I am glad the responses were helpful.
I, and I am sure other contributors will be interested in, is whether you do buy some used speakers, which ones, and how successfully.
Could you update in due course please?
What to ask when buying used speakers?
I have purchased used components in the past and I can do this with confidence their functionality is well defined and easily verified. I am starting to look for a new set of speakers and will consider buying used. Assuming that I am doing this over distance and will not be able to inspect or demo the speakers in person, what are some good questions to ask to determine the real state of the speakers? Any red flags? Can used speakers have incurred subtle damages or wear that will affect the sound? For the sake of discussion, let's assume that they are less than five years old so we can rule out decaying surrounds and old caps, etc.
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I'm happy for the folks that can spend 2.5x the used price to avoid the risk of used gear. I, on the other hand, have only been able to have a taste of high end audio by buying used. Yeah, I've gotten lemon gear. But overall through the life of the hobby there's no question I have saved over 50% of the new budget by buying mostly used gear. I agree with the advice above that the best protection is getting to know the seller. For any significant purchase, I invest my time in ongoing dialog with the seller. Not only does that "make friends" and make the transaction more pleasant, but you can get a very good sense of the person, their knowledge and treatment of gear, and ultimately build trust with them. I also buy a lot of used gear from Andy at Saturday Audio in Chicago. He stands behind everything and the gear is thoroughly checked out. He's swapped out speakers for me when something was amiss. This is the type of dealer relationship you will also want if you are building an ever-evolving system. One thing I would say is that buying some components from a smoker household may not matter, speakers are big and right in the room and pick up (and release in your house) the smell of smoke worse than most other components. I remember having to wash some ML panels in my shower to make my room livable. Used gear, and navigating and negotiating...that's part of the fun for me! I have met a lot of really nice people, all walks of life, all layers of society. You'd be surprised what gear some guys who make $40K per year actually have! |
@bigtwin if only others would ship items like that. Wow. Most NEW speakers don't arrive in such good packaging. Wish they would. |
@mtbiker29 cats can shred grilles. Friend of mine made chicken wire cages around his ESS speakers back in the 1970s because of that. He spray painted them black so they didn't look all that bad with a stained hexagonal wooden base at the bottom. Even worse are dogs that can piss on the speakers and leave a very bad lingering smell. Same with humans who smoke tobacco. I bought a used laptop computer once that stunk of cigarette smoke for months. I'll not make that same mistake again. |
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