force the company to do so by not buying the more expensive speaker without better sound. Most of us spend a lot of time listening to speakers before expending an automobile sized chunk of money.

ghdprentice
6,447 posts
 

OP… “Maybe the manufacturers agree to take it back in some crazy financial maneuver to get it off the market.”

 

Ok, now that is a crazy conspiracy theory. My dealer takes trade-ins and sells them to a company that assesses and then either sells them on-line or to a reseller. There is not a high end company that could afford to do what you suggest. Some offer their own trade-in policies to do what you say, but they have very tight controls on it and limited payback.

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