Your vintage investment
NeilGabriel
Posts: 1,487
This is great for those who need to justify to someone else, oh, like a spouse, why you buy these old speakers. This present dollar converter tells you what you have to spend in 2006 dollars for the same purchase back when. For example, my vintage Polks bought in 1984 would now cost $1500. If you got yours in say 1925, they would cost 11 times as much today. It suggests to me, and I'm no investment banker, that buying quality used products is a good value. http://oregonstate.edu/cla/polisci/faculty/sahr/cv2006.pdf. I think this would stand up in divorce court. Neil
Post edited by NeilGabriel on
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Of course that does not take into account that in 1984 they were made in the US, and now they would be made in China, for less dollars than in 1984.
A perfect example is a product my company makes. The original cost of manufacture and packaging in 1995, in the US, was about $11, retail $29. The cost rose to about $15 by 2005, same retail. We switched to having it made in China in 2005, our cost now? $4. -
Speaker technology changes as well. A product that was made in 1984 might cost more now with 2007 dollars. However, the product may or may not be as desireable to the listener as a product made in 2007 with 2007 technology; furthermore, the 2007 product at its current price may or may not compare favorably pricewise to the 1984 product at 2007 prices. There's a number of variables to consider. Here's an example: a few years ago my dad gave me a mint condition Fisher 800B receiver, which retailed in 1962 for $429.50 (according to 6moons); interested persons can do the math on what that would be in 2007 dollars. I very much like this piece of gear in my bedroom system from a sonic and other viewpoints (including great memories while growing up of my dad, and my deceased mom, imbuing me at an early age with the grace and bliss of music). However, the Odyssey Extreme Mono amps in my main system absolutely trounce the Fisher receiver in all-around sound reproduction. Would I buy a restored Fisher 800B on eBay, and use it in place of the Odyssey mono amps? No way. Am I glad to have the Fisher 800B in my bedroom system? You bet.Of course that does not take into account that in 1984 they were made in the US, and now they would be made in China, for less dollars than in 1984.
A perfect example is a product my company makes. The original cost of manufacture and packaging in 1995, in the US, was about $11, retail $29. The cost rose to about $15 by 2005, same retail. We switched to having it made in China in 2005, our cost now? $4.
For me, I enjoy music reproduced by my studio SDA-1Cs. I've also heard speakers that I felt sounded better in some areas, but the difference was not enough to justify parting with my $. Furthermore, I've recently added a pair of dedicated 20A lines that made a very affordable and quite noticable positive sonic upgrades to my system; this to me was a worthwhile expenditure and much higher on the bang-for-buck scale than purchasing other speakers, at this juncture.
In summary, it seems there's a lot of different paths for your audio $s to time travel; hopefully your ears and financial calculations will clue you in to what's best for your particular situation.
YMMV. -
ok...using the conversion chart I can't afford what I own.Testing
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Thank uncle sam, you big hitters don't pay personal property tax on those systems! My post was not intended to prove that it is "better" to buy old good equipment instead of new good equipment. I thought it was just an interesting thing to consider and I thought the conversion chart was fun. My wife is always telling me how much she saved by buying things she didn't need on sale. Well, I buy things that would have cost a lot more if I was buying them new today.....I guess. Must be time for warm milk.
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You have no idea - I try to pray thanks for him daily. Such is the love of a parent for a child, and a son for his father.dbnh - That's a very good dad.
