Porsche

Wow, a Porsche and audio thread. I'd be happy to throw in two experiences.

The first was a 1986 Carrera that I'd had for almost eight years. It had a lousy head unit and already had aftermarket Sony speakers. A simple swap to a new Pioneer head unit allowed the occasional CD and made it to the "good enough" threshold. Most of the time was spent listening to the motor, anyway. Occasionally one might like to hear Crystal Method, High Roller at unhealthy volume, and use the motor as accompaniment.

Next would be a 2004 Anniversary, with the unjustifiably maligned headlights of that generation. It had a Bose with subwoofer, and a nav system as part of its original package options. It did not satisfy. Kenwood happened to make a 996 double DIN model, so why not?. That plus a five channel Alpine amp in the place of the failing multi disc changer, again with no speaker swaps, and now we've reached well into the 21st century. Nav, backing camera, and volume with clarity and control. Sometimes the windows are up, the rpms are down, and the music now more than just good enough.

Enjoy!

The 04 996 was a nice car. They should be gaining value now too. 

I was just at a local PCA Wash 'n Shine event on Tuesday night at a nice local winery and we had a huge turnout. Bigger than I can ever remember for this event, and it wasn't even in a good Spring month where we can get lots of daylight - couldn't see the cars after about 7:45. (We had to do it later in the year because of Covid). I've been in the club for 18 years and I am amazed at how many newbies keep showing up. That's what is causing the prices to rise. Simple supply and demand..... 

And by the way, they are ALL going up (except for maybe new ones purchased in the last 3-4 years that aren't special cars like GT4s, Boxster Spyders, GT3s, etc).

Porsche is just another toy for toy minded audiophiles.
I like tools better than toys.

sokogear- I have been out of PCA a long time now but was region president and attended all kinds of events for years, everything from social dinners and concours to autocross, driver ed and tech sessions. One of the things that hit me, no matter what type of event it was roughly 20% were first-timers. They just heard about PCA and this was their first event. Another roughly 20% were long-timers like yourself. These people all know each other and have their certain events they like and have been doing for decades. The roughly 60% in the middle, might be their second event, might be around a few years, or longer, they have made a few friends and come when they can.

That 20% of first-timers, I don’t know what it is today but it was very consistent for years at all events. When you are talking 100 cars at autocross, to think 20 are new, probably another 20 on top of that are recent, that is significant.

There is a lesson here for audiophiles. When those first time people show up at PCA they invariably find no one cares what car they drive. No one cares if they are into track or autocross, tours or dinners or concours. In all my years across PCA I never once heard anyone say it was a waste to tweak or modify. You can drive your gleaming factory original concours perfect 356 to the track and you and your car will get just as much attention and respect as the guy who just set track record in his highly modified paint chipped and bug splattered track car. Maybe more. 

We get these why is high end audio dying topics from time to time. Maybe if we were more like PCA then we would be growing like Porsche?