[estreeter]

Quote:

 
Welcome to the club! New people on headfi are often greeted with the phrase "sorry about your wallet". I think in this thread we can greet new people with "your wallet thanks you". I know restored units and the cost of restoring can cost a bit. But the performance per dollar with still way cheaper than you would have to spend on a headphone amp of the same caliber.

 
I object, your Honour ! 
 
Like many things in this hobby, its not about individual purchases. No argument that headphone rigs, in general, are much better bang-for-buck than speaker rigs. and used/vintage kit is cheaper than new, but that only holds true if you can resist the urge to BUY 15 OF EVERYTHING !!!!  Forgive me if I bang on about this, but its the reason I started the 'Unicorns' thread in 'High-End' - as a group, we are deluded, IMO. 
 
I'm not denying that there aren't folk out there with the discipline to make your 'bang-for-buck' proposition work, but ten minutes on Audiokarma and it rapidly becomes apparent that vintage gear is a serious addiction. In Obo's case, I suspect that he is already hopelessly addicted to audio, but I dont think his wallet will thank him in the longer term. Its only money, and it beats dragging old cars home, but lets be honest about what we are doing here - rabid consumerism mixed with a tiny bit of recycling.  

 

[moodyrn]

Yes it can lead to going overboard when you look at that type of sound you can have for the amount of money spent. But this is headfi and not AK. I "don't think" we will ever be as serious as some of those over there(could be proven to be wrong one day). I see many not only own a few, but some owns 20-30 vintage amp/receivers and many pairs of vintage speakers as well. But one thing I will say, I'm able to have a separate amp for each headphone I have, and all of them sounds excellent. No way could I afford to do that with modern gear....well I could, but if I wanted the same quality of sound I wouldn't. And that alone is more than enough to quench my thirst of vintage gear. And most importantly, if I wanted something else, I wouldn't have to sell nothing to be able to afford it. I would just wait until I score a deal on a mint totl for 100-200.00. Like I did with a kenwood kr9600(total investment 135.00) or pioneer sx-1010(total investment 165.00). The only time I sell my gear is when I run out of space.
 
But of course I can't speak for everyone. The only hard thing for me is not jumping on a decent deal and holding out for that killer deal. I know others just go for they want and end up spending significantly more than I would, but even then, the performance they are getting still far exceeds the price they are paying. Just ask Skylab. He's spent well over four figures on all of his vintage gear, but ask him how much more he would have paid to get the same performance from modern gear. No matter how you slice it, you are still saving you wallet a ton if you want to get great sound.

 

[Skylab]

Absolutely no doubt - in spite of my having spent much more than petty cash on my vintage gear, modern equivalents in terms of build and sound quality would have cost MUCH, much more.  Not to mention that I decided to do a full set of vintage sources, too (TT, Reel, Cassette) - someone just wanting to connect an existing DAC to a nice vintage amp/receiver to play existing headphones or speakers, or both, can save a BUNDLE.
 
There are plenty of people here on HF with $2-4K headphone amps. I bought one of the most expensive vintage pieces you can get, a fully restored Pioneer SX-1980, and for that same $2K, the SX-1980 is a great headphone amp, PLUS 270 wpc for speakers, PLUS a phenomenal phono preamp with adjustable loading, PLUS a terrific FM tuner...

 

[Silent One]

 Value. This sums up my arrival here. I kind of liken it to my being at a Salon (Head-Fi). And there's many members about - some merely exchanging pleasantries, others exchanging experiences while others yet in observation mode only.
 
And as I move about the different groups and conversations (threads), I over hear some very interesting things being discussed in the corner. As I approach, I hear wild and wonderful phrases like "Monster receiver" and "150 wpc" or "Only $200 

!" So, I approach and politely introduce myself... 

 

[estreeter]

Quote:

 
There are plenty of people here on HF with $2-4K headphone amps. 

 
Full disclosure, Rob - weren't you one of the core group who owned several of those 2-4K headphone amps ?  

