[Silent One]

@ Rawrbington
 
They're getting it! 

 

[Rawrbington]

thats just insane.
a local record store owner had a Marantz 2500 in great condition, but had never been touched.  he was asking 2 grand for it.
I momentarily blacked out and when i came too i was at the bank trying to pull 12 hundred dollar bills out.  was gonna wave in his face and see if he'd go for it  but my better judgement kicked in and i realized that was not in the budget.
 
 
i could see how spending a couple grand on something you really want, that will probably be a long while before it pops up again.  but 10k?
those kinda deals are miles out of my league
 
maybe i should start playing the power ball again.

 

[Oregonian]

Quote:

thats just insane.
a local record store owner had a Marantz 2500 in great condition, but had never been touched.  he was asking 2 grand for it.
I momentarily blacked out and when i came too i was at the bank trying to pull 12 hundred dollar bills out.  was gonna wave in his face and see if he'd go for it  but my better judgement kicked in and i realized that was not in the budget.
 
 
i could see how spending a couple grand on something you really want, that will probably be a long while before it pops up again.  but 10k?
those kinda deals are miles out of my league
 
maybe i should start playing the power ball again.

I think we are all under some kind of Head Fi spell even considering paying the prices they are asking for these old receivers.  I just looked at my local Craigslist and was ssoooooooooooo tempted to call the guy selling a Marantz for $395.  Good price but I DO NOT NEED IT.  My wife would crucify me......................

 

[Argyris]

Oh for the days when this stuff would turn up in Salvation Army or Goodwill for $100 or so. That would have last been the case at least ten years ago by now. As usual, I'm late to the party. By the time I started checking my local thrift shops, people had long since caught on and:
 
a) stopped unloading nice stuff at said thrift shops, and
b) made sure they knew somebody behind the counter so they got first pickings when stuff did pop up
 
That, and the Internet changed everything. With Craigslist and eBay, it became a lot easier to list stuff for sale, and people could look stuff up to see if it was worth anything. Before, tracking this stuff down and putting classifieds in the paper would have involved a lot more effort, and clearly the prevailing attitude was that this old metal and wooden junk was obsolete ("Look! My BPC home theater in a box has six speakers! That's better than two! Plus, they're tiny, so that means they're more advanced-like! And the box says so, and so did the salesman, so it must be true!") and therefore worthless.
 
If I were only ten years older....

 

[Silent One]

With the Sansui G-33000, two things are at work:
 
1. Audiophile/collector interest pushing demand higher.
2. Relatively few were produced.

 

[Skylab]

There is no audiophile rationale to spending $10k for a G-33000 when you can get the 22000 for $2k. Pure collector play, IMHO.

 

[parbaked]

Quote:

With the Sansui G-33000, two things are at work:
 
1. Audiophile/collector interest pushing demand higher.
2. Relatively few were produced.

3. BIGGER is BETTER!!! 

 
...says the man with the 20 wpc Pioneer

 

[moodyrn]

And 10,000 would get you a very nice modern ss or tube amp that's probably better and will last for years to come with no unobtainium parts.

 

[frank2908]

I guess in the beginning only one brand of vintage amp/receiver is sought after,say Mcintosh. Then they it becomes soo expensive ppl switch to Marantz, same thing happens to Pioneer. In a few year ppl cannot afford a good piece of vintage gear anymore .last week i got a Marantz 2226b for $300 but then return it bcos the phono broken,and luckily got a sansui au20000 for just 500 as sansui is not as trendy. My point is: blame the game, not the amp.

 

[frank2908]

I must clarify that Sansui is not (yet) as trendy as Marantz or pioneer here in Vietnam

 

[Silent One]

Quote:

There is no audiophile rationale to spending $10k for a G-33000 when you can get the 22000 for $2k. Pure collector play, IMHO.

 
Absolutely, the amps are largely identical. Being broke on the sideline most of the time, has allowed me to witness collectors watching and studying audiophiles. The phrase "Shooting fish in a barrel" comes to mind... 

 

[ardgedee]

Quote:

Tech Hi-Fi's house brand (or one of them). 1978. 25 wpc, probably made by Nikko (though nobody seems to know for sure). They don't pop up too often, and I have no idea how rare they are. Probably not very, since they go for a song when they do come up for sale. I really like the way it looks, especially the color-changing tuning needle. Soundwise, it might have a bit of a mild U shape but with slightly lifted upper mids--it definitely adds some flavor to the sound.

 
It's probably rare -- but without some spark of interest to get word of mouth out there and build some interest, it will never get collectible and see its prices escalate. There are dozens if not hundreds of integrateds and receivers that fall in this category.
 
Of course, if you refurbish it and praise it to high heavens on all the usual audio boards, I'm sure that would change.
 
Quote:

Oh for the days when this stuff would turn up in Salvation Army or Goodwill for $100 or so.

 
Or picked up for $7 and a plea to get it out of the basement while an estate sale winds down. Or found intact in a recycle bin.
 
I've witness these things happen, um, first hand. So to speak. 

 

[roadcykler]

Quote:

There'a a G22000 for sale in Portland.
 
http://eugene.craigslist.org/ele/3730433456.html
 
I'm not looking to buy at that price but it is interesting to see these monsters come up!

