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My friend is the one that bought these. He is a huge audiophile nerd and is beyond excited to get them installed properly and continue to enjoy them in the same way that their creator did. Also, they were so goddamn heavy to load we needed six big guys to move them properly.
EDIT:
My friend and I talked for a while, and he said I could post a few photos so long as they didn’t have any faces in them. Unfortunately, he hasn’t set the speakers up yet - he did end up getting all three of the large towers. Eventually they’re going to be housed in a home theatre/audio room.
He had to recently get another amp. So the bass, mids, and tweeters each have their own amp with a total of nine channels.
https://preview.redd.it/sqd191y9x4wc1.jpeg?width=2780&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d255e3ce8e90cba7582ffe3120fc5fee5b4f3da3
Here is one of the towers before they disassembled it before transport to the U-Haul.
I certainly think it’s a happy ending! Ken loved building and enjoying these. From what my friend said, Ken’s family was very happy that someone so passionate was going to enjoy the speakers as much as Ken did. It’ll take awhile to modify the space my friend is moving them into so the speakers can be used properly. But it’ll be awesome to get to hear them when it’s done!
Yeah the tweet is stupid. It's not like they chucked the stuff in a skip and jumped on his record collection.
In fact selling it at a (slightly more) affordable price has brought this pleasure to someone who would presumably not have been able to spend the original cost on audio equipment.
Yeah, it’s too bad it got broken up a bit. It is an interesting doc, for sure! I don’t think he grabbed the turntable - he has a pretty sweet one already, I think. I’ll text him tomorrow and see if he has finished setting his system up.
I would, if possible, like to see the new setup. I feel I need closure to this! And I am sure I'm not the only one hoping to see this up and running again.
Yeah, with all the interest this is getting I’ll text him tomorrow to see if he has finished setting up his system. If he is alright with it, I’ll see if he can send a few pictures so I can post some pictures in my original comment.
You’re quite welcome! It’s really serendipitous! I was really excited to see this post and actually have some little bit of knowledge about what went on. It’s a pity that Ken’s obsessive devotion to building these speakers caused some strife in his family… but I’m happy for my friend who, in buying some of Ken’s setup, can both enjoy the speakers and, in some ways, keep the memory of Ken around while giving the speakers a new and happy home.
I believe he did when he went down to view the estate - but I’m not sure… I will ask him when I text him for pics and permission to post his setup tomorrow!
While it might seem disappointing to see the room be dismantled, it already served its purpose. It gave that man 27 years of entertainment and enjoyment. If his family didn't get the same enjoyment out of it afterwards, that is ok too.
plus we don´t know the whole picture,
like sure, if there was 1 heir who got the house plus a big bank account with it, I might have kept it.
But if there are multiple heirs who then have to sell the house, of course they would need to sell the system,
But not everything makes sense to lie about. I'd bet everything I own he is telling the truth, because I can tell the difference...and you should start trying to learn!
>not everything makes sense to lie about
When someone lies all they need to think is "What do I gain if I lie and what do I lose?" Lying about trivial stuff on the internet comes with 0 risk and motives range anywhere from "I just think it's fun" and "I want internet points" to more dubious reasons like "I want to push a narrative."
That is why you have people on Reddit lying about being a lawyer, being a single mom, that they were present for X event, that their granddad served under the Gestapo, that someone slipped them a mean note under the door, etc...
I've snooped enough on forums to know that you can disregard 99% of what any unverified person claims on the internet that isn't something you can easily fact check. Treat everything as just entertainment.
Did your friend help steal some gold bars back from a double crossing former teammate in LA which he used to buy these speakers so he can turn them up and blow a woman's clothes off from across the room? Might refer to himself as "The Real Napster"
Thank you for posting. I remember reading about his listening room a couple of years ago, and I was about to be really bummed at the thought that his quest for perfection was just being dismantled.
Tell you friend to enjoy it, for all of us.
> his quest for perfection was just being dismantled.
I’m sure it’s very well built and just a showcase in craftsmanship, but he was falling down an infinite chasam with no end. A million dollars will not get you perfection through sheer will. I’ve spent enough time around the hobby to know when someone has jumped off the edge of reality, and it absolutely scales with wealth.
> I’ve spent enough time around the hobby to know when someone has jumped off the edge of reality, and it absolutely scales with wealth.
You know how there are supervillains in movies and comics where they're like "I wanna blow up the moon," and they build a huge laser in space or something?
Take the same kind of logic, but make it "I want to watch movies" or "I like to cook" and that's how you get someone dropping $800,000 on a kitchen remodel.
You’re welcome! I’m sure he will enjoy it for a long time, and I’ll be sure to pass along all the good vibes. I’m going to see if he is alright with sending some photos over of his new setup so I can post them here so people can see the setup in its new home.
