Advice on how to liquidate system


Few weeks ago, I sustained traumatic blast induced hearing loss during a training incident. The level of hearing loss and tinnitus is pretty bad, I’ve had only a minimal level of improvement. midrange and upper frequencies sound like a 1970’s transistor radio. Horrible. The reality of the situation is looking like my audiophile days are pretty much over. Now I’m thinking of what to do with the gear…the thought of dismantling my rig and selling piece by piece is nauseating. Are there any resources that would come in and take it all? At this point I really don’t give a crap about being lowballed, it’s aggravating to look at what Ive put so much time and effort into and not be able to enjoy it. I need to move on.  

 

128x128jl1ny

@jl1ny

I’ll try to answer you here.

Once your hearing loss is fully accepted by you and you are not fixated on it, you will need to answer for yourself as to which direction you want to go with your audio listening habits. That said, for me, with whatever level of hearing disability that I have, I continue to enjoy listening to music. I moved into a newly built house in February of 22 and built my system from scratch after at least 17 years away from two channel listening. When I was a young teenager in the 1960’s one of my friend’s father had a full McIntosh system and I just fell in love with the sound. I also knew that McIntosh held value a bit better than some. I wanted fewer interconnects, so I purchased a McIntosh MA12000 and proceeded to sample speakers. The MA 12000 was purchased on my birthday, with my wife present and we both assumed that this would be the main expense incurred in building a system. I was living in Texas and my wife continued to live in California and I paid all credit card bills, so you know where this is going. I started auditioning speakers with the integrated and as I went up in price, the speakers just kept getting better. I finally reached my financial limit, because I still thought that I could limit the expense and purchased the Wilson Sabrina X. I purchased an iFi Zen Stream, Technics SL-1500G and Hana ML cartridge. I used the integrated phono section and DAC. Unfortunately, my system didn’t have what I identified as the musical quality of the system that I heard over 55 years ago…. When you look at my system, you will see that everything except for the integrated and speakers have been dramatically upgraded. Some changes involved multiple returns to Music Direct. My power conditioner and cords are now my most costly expense. The problem is that I could hear differences. My point being, I don’t hear what others hear, but I could hear differences when switching out power cables, interconnects, DACs, phono preamps and streamers. I can hear the difference between Ethernet cables. Now, I probably can’t hear fine differences and this might be why I upgraded to the top of the Shunyata line. I could hear a clear difference between their Venum NR and their premier cables. I now have a very musical system with lots of detail and to my taste vocals can be just stunning. So, for me, I can’t understand lyrics and I have a constant fairly loud ringing in my ears, but due to slow changes, I don’t focus on what I lack, but on what I still have. Unfortunately for me, this was a very expensive journey. I hope that this helps out.

@erik_squires 

You bring up a good point.  I think I will post a question related to hearing aids.

Considering the traumatic nature of the event, I'd consult an acupuncturist and possibly a hypnotist. Your hearing loss may be your body trying to protect itself.

Could be worth a try.

Hang in there my friend. There is more to life than just one thing. Shift your passion to something else. Show the rest of the world that you are a resilient, multifaceted individual. You can do it, won’t be easy but you got this. 

I like the idea of finding a friend or relative you trust, to lend them your gear. You would not have to see it every day and someone else would enjoy it. If things change, and  you want to give it a try, you can still take your gear back.