 
I appreciate that you were able to sell those and invest in vintage gear - and more power to you - but it also costs money to have old kit refurbished. No question that every thousand spent on vintage gear could be equated to several thousand in modern gear, but I stand by what I said about Head-Fiers owning '15 of everything'. I get that - I'm already wading through pages of vintage receivers looking for one that will look good with the PM7001 KI - but I still have a problem with the notion that we are 'saving money'.  I could argue that someone who went out and spent 30k on a single Meridian system 5 years ago, and hasn't spent another cent on audio, is actually the big winner over time.  

 

[.Sup]

Hey guys sorry to bother you but is the SA-508 worth being bought for HE-500 or should I look for a higher model? I am going to arrange a meeting with the guy but I wouldn't want to drive so far if HE-500 deserve something better.

 

[Skylab]

Yeah, I did own some expensive headphone amps, and honestly, I have not missed them one bit
 
I agree that we likely are not "saving money", in absolutely terms, but I do think we are getting MORE for our money, in vintage audio.
 
Since this is head-fi, I will add that vintage headphones almost universally suck (at least if we are talking stuff from the 70's or earlier) - so not ALL vintage = a good idea...

 

[Silent One]

 I did sneak in the word value...

 

[Skylab]

Indeed,and you nailed it.

 

[musicman59]

I just listened yesterday to a pair of Vintage JBL 4344 Studio Monitors that were 100% factory refurbished. First of all those things are a monster (huge) and beautiful. They were powered by a pair of McIntosh 601 monoblocks with all McIntosh equipment behind them.
They still need some hours of burn-in but the imaging of those speakers is the best I have ever listened to (and I have listen to many impressive systems) and the midrange was sooo sweet! I just can imagine how they are going to sound after 400 hours or so.
 
They are similar to these ones:

 

[Skylab]

I bet those are absolutely awesome. JBL was the real deal back in those days, for sure.

 

[Silent One]

Quote:

I just listened yesterday to a pair of Vintage JBL 4344 Studio Monitors that were 100% factory refurbished. First of all those things are a monster (huge) and beautiful. They were powered by a pair of McIntosh 601 monoblocks with all McIntosh equipment behind them.
They still need some hours of burn-in but the imaging of those speakers is the best I have ever listened to (and I have listen to many impressive systems) and the midrange was sooo sweet! I just can imagine how they are going to sound after 400 hours or so.
 
They are similar to these ones:

 
 

 Forget "Vibrate mode" I'd shut the Mobile completely OFF and sit back fully immersed!

 

[scompton]

My wife would never let them in the house.

  I saw some Kenwood towers at a thrift store two weeks ago and looked them up from my iPhone.  They had phenomenal reviews but my wife wouldn't had let me walk out the thrift store with them.  They were 4.5 feet tall.

 

[ardgedee]

Quote:

Yeah, I did own some expensive headphone amps, and honestly, I have not missed them one bit
 
I agree that we likely are not "saving money", in absolutely terms, but I do think we are getting MORE for our money, in vintage audio.
 
Since this is head-fi, I will add that vintage headphones almost universally suck (at least if we are talking stuff from the 70's or earlier) - so not ALL vintage = a good idea...

 
Well, I think we're here because we enjoy the variety, and enjoy in comparing and experimenting. To that end, I don't think any of us could really appreciate vintage gear if we hadn't first gone through a round of buying and using good contemporary gear, to discover how well the old stuff fares in comparison.
 
And that can cost a good wad of scratch.
 
Hey, don't put down all vintage headphones -- there aren't really any that are as technically accomplished as the best of recent decades, but there are a few idiosyncratic cans that are pleasing to listen to in their own right and have historical interest as technological precedents for the headphones we enjoy today.

 

[estreeter]

I'd like to hear some vintage Grados. and perhaps a couple of the long-running Beyer models, but I have to wonder what the lifespan of headphone drivers is ..... particularly in environments that were a long way from the smoke-free, pet-free and child-free nirvana I personally insist on.