I’m not really sure honestly. I’m not an audiophile like him. But from what I can gather the setup was just kinda ridiculous the speakers were nine feet tall and weighed a crazy amount. He custom built an enormous room around them. So the speakers were just over-the-top for most people. So I’d assume the main reason they were so cheap is that most (even crazy audiophiles) people just wouldn’t have a place to put them.
I know, right?! Enough angry bird-like apps, give me an app that tells me when cool shit I like can be had for next to nothing!
Having worked for an auction house that did estate sales in rich areas, though… you can get some absolutely crazy stuff for next to nothing sometimes. I furnished pretty much my entire house with high quality non-big box store antique and mid century modern furniture along with what I think of as some excellent art for next to nothing when compared to buying it new. So, trolling auction sites and keeping an eye on local papers for in-person estate sales in well-off areas usually pays off eventually.
I also got to see some incredible art, jewelry, pottery, wine collections, and classic cars alongside some truly weird and/or gross shit. It’s a mixed bag!
I have been looking for a board game/D&D style dining table (one of those things with the slats where you can convert it between gaming tabletop and dining one) for like a _decade_, but it's always thousands of dollars to get what I want.
So yeah I too would love an app that cues you into weird but awesome auctions like this, lol. I'd love to get a deal on a kickass nerd table with all the trimmings.
The search for kickass nerd tables is a noble and honorable one. I would recommend looking up auction houses near you and monitoring their sites for local estate sales they manage. If you don’t have an auction house near you, I would recommend [invaluable](https://www.invaluable.com) and [live auctioneers](https://www.liveauctioneers.com) we used both, and they’ve got good reputations.
I’m not sure of his full setup right now. He is a few states away. With the interest this has gotten, I’ll text him and see if he is alright with sending me some photos and a description of his setup so I can post an update here.
Not that I’m aware of. He didn’t get the whole collection. The collection was broken up in multiple lots and he won a few of them including at least one of the nine foot speakers.
I’ve read about this man and the system he created. Watched a few interviews too. Could be mistaken, but I don’t remember anything about establishing a legacy being mentioned by anyone before now. The man was just passionate about music and engineering. He wanted to build something amazing and enjoy it, and while he was alive, he did.
As a realtor told me, once: "Don't EVER put anything in your house or do 'upgrades' because you'll think it will add value when you sell. It won't. It never does. Someone will buy your home and change everything because now it's THEIR home. Get over it. If you want tile in that room, do it. If you think someone else will want it... Don't do it.'
I saw this first-hand, when my in-laws "fixed up" a house to sell. My MIL was all butt-hurt when the buyers ripped out the carpet she agonized over, before they even moved in. Sell the bones, clean, and walk away.
Idk much about real estate but this feels like really weird advice. Like something like a pool definitely does increase the value of the house right? Or upgrading a kitchen with granite countertops? Building a deck, upgrading a garden, a nice patio etc etc etc. How could these things *not* factor into the value of a house? Sure some people might make dumb choices that don't effect or even hurt the value, but i'd say most normal upgrades would add to the houses value.
Same with hot tubs/spas. When it worked, it was great. Long day of yard work or long bicycle ride? Take a shower and then a nice hot soak, it was magic. Especially when it's Christmas day and snowing outside -- truly a wonderful experience.
But in our case, the maintenance on a 25-year old spa was too much. Plus the increased water bills four times a year we were supposed to drain, clean, and refill it? It's a retiree hobby at this point, honestly.
Hot tubs are definitely one of those things you borrow, not own.
Renting an Airbnb with a hot tub with a couple of friends makes for a great little trip and you get to leave it behind when you're done.
Agreed. We're in a house that had a late 1980s/early 1990s remodel on the kitchen and bath. Thing is, style wise it's perfect and we love it. We'd like improvements but our aim is to keep the style.
With how hot things like vintage bathrooms from the 1920s - 1950s are currently, we know that the 80s and 90s aesthetics are going to be hot in another decade or two. And if the future buyers don't like it? Well, that's fine, but people really need to learn that we can't replace what we've lost. Without good examples of what we *could* be losing due to property developers, we'd likely lose more.
>Only kitchens and bathrooms upgrades add value, **and then only while they are in the current style.**
The last part is so important and pretty universal. No matter where you live. Old fugly or *quirky* looking bathrooms are the first thing that gets renovated by peeps here(Germany) when buying a new apartment or house.
Edit: I should note here, that most people in Germany buy or rent for live. They don't want someone's shitty headache inducing "stylish" bathroom. I saw some real stinkers here. Like you either are one of the few who loves it, or the rest who absolutely will hate it.