I'm not positive but I think he's previously had that for sale. I can't imagine there's a big market for a vintage amp at those prices. But since he says he's in no hurry to sell it, he can wait for the right buyer to run across it.

 

[99-1]

Quote:

I thought I was back just in time this afternoon to make preparations for the Men's title game: Louisville & Michigan. Instead 

 there's a MAJOR fight underway brewing inside the listening room. A bit of background first. In the past year, I had been saving up furiously for a Black WooAudio WA5. I reached my savings goal on 31 March. And this past week, Jack and I have been in talks over how I wanted this new amp "spec'd" out.
 
Well, today I had an appointment out of town and on my way there I tripped over some vintage iron. Bought it Johnny-on-the-spot; now home 

 with it. BUT, I had to use my tube amp money for the solid-state purchase...

, say what?! My thinking is that "Extremely rare" justifies things a bit.
 
I'm going to name my new amp "Baby sinister!" 

 

 
 
Baby needs a bubble bath, no question. Gonna put it in the shop to get it dolled-up & checked up. This pix does not do the amp justice - this amp is really BIG.

 
wow!!!! i cold not imagine it in my dreams!!!
love "Baby sinister!"
please give some more pic  back and front

 

[TekeRugburn]

Quote:

I thought I was back just in time this afternoon to make preparations for the Men's title game: Louisville & Michigan. Instead 

 there's a MAJOR fight underway brewing inside the listening room. A bit of background first. In the past year, I had been saving up furiously for a Black WooAudio WA5. I reached my savings goal on 31 March. And this past week, Jack and I have been in talks over how I wanted this new amp "spec'd" out.
 
Well, today I had an appointment out of town and on my way there I tripped over some vintage iron. Bought it Johnny-on-the-spot; now home 

 with it. BUT, I had to use my tube amp money for the solid-state purchase...

, say what?! My thinking is that "Extremely rare" justifies things a bit.
 
I'm going to name my new amp "Baby sinister!" 

 

 
 
Baby needs a bubble bath, no question. Gonna put it in the shop to get it dolled-up & checked up. This pix does not do the amp justice - this amp is really BIG.

 
OMG.... that is a thing of beauty my friend.  I haven't even seen one in real life yet.  Gotta love those random lifetime deals.  Reminds me of how I got my SX1980.
 
Before I went to off to med school, my mom invited a fellow doc she works with and his family.  Which of course meant his wife and brat of son.  We were the same age and I always despised the guy.... had a real sense of entitlement.  Always been a pretty frugal guy, thats how my mom raised me, and he always gave me crap about buying things used or second hand.  Well we were in my old room and i was searching on CL and saw an ad about a "broken yamaha receiver" for $25.  It didn't have a picture, specs or model number in the ad.  Text the guy and he said that the cord got chopped off during the move from Dallas to Oklahoma and he just got it last year.  He was just down the road a bit so I went there (with the brat since he wanted to come) and saw it a decently specded receiver that had hdmi pass through and all that.  So I asked him, "anything else wrong with it"?  He said, "no, not that i know of".  Figured I'd take the chance for $25 bucks for a pretty damn good receiver.   Just when I was about to hand him the money he said, "you want some speakers too? Just bought a new receiver/speaker. blu-ray player bundle combo.  Never used CL before and I don't want to post another ad for them.  I said what kind and how much?  Don't really know the brand, my brother pieced this set together but add another $25 and they're yours". Low and behold, they're some athena WS series speakers a ws60 and 4 ws15's.  Couldn't believe my luck as I had WS100's from when comp usa closed out.  Handed him 50 and was on my merry way.  Got home, went to the attic, chopped off a plug from some old lamp....soldered it on and it powered right up.  Needless to say the guy was envious about the receiver and speakers saying "I only have this POS old pioneer my uncle gave me; it doesn't even do surround sound!".  Interested but didn't want to sound like I was I slip in, "can't be that bad; how old is it?"  Replies"dunno, but its silver and has WOOD!  Really Wood? ".  This is when my interest peaked....told him that since I just got this receiver i'd trade him my older yamaha receiver for his pos one.  He jumped on the chance; borrowed his dad's car and we left for his house with my old receiver in tow.  Go to his room and in the corner, on the floor with his ps3 on it and   dried red goo next to a fallen over cup layed a sx1980.  Had a face like 

 but my insides were like 

  Handed him the old receiver.... helped me move the thing as it's heavy as crap!!!!!  There were some scratches on top and side and the red goo came pretty close to the topside vents all the while hoping nothing spilled inside.  As soon as they left I inspected the thing, cleaned it up the best I could.  Opened her up... used a little deoxit, plugged her in and it powered on to its glory.  Mostly worked as far as I could tell some noise and scratches could be heard and a couple bulbs were out.  Brought it to my electronics repair guy; he nearly fell over when I brought it to him....  he replaced a few a things and put in LED's.   That was my 2nd best CL deal ever.... Oh how I miss the thing; its in safe keeping back at home while im stuck in NY.  Nothing like good ole SS raw power.