My High End Audio Gear As A Long Term Investment!!!


I’ve had enough years of fiddling around with all this expensive High End Audio gear. No more speaker musical-chairs for me or switching out my amp every few years, or chasing the latest new shine penny, etc. It’s far too costly (and a headache to boot). So a couple years ago I decided to take time and care in diligently putting together a fine audio system, within my budget, of course, that would preform at such a high level of proficiency that I could be sonically satisfied for many, many years to come. Mission accomplished!!! My audio system is soo musically satisfying to me that I could honestly live with it for the duration (but it didn’t come cheap). I know it’s hard to believe. At this juncture, and yes I’m old, I’m just flat-out tired and weary (so is my wallet) of all the hassle of buying and selling gear and (losing $$$ every time), never being satisfied with what I have even though what I have is already quite outstanding. Lets face it, it’s a fun hobby, but it can be an extremely expensive hobby, especially for an average guy like myself. So, I’m done trying to keep up with the Joneses. And now I just want to be content and happy with the wise long-term investment I made in my wonderful sounding audio system and just enjoy it without the constant burden (cloud of uncertainty) of thinking about switching out anything anymore. What a relief it is for me to finally after all these years be able to settle down in front of my audio system with the music being my only concern with a glass of fine red wine and just forget about all my troubles. It good feeling!!!  Anyone else have the same attitude toward the hobby as me?  Are you content with the decisions you made on your audio system?  Are you done with it like I am?   

kennymacc

I dont know if i can call my wife a " pleasurable" investment ... No more than i doubt if i can call "music" experience a pleasurable investment ...

They are for sure by some aspects ... But as any half truth it is not even wrong , it is worse than wrong ...

Something i choose which choose me too changed my life , be it Bach or my wife , i will not call that a " pleasure" , it is way more than that at the least it is a joy and joy is eternal , pleasures are not ... You buy pleasures not love nor understanding 😁😊

Someone can say that we speak about the "gear" not about music here ...But the gear dont exist as in investment when music is there , buying bread is not an investment nor a mere pleasure , it is living ...

We can sell bread and Bach, it is a money investment in this sense ... I will answer that "economy " is a sacred participatory act at the origin based on an exhange with the "other" ...It is a way to inhibit war and annihilation but it is more than that ...

We must rewrite economy for an age where there will be no needs unanswered , only a sacred participation in the universe ... I go to far and i will stop here ...

 

In a more mundane way, for me the gear is an acoustic problem to solve and understand not an investment ...Only obsessed people think about their gear as an investment to justify an obsession which is always misplaced focus of attention  ...The gear is always an interesting unsolved problem ...

Just thinking a bit more about the word "investment."

Investments get *more* valuable over time.

With that in mind, what percent of gear folks here have sold went for more than they bought it?

Besides my Pass XA-25, I don't think I have a single piece of gear I could sell for the same price or even 10% LESS -- let alone more.

I was just thinking that there is no "final" system, and it is exceedingly rare to purchase the next newest and bestest with the liquidation of the old.... We are entertaining ourselves by finding creative ways to dispose of disposable income. I admit that I am purely pleasing myself. Perhaps my picture is in the dictionary next to "Selfish"     ;)

There are two kinds of investments, IMHO.  One, you plan to sell it later.  Like a stamp, and two, you buy it because not buying it means you'll spend more money in the long term.

Good cookware that lasts you a lifetime and keeps you from replacing it yearly, and yields consistently better results for less effort is definitely a type of investment. 

Homes are arguably more like cookware than stamps, since while your home is accruing value you can't actually move to a nicer home after 10 years.  You can move into another home exactly like the one you are in. 

In 1990 I bought the best audio equipment I could afford. It is much better than I had ever had before. I have had it ever since. I enjoy it.

Now, 33 years later, some of the equipment has started to fail. I am almost done sending stuff out to have it refurbished and in some cases even upgraded. It sounds better than ever. I see no need to replace anything with things that won’t last nearly as long.

Now seeing that I'm a human being, I still look for little ways to get a little better sound. Thanks to the advice from some of the good folks on this site, I have replaced my cheap stock interconnects with Audioquest Tower cords. I noticed improvement right away and it seems to get better every time I turn the system on. Burn in? Perhaps. Maybe I’m just enjoying it more, who knows? My next step was to order the SP6 speaker cables from Morrow Audio. They are currently undergoing the 20 day burn in process at Morrow. Once I have those and am used to them, I’ll look into room treatments. That will about do it for me,

An investment? Well, only in the manner that I will have had decades worth of musical enjoyment for myself at a reasonable cost that I can afford. That’s a "sound" investment if I do say so myself.

EDIT: I should mention I purchased the Morrow Audio speaker cables when I received their Black Friday Sale notification from Audiogon.