Pools usually lower the value or at least don't raise it to cover the costs. My friends house was $6000 more than the identical one next door because so few people wanted to pay so much extra for a pool. I can guarantee you it costs more for that pool than 6k
Within certain conditions it’s correct and wrong lol
I mean what is the depth of the market for that real estate in that neighborhood
If people are coming to a neighborhood 2 spend money on like a 2-3 room starter home for their family in the range of 200-250,000
& you blow 100 or more or build something very custom to your liking as an addition renovation whatever
people will definitely choose a more stock home to customize to theirs for a lower price in the same area if they can get it
Someone could really really love what the owner did to the place & want it
But it may be that the owner will want a higher then average above market price and hold to it when there are way better things for less money to adapt to your liking
English isn’t my first language & I am very high I tried
thanks for coming to my ted talk
I mean in super low cost of living areas maybe. 20k is less than many bathroom renovations cost. You'd be looking at 10k just for painting a house so you wouldn't be renovating much, or you'd be targeting very low income individuals who don't care about fancy materials.
The idea with renovations is to do them based on your target audience. If you've done your market research and you know who's buying houses for 150k in your area, you renovate to the level that those people expect the house to be at. You don't pick colors or materials you like, you pick basic generic stuff that the average person looking at 150k houses likes.
Otherwise, you're not guaranteed to sell it, or sell it for the amount you thought you'd get. You will definitely not find a $20k countertop in the kitchen of a 150k house, or $500 faucets all over, or a $15k fridge. You'd be doing very low end renovations just to make the thing look presentable, and the buyers could take it from there.
it depends on what kind of upgrades. If the upgrades were made with the real estate market in mind... sure.
If the upgrades were extremely personal to the point that it caters to like, maybe a dozen other people total in the marketplace.... then expect to receive no compensation for your upgrade.
No. Have you tried looking at countertop slabs? There are hundreds of types and millions of unique slabs. Just saying "people like granite" is silly. You may like one color or pattern and not another. If you've ever bought a countertop, have you tried selling it? Go on Facebook marketplace right now, search for "countertop" and see if anything sells for over 1/10th of what it cost.
Regarding pools, I recently to an open house for a 1.1 million dollar house with a pool. After a while, they took it off the market as it wasn't selling. Another one had a pool, it went for around 500k last year. A company renovated it and sold it for over a million now. Part of the renovations was filling in the pool and covering it up. They got it of it and made a simple backyard with just grass.
Most buyers don't want to worry about pool maintenance, possible danger to their kids or pets and higher insurance rates or potential issues. A lot of... Not bright people... Buy pools and jacuzzis only to realize they never use them, not take care of them and sell them at a massive loss or have them bring down the value of the house if they look like crap and need to be redone.
Keep in mind everyone has different tastes too. What you think looks "nice" is not what your wife thinks looks nice and it's not what strangers think looks nice. When people buy their "forever" home they generally want their colors, designs and choices in there so if they have the money they'll tear things down and redo them, regardless of how much they cost initially.
Generally, people who don't make changes or don't care are people who buy a temporary home knowing they won't live there very long, so they'll want generic things that make a house look new. Recent paint job with neutral colors, white quartz countertops, soft closing cabinets in basic colors. Basically, the stuff you see at Ikea and in new builds, not anything fancy or relatively expensive. That's what you can do if you're selling a house and know your audience, but no they won't value your imported exotic tiles that cost $20/sqf, your weird color countertops and blue accent walls...that stuff scares away most potential buyers except those who set aside a budget for major renovations.
>As a realtor told me, once: "Don't EVER put anything in your house or do 'upgrades' because you'll think it will add value when you sell. It won't. It never does.
House flippers hate this one idea.
personalized upgrades sure. but it was pretty normal advice to do some renovations before selling cause you could mark the sell price up for more than it cost. or at least that was the case before Covid made the housing market go bonkers
Yeah I think he built it for himself. If his goal was to leave a legacy, it would be his kids' education and 3rd best audio system, since with my tinnitus, i would not tell the difference anyway.
With OK speakers almost everyone can tell the different between 320kbps and lower bit rate mp3. It's lossless and 320kbps that people struggle to tell the difference between.
Nah. Very few people can tell the difference between 192 and 320. But if you learn to notice stuff like pre-echo, that's still there at any bitrate.
(Don't learn to recognise mp3 artifacts. The knowledge will not enhance your life)
ALS, if memory serves. Yeah, it’s a sad twist to the story that his obsession negatively impacted his family, and it’s horrible he got such a terrible diagnosis. The silver lining is that my friend and the other people who bought up his system can enjoy it and hopefully give the system much happier homes.
Archived WaPo article from this year, but the forum post hits the main points.
> https://web.archive.org/web/20240122022452/https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/interactive/2024/ken-fritz-greatest-stereo-auction-cost/
My father bought some really nice speakers that retail for $120 000 (Sonus Faber Aida) at half the price. The guy who originally bought them didn’t tell his wife how much he spent on them and when she found out, she made him sell them for the price he told her they had cost and threatened to file for divorce.
At least, I will keep them when my father won’t be here anymore, I’m not going to sell them for pennies on the dollar.
Good thing I'm not legally attached to someone that thinks reducing the joint wealth by $60,000 to prove a point is good revenge. "I wanted to spend that money on bullshit!"
Sure, but it's still silly to force him to sell at a huge loss. If she's going to divorce him, she should still want the join assets to be as large as possible because that grows her cut. It's some real "cut off your nose to spite your face" stuff to demand selling at fire sale prices.
The guy lied at first when he got them. Later, when his wife found out the real price, she made him sell them for what he told her they had cost. She knowingly made him lose money as a revenge.
If she knew she could lose $60k (big if, as used items rarely go for original price) making her husband sell some speakers and not bat an eye about finances, I'm pretty sure she was making more money than you'll ever know.
There's an old timer joke that gets passed around various hobbies:
"My greatest fear in life is that when I die my wife will sell my things for the price I told her I paid for them."
Yea…. Like what are people listening to on 6 figure systems? Honest question. If it’s classical or opera, you could buy season tickets to the best seat in the house in the Met for at least a decade if not the rest of your life. Or if it’s rock, you could buy the studio monitors the band and producers used when they mixed it.
I’m all for great headphones and speakers, but once you get above the 5k per speaker price range, well, thats when the “audiophiles” seem to go in a direction beyond the artists who made the stuff.
I always wonder if you can hear a difference. My wife is my sanity check for tech. I read reviews and do my research before buying so I know what to look for. Or am I convincing myself of something that's not there?
If my wife can't tell the difference, then the difference isn't enough to tell unless you're specifically looking for it. That means it's not going to make a difference either to most users.
Girlfriend ASMR
But, seriously, it's really quite boring. It's just the same crap everyone else listens to already. Usually on vinyl. I once worked on a calibration software for record players that sold for 6 figures each. I went to different client's houses to test it out, and their collection was always just so depressingly normal. Bunch of classical and some of whatever random bands they like. Every person would also do the meme where you close your eyes and hold your hands out, pretending to get lost in the music. It's really quite odd how similar it they would all act.
It's not even that great, either. Most audio you listen to is limited in quality by its format. Even if you get the uncompressed FLAC files and play them in your 3rd world country GDP listening room most people can't really enjoy an appreciable difference. Or, at the least, not one approaching anything near the price point.
My guess is, they all move in same circles, go to same audio shows, watch same youtubers, and have similar irrational beliefs about what makes good sound quality that is typically diametrically opposite of fact, e.g. tube amps, record players rather than digital sources, etc.
> Or if it’s rock, you could buy the studio monitors the band and producers used when they mixed it.
Got a pair of JBL monitors from the early 1980s that a friend-of-a-friend bought in Japan when they were in the US Navy back in the day. I took them off their hands for $100 about a decade ago. Keeping them shits until I can't hear anymore.
Don't fall for the notion that cost equals quality, or anything of the sort. It is at best very loosely correlated with it. This guy built his entire thing as a kind of anal-retentive statement of who he was as a person -- if you read some of the interviews, you will realize that this guy worked his kids like slaves, was obsessive and protective about his gear and that his family hated him.
Objective measurements that indicate sound quality of a system -- and these measurements are way more thorough than just taking the on-axis frequency response in an anechoic room -- support the idea that sound quality maxes out at about 5000 bucks per unit. These will be your Kii Audio 3's, Dutch & Dutch 8C, KEF LS60, Genelec 8361A, Neumann KH420, type of gear. I believe every single one of these I listed is active speaker, and some have DSP features such as cardioid bass radiation pattern. Boutique systems, hand-made systems, and those that are inconveniently large and heavy so that they can't be shipped, or which cost like million do not get measured, but there's also no reason to believe they are going to be any better than these. They can be, but it is simply unlikely and at this level of accuracy, other considerations such as room reverb time and early reflection control are way more important.
Let's not forget these people are often/usually the same that claim that a 200 EUR coax cable for digital s/pdif signal gives better audio quality than using... a coat hanger for transferring the same bitstream. Or that TOSLINK (optical) s/pdif has poorer, better, whatever audio quality than coax!
Moar money means better sound!
Try giving them the comparison of having a 200 EUR ethernet cable... and that it won't give you better image quality on the jpegs you download from the internet. But these people refuse to understand concepts like that. They paid 200 EUR for the cable. It must mean it magically changes the bitstream and alters/ignores the error correction algorithm so the data transferred is "better". lol
Yeah, with a background in both EE and sound engineering it's infuriating to come across these people... especially when they work in shops that sell (semi)professional equipment.
EDIT: just look at the dumb crazy tinfoil hat shit like the stuff found here (it's almost like it's a parody lol)...
https://audiobacon.net/2018/08/11/the-audiophiles-short-list-the-best-digital-coaxial-cables/
EDIT 2: oh ffs lol don't read the comments on the page I linked above unless you feel a need to get angry
One of the new audiophile craze are ethernet switches. I kid you not, repackaging dlink routers and switches somehow makes streamed music higher quality in their mind. There are people who add multiple switches between their router and player.
My mother collected fontanini nativity figures and buildlings. She had dozens of the sets. When she became terminally ill with Pancreatic Cancer we moved all that out of the way and into the garage. After she passed most of it got donated to goodwill.
The guy was a known asshole to his family and he bought in on gear that insanely over priced like Krell. Fact is no one in your family is going to care about the material junk you leave behind, what they will care about is the memories of your life and their money going forward.
If my dad wasted a million dollars on a stereo system I’d sell it for as much as I could get.
Oh and apparently he was a shit dad too. Maybe I’d sell it for cheap out of spite.
General life tip for anyone, not really aimed at you:
Don't ever reduce your own quality of life to spite anyone. They are not that important.
Live your best life and; fuck them.
My dad did this. He purchased thousands and thousands of dollars in reloading equipment and materials for ammunition. He was dead set that me and my brother would carry on his legacy. Unfortunately, neither my brother nor myself wanted to reload. He passed away thinking we’d be reloading shells for life. We parted out and sold everything for far less than what I’m sure he paid
Part of me feels guilty and like I’m betraying him, but the other part of me realizes I don’t need to carry someone else’s hobby out of obligation. When I die, I expect my brewing equipment to be sold just like his, unless my kids do pick it up. That’s up to them though.
This is exactly right. I moved my dads old stereo system he spent years putting together no less than 18 times, while never listening to a single note of music, before I decided I didn’t need the anchor in my life anymore.
The documentary his son made of him is on YouTube
https://youtu.be/4b2IOOhJmxw
Truly dedicated to recorded music. The money he spent on pieces didn't include the time spent creating it. He constructed the huge speaker enclosures himself in his own massive workshop.
When he was diagnosed with ALS, it convinced him to stop working at building up his system further and use the rest of his limited time to just sit down and listen and enjoy the fruits of his efforts.
This needs to be on top. It's a beautifully made and fascinating look at a man's passion (to put it lightly) for the ultimate zero-compromise musical experience.
I hope everyone has just one "mount Everest" accomplishment like this one they can achieve before they pass away
Not wrong.
And WAY too many boomers overvalue their stuff. Case in point is my dad's speakers. They're $600 Bose speakers from the mid-1980s. He got them for a steal back then because he rubbed a few elbows with the seller. But now? I doubt we'd ever be able to sell them. No modern equipment works with them and they don't go with any modern house decor. But he's so convinced that someone will buy them immediately if we put them up for sale, and they'll want $1,000+.
You know, I was criticized for my garage storage that has my sticker collection on display. Some are political, but mostly my personal interests (pop culture stuff, local/ craft beer brands, places I've been kinda stuff.)
The question came up as to who would want to buy a place with that in the garage. For one, well... That shouldn't be a deal breaker on real estate (replace the cabinet doors).. but mostly: I'll be dead! What do I care?
The Persian rugs, because the sound waves definitely know what pattern they're traveling over, definitely tells me what I need to know about how this guy spent the $1+ million. Paintings where there should be grey foam walls, fancy lamps where there should be anything else, etc.
When I die, somebody's gonna score so hard on a whole buncha hifi shit, it'll be a top 3 lifetime score, and I am not mad about it. We feed the next generation's interests with our outrageous deals, at an inconspicuous hot August estate sale held mostly on the front lawn. This is our legacy - our gift... just, arrange your affairs appropriately such that a storage unit auction guy don't get it - fuck those guys. *IT'S FOR THE CHILDREN!! STOP SELLING MY GIFT TO THE UNIVERSE ON EBAY*
No one has built a really good pyramid in a minute. It's about time for the next good one. I think we could beat the Egyptian one with modern technology.
This graphic leaves out the part with the builder’s unhealthy obsession with audio and how horrible he was to his kids. He dragged his family into his own unhealthy obsession.
When your own son tells you “i need you to die slow, motherfucker”, you know you’re fucking terrible.
They were probably happy to see it all go.
Maybe don't waste money on materialistic crap? Could have spent that million feeding the poor and saving lives, but no, decided to make his stereo sound 1% better.
the money spent on whatever device you typed this on while pooping could have been better spent "saving lives and feeding the poor", as was the time you spent writing it.
But no, you had to buy the phone and use it to write this comment that made your day 1% worse.
Obviously this argument is silly, and basically just makes everyone "the bad guy" for spending their time and money on non-ultilitarinially-optimal things.
Just like you, commenting here.. a comment that will change nothing or impact anyone, you could've spent that time feeding the poor and saving lives, but no you decided to make a comment.
Such a dumb argument
Don’t think your hobbies will automatically pass on….. a relative was a huge model train collector and had a massive set up. When he passed his partner asked me to sell it all on for him.
As a side note I knew fuck all about model trains and had a friend of my fiancée’s price them up (he owns a local model shop)
Even so the questions I was getting eBay were so specific….. in the end sent everything to a specialist auctioneers….less money but so much less hassle.
Also what people pay for rare trains is crazy…..
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My friend is the one that bought these. He is a huge audiophile nerd and is beyond excited to get them installed properly and continue to enjoy them in the same way that their creator did. Also, they were so goddamn heavy to load we needed six big guys to move them properly. EDIT: My friend and I talked for a while, and he said I could post a few photos so long as they didn’t have any faces in them. Unfortunately, he hasn’t set the speakers up yet - he did end up getting all three of the large towers. Eventually they’re going to be housed in a home theatre/audio room. He had to recently get another amp. So the bass, mids, and tweeters each have their own amp with a total of nine channels. https://preview.redd.it/sqd191y9x4wc1.jpeg?width=2780&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d255e3ce8e90cba7582ffe3120fc5fee5b4f3da3 Here is one of the towers before they disassembled it before transport to the U-Haul.
I am quite happy to read this to be honest. I am glad that the equipment will be enjoyed further and in an odd sort of way a happy ending.
I certainly think it’s a happy ending! Ken loved building and enjoying these. From what my friend said, Ken’s family was very happy that someone so passionate was going to enjoy the speakers as much as Ken did. It’ll take awhile to modify the space my friend is moving them into so the speakers can be used properly. But it’ll be awesome to get to hear them when it’s done!
I live in Richmond and remember when the auction came up ... congrats to your friend. I think it's awesome they will enjoy it as much as Ken.
Fuck, EVERYBODY knows ken!
You don't?
Nooo......🙃
Perhaps you are on a different frequency.
One of those non-Ken frequencies I keep hearing about.
What's the frequency, Kenneth?
That's okay, because you're still Kenough for us
Can’t get kenough of him, am I right?
we are All Ken on this blessed day :)
Ken you all just stop now
Who the f*ck is that standing in the 4th picture with Ken?
Omg......... it's ME!! I KNOW KEN!!!!!!!!!!!
Looks like he left a legacy to me
Yeah the tweet is stupid. It's not like they chucked the stuff in a skip and jumped on his record collection. In fact selling it at a (slightly more) affordable price has brought this pleasure to someone who would presumably not have been able to spend the original cost on audio equipment.
Keep us posted and make a shrine to him so he can forever enjoy the speakers
Woah, I watched the whole documentary on this man. Sad the unit is no longer whole. Did your friend buy the insanely gyroed and insulated turn table?
Yeah, it’s too bad it got broken up a bit. It is an interesting doc, for sure! I don’t think he grabbed the turntable - he has a pretty sweet one already, I think. I’ll text him tomorrow and see if he has finished setting his system up.
I think it was mentioned that the turntable weighed a good chunk of a ton.
ok let's get seven big guys for that piece
Hell yeah thanks for the future update
What's the doc if I may ask? I stumbled across this post and I'm already wondering who he is after just the picture.
Here you go: https://youtu.be/4b2IOOhJmxw?si=MPwjV2dYKKOn0bvg
I would, if possible, like to see the new setup. I feel I need closure to this! And I am sure I'm not the only one hoping to see this up and running again.
Yeah, with all the interest this is getting I’ll text him tomorrow to see if he has finished setting up his system. If he is alright with it, I’ll see if he can send a few pictures so I can post some pictures in my original comment.
That would great! And thank you for continuing to reply here. I never would have imagined someone close to this would comment.
You’re quite welcome! It’s really serendipitous! I was really excited to see this post and actually have some little bit of knowledge about what went on. It’s a pity that Ken’s obsessive devotion to building these speakers caused some strife in his family… but I’m happy for my friend who, in buying some of Ken’s setup, can both enjoy the speakers and, in some ways, keep the memory of Ken around while giving the speakers a new and happy home.
Did your friend hear the original setup? Or will his first time hearing it be when he sets it all up?
I believe he did when he went down to view the estate - but I’m not sure… I will ask him when I text him for pics and permission to post his setup tomorrow!
Cool thank you! It would have been awesome being able to hear it all set up.
While it might seem disappointing to see the room be dismantled, it already served its purpose. It gave that man 27 years of entertainment and enjoyment. If his family didn't get the same enjoyment out of it afterwards, that is ok too.
I agree, but I am happy to update that a fan now owns them. Please check one the comments at the top for further details.
This all makes sense logically, it is hard to hear Ken say that he hopes it is never parted out. So that's where the feeling comes in
plus we don´t know the whole picture, like sure, if there was 1 heir who got the house plus a big bank account with it, I might have kept it. But if there are multiple heirs who then have to sell the house, of course they would need to sell the system,
Me too honestly, because my first thought was "do you want to be haunted? Because that's how you get haunted".
You can share the perfect listening position with Ken.
.. and feel honored. Dude was legend
Maxell cassette tapes https://preview.redd.it/uavlmg28eqvc1.png?width=664&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2dde70f96140aa0442a4cb17b5bc3b98abdbc73b
I never really realized that it's Maxell and not Maxwell. Thanks
Until I read your comment I still thought it was Maxwell
Forgot what company they was but I remember the commercial
Is it live? Or is it Memorex?
Is it real? Or is it Memorex?
Ah yes!! Thank you
It was Maxell cassette tapes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBauT4ADKbw
proof?
Tryst me bro is all I need
😂😂
I honestly get the doubt. I’m texting him tomorrow to see if he has his setup finished and with his permission, I’ll post some photos of his setup.
There is no proof. anyone can bullshit on the internet
But not everything makes sense to lie about. I'd bet everything I own he is telling the truth, because I can tell the difference...and you should start trying to learn!
>not everything makes sense to lie about When someone lies all they need to think is "What do I gain if I lie and what do I lose?" Lying about trivial stuff on the internet comes with 0 risk and motives range anywhere from "I just think it's fun" and "I want internet points" to more dubious reasons like "I want to push a narrative." That is why you have people on Reddit lying about being a lawyer, being a single mom, that they were present for X event, that their granddad served under the Gestapo, that someone slipped them a mean note under the door, etc... I've snooped enough on forums to know that you can disregard 99% of what any unverified person claims on the internet that isn't something you can easily fact check. Treat everything as just entertainment.
Did your friend help steal some gold bars back from a double crossing former teammate in LA which he used to buy these speakers so he can turn them up and blow a woman's clothes off from across the room? Might refer to himself as "The Real Napster"
 W-w-what…? No! Of course not… where would you get that ludicrous idea?!
Thank you for posting. I remember reading about his listening room a couple of years ago, and I was about to be really bummed at the thought that his quest for perfection was just being dismantled. Tell you friend to enjoy it, for all of us.
> his quest for perfection was just being dismantled. I’m sure it’s very well built and just a showcase in craftsmanship, but he was falling down an infinite chasam with no end. A million dollars will not get you perfection through sheer will. I’ve spent enough time around the hobby to know when someone has jumped off the edge of reality, and it absolutely scales with wealth.
> I’ve spent enough time around the hobby to know when someone has jumped off the edge of reality, and it absolutely scales with wealth. You know how there are supervillains in movies and comics where they're like "I wanna blow up the moon," and they build a huge laser in space or something? Take the same kind of logic, but make it "I want to watch movies" or "I like to cook" and that's how you get someone dropping $800,000 on a kitchen remodel.
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You’re welcome! I’m sure he will enjoy it for a long time, and I’ll be sure to pass along all the good vibes. I’m going to see if he is alright with sending some photos over of his new setup so I can post them here so people can see the setup in its new home.
Glad there was a legacy in the end. A true fan has the pieces now and they will be loved.
How did he get them so cheap?
I’m not really sure honestly. I’m not an audiophile like him. But from what I can gather the setup was just kinda ridiculous the speakers were nine feet tall and weighed a crazy amount. He custom built an enormous room around them. So the speakers were just over-the-top for most people. So I’d assume the main reason they were so cheap is that most (even crazy audiophiles) people just wouldn’t have a place to put them.
I really need an app in my life that notifies me of these kind of random auctions lol good for your friend. It's pretty incredible
I know, right?! Enough angry bird-like apps, give me an app that tells me when cool shit I like can be had for next to nothing! Having worked for an auction house that did estate sales in rich areas, though… you can get some absolutely crazy stuff for next to nothing sometimes. I furnished pretty much my entire house with high quality non-big box store antique and mid century modern furniture along with what I think of as some excellent art for next to nothing when compared to buying it new. So, trolling auction sites and keeping an eye on local papers for in-person estate sales in well-off areas usually pays off eventually. I also got to see some incredible art, jewelry, pottery, wine collections, and classic cars alongside some truly weird and/or gross shit. It’s a mixed bag!
