Top resale value speakers

@prof, oops, I missed the date, sorry.
My audio sensibilities took a hit 3 weeks ago when my son pushed over one of my speakers and it sustained serious cone and slight cabinet damage.

In fact, not just my audio outlook, I had to re-evaluate some of my other priorities too. Shock, horror, I'm beginning to wonder just how much Hi-Fi means to me in the ultimate scheme of things. Perhaps I have been a tad obsessive and tunnel visioned in some regards...

Anyway, depending upon the outcome of the claim I might once again after some 8 years, be faced the same decision of buying new or used myself. 

The only clear thing is that unless there is clear returns policy, I would never consider buying new without having a good listen first.

Resale value is important, but with decades of experience behind me I wouldn't care too much about resale value if a loudspeaker, (most likely to be from a new or lesser known manufacturer), was able to provide sonic satisfaction.
 

Speakers are the component that loses the most value in my opinion.   Only a few select brands retain value ...  Sonus and Quad come to mind but there are so many that lose 50% right out the door.

I think most gear takes a beating ,  I purchased a used pair of Quicksilver monos, for $1050,  they were only 15 months old and were $1900 new. 

Bought a pair of Revel M106.  Six months old for $1200 they were $2k....enjoyed them for 4 years, sold them for $1000.  So for me that was a great deal, I used them for 4 years at a cost of $200.  

I'm always looking for a good deal and often pay  50% or less of what the street price was.   If you choose the right used gear you will often recover most of your money but don't expect that as a new owner.

I have no problem buying new if it's something I think I'll keep for a long time but a lot of gear has come and gone as "rentals" where it's cost a small amount to enjoy it for a little while.

@cd318

In fact, not just my audio outlook, I had to re-evaluate some of my other priorities too. Shock, horror, I'm beginning to wonder just how much Hi-Fi means to me in the ultimate scheme of things. Perhaps I have been a tad obsessive and tunnel visioned in some regards...

Sorry to hear about your speaker accident!

Re-assessing is never a bad thing.

I find I often gain different perspectives simply because I may shift from one "obsession" to the other, for instance between high end audio and home theater.

I was incredibly obsessed with high end audio through the 90's into the early 2000s...going to be thinking about speaker/amp combinations, that kind of thing!    But then I became infatuated with TVs and home theater.High end audio, though still a thing in my life, fell well behind my home theater concerns.  I would obsess with exact screen materials for my projector, exact calibration, perfect light control....just really the same level of obsession but transferred to the visual side of things.  I'd watch a movie, or at least part of one, almost every day in my projection based home theater.

But since I got back more heavily in to high end audio again around 2015 (buying my Thiel 3.7 speakers), further enhanced by the plunge in to turntables and vinyl, well...I only have so much time and energy to obsess about one thing.  So the emphasis has been audio and music, which takes up much more time,  whenever I find time to fit in to a movie I just don't worry about all the things I did before.  Like "why did I feel that was so important?"  I just turn the thing on and it looks fantastic, and I don't much wonder what else I should be doing for the system.I enjoy it like a "normal person" ;-)

Gives some perspective, I guess.
BTW, my boys always joked that if they crashed over my speakers or something I'd be devastated.  I always told them, really, no I wouldn't be.  They are just things I own.  I like them.  But I could always get different ones, or just get fun elsewhere.  I love my system, but I have the perspective to know what's most important in life and what kind of thing to be devastated over, or not (I hope...)

@ prof, thanks for those words. Yeah, it’s been a unsettling experience. Was on the phone for the umpteenth time with the insurers this morning and decided to cancel my claim. They really have little idea of loudspeakers, let alone vintage DCs and the third party company they employ to do the assessment / repair, seem to verge between incompetent and corrupt according to the many 1 star reviews online of their work. I will just have to try to get them fixed myself somehow.

Funnily enough in the meantime I have been getting into films myself, recently watching Stagecoach (1939) and The General (1926) amongst a few others. Both brilliant films and both offering an almost eerie peek back into the mists of time. I usually play the sound through the speakers but had to make do with the headphones. Actually, in some ways, headphone listening works really well with films. The reduction of ambient sounds and interruptions can make for a more immersive experience.

I doubt whether I would get as obsessed over films in the same way as music though I do try to look out for sympathetic restorations when it comes to buying DVDs. It’s simply a question of numbers, there’s probably only 40 or 50 films I love, but there are 1000s of songs.

Right now it’s just a case of getting the speaker repaired and the question of potential upgrades / resale values can wait. Sometimes, it’s like the song says 'you don’t know what you’ve got 'til it’s gone’.