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How can anyone afford this ?

I consider myself a dedicated audiophile. I am 36(which I am guessing is a little younger than the average here) and single. I have been interested in high-end audio since I saw my uncle's Mcintosh and Threshold equipment for the first time when I was 5.
Since joining the workforce and saving a little I have always been trying to put together a nice system on a budget. I do OK financially(I am a systems engineer) but I do live in NYC which may put some of this into perspective.
Over the last 6 months I have struggled to buy(all used on Agon) a pair of Dynaudio Audience 42s and a Threshold CAS2 amp, Chang CLS3200, and cables(I haven't gone out[I don't have a girfriend], purchased anything else and really haven't eaten too much to be able to afford these and it is still a real stretch). I am using the amp with a direct connection from my CD/DVD player(Cambridge Audo Azur 540D...slightly modified[op amps, PS caps, bypass caps] that I have had for almost 10 years). A fellow has a Threshold FET2 series II(to match with the CAS2) he is holding for me but that seems like a pipe dream at this point along with a turntable.
A few years ago the analogue bug hit me.
I had a setup consisting of an Audio Analogue Settanta integrated and a Nottingham Horizon SE turntable with a Rega RB300 tonearm with the Incognto rewire and structural mod. This was not an expensive kit by any stretch but for me it almost put me in the poor house. I had to sell the entire rig to pay my bills and it hurt.
It seems over the last 10 years or so I have not been able to keep a kit for more than 6 months before I had to sell it. Whenever I don't have a rig I am constantly scanning the online Ads lusting for the next bargain to set up a system and cannot even listen to music on a mass market rig(I have been spoiled).
Anyway, I guess my question is how can anyone normal afford this hobby? What type of money do you have to be making to be able to enjoy this hobby.....$100,000/year? $500,000/year? Do you need to be worth millions? $5,000 barely gets you in the door(some interconnects cost more) and you could possibly spend millions. I am not looking to put together a $10,000 system(not even close...and that is modest in this hobby) but if I wanted to I don't see it ever being financially possible. If I had a girlfriend or a family(hopefully someday) I would not event be able to think about this hobby with a good conscience. I guess I am wondering if all these people in this hobby are millionaires? I am close to selling my rig again to pay the bills(the amp needed repair/recap and that was $450). Any advice for an audiophile who lusts to put together a nice rig but can't afford it? Should I get out and save for 5 or 10 years and then try again? Maybe I am in the wrong hobby but it is more addicting that crack to me(and more expensive). Maybe I should be a crackhead instead...that might be the only thing to make me forget about it. Thoughts?
adamd1205
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
Well I was talking about trickle-down *technology*, not economic policy. Marantz's first customer was a near Eastern sheik; hardly anyone else could afford hand-built cost-no-object high end components. Sequerra's Model 1 Tuner was $2500 in 1975 (almost $10K in today's money for an FM tuner!). Within a year Kenwood had one based on the same principle for $599. In the '40s the IBM CEO famously said that there might be 7 customers worldwide for a computer. At $7M per ($76M in today's money), he was probably right, but today we can get computers for $499 that far surpass the performance of the old ones.

By the same token, you can get a wider bandwidth, more linear, more transparent system today that will run circles around most systems from the '70s (including musical satisfaction) for far less (adjusted for inflation).
geoch's avatar
geoch
354 posts
 
This logic does not work on hi-fi 'cause the customers were morons & so their demands are more about cosmetics than sound.
Another reason is the inability to measure the audio quality & to define standards as a target to surpass, so the progression remains always in doubt.
The consummers of the computer scene are practically oriented people, unlike the passionate & confused audio consummers that more often are fighting with their ego & complex syndroms of disorder personality.
This field is the paradise of the corrrupted.
hotmailjbc
571 posts
 
man people here really like to dish it out but sure can,t take any opinions other than "believe what i believe" or "buy what i buy" blah blah blah. typical a retentive audiophiles compensating for their shortcomings. trying elavating your consciouness instead of this total absorbtion with entertainment.......oh,, and the constant patronizing is just too much
raquel
841 posts
 
I lived in a pre-war building with concrete walls - no one ever complained in my building, but someone in the next building over once felt compelled to chuck pennies at my window until she got my attention ("I really like Neil Young, too, but I can't hear my T.V.").

The socialist versus the Fox News type: there should be an island for you ...
jazzgene
145 posts
 
I see some are bashing NYC. I have to say, for me, it worked out great. And I love the city.

I find NYC to have a great financial advantage in hifi. If you manange to settle in NYC, you will likely have a higher income than pretty much anywhere else within the same job. A hot dog vendor at Central Park on average makes $150,000.00 anually which is not much money here in NYC. However, a 3k cartridge is 3k for a NYC guy or a guy in Denton, Texas.
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