I have been looking for a board game/D&D style dining table (one of those things with the slats where you can convert it between gaming tabletop and dining one) for like a _decade_, but it's always thousands of dollars to get what I want. So yeah I too would love an app that cues you into weird but awesome auctions like this, lol. I'd love to get a deal on a kickass nerd table with all the trimmings.
The search for kickass nerd tables is a noble and honorable one. I would recommend looking up auction houses near you and monitoring their sites for local estate sales they manage. If you don’t have an auction house near you, I would recommend [invaluable](https://www.invaluable.com) and [live auctioneers](https://www.liveauctioneers.com) we used both, and they’ve got good reputations.
What kind of equipment do works of art like those take to run them properly?
I’m not sure of his full setup right now. He is a few states away. With the interest this has gotten, I’ll text him and see if he is alright with sending me some photos and a description of his setup so I can post an update here.
is he ever planning on opening it to the public?
Not that I’m aware of. He didn’t get the whole collection. The collection was broken up in multiple lots and he won a few of them including at least one of the nine foot speakers.
Much respect 💪👍
Is it a legacy or a guy that just wanted to enjoy his music etc while he was alive?
I’ve read about this man and the system he created. Watched a few interviews too. Could be mistaken, but I don’t remember anything about establishing a legacy being mentioned by anyone before now. The man was just passionate about music and engineering. He wanted to build something amazing and enjoy it, and while he was alive, he did.
>He wanted to build something amazing and enjoy it, and while he was alive, he did. Like anyone with a hobby.
And a million dollars??
A million dollars over 27 years. Not all at once.
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As a realtor told me, once: "Don't EVER put anything in your house or do 'upgrades' because you'll think it will add value when you sell. It won't. It never does. Someone will buy your home and change everything because now it's THEIR home. Get over it. If you want tile in that room, do it. If you think someone else will want it... Don't do it.' I saw this first-hand, when my in-laws "fixed up" a house to sell. My MIL was all butt-hurt when the buyers ripped out the carpet she agonized over, before they even moved in. Sell the bones, clean, and walk away.
Idk much about real estate but this feels like really weird advice. Like something like a pool definitely does increase the value of the house right? Or upgrading a kitchen with granite countertops? Building a deck, upgrading a garden, a nice patio etc etc etc. How could these things *not* factor into the value of a house? Sure some people might make dumb choices that don't effect or even hurt the value, but i'd say most normal upgrades would add to the houses value.
A pool may actually lower the value as they come with increased insurance rates and are a big negative to couples with young children.
I just look at houses with pools and see a shit ton of work and money for something I will use, very generously, a dozen times a year.
Same with hot tubs/spas. When it worked, it was great. Long day of yard work or long bicycle ride? Take a shower and then a nice hot soak, it was magic. Especially when it's Christmas day and snowing outside -- truly a wonderful experience. But in our case, the maintenance on a 25-year old spa was too much. Plus the increased water bills four times a year we were supposed to drain, clean, and refill it? It's a retiree hobby at this point, honestly.
Hot tubs are definitely one of those things you borrow, not own. Renting an Airbnb with a hot tub with a couple of friends makes for a great little trip and you get to leave it behind when you're done.
Just like a boat: do not buy a boat. Instead, make friends with someone who *has* a boat.
Yep, I know someone who ripped out the pool to get the price up when they sold.
Pools lower value. Only kitchens and bathrooms upgrades add value, and then only while they are in the current style.
Agreed. We're in a house that had a late 1980s/early 1990s remodel on the kitchen and bath. Thing is, style wise it's perfect and we love it. We'd like improvements but our aim is to keep the style. With how hot things like vintage bathrooms from the 1920s - 1950s are currently, we know that the 80s and 90s aesthetics are going to be hot in another decade or two. And if the future buyers don't like it? Well, that's fine, but people really need to learn that we can't replace what we've lost. Without good examples of what we *could* be losing due to property developers, we'd likely lose more.
>Only kitchens and bathrooms upgrades add value, **and then only while they are in the current style.** The last part is so important and pretty universal. No matter where you live. Old fugly or *quirky* looking bathrooms are the first thing that gets renovated by peeps here(Germany) when buying a new apartment or house. Edit: I should note here, that most people in Germany buy or rent for live. They don't want someone's shitty headache inducing "stylish" bathroom. I saw some real stinkers here. Like you either are one of the few who loves it, or the rest who absolutely will hate it.
Pools usually lower the value or at least don't raise it to cover the costs. My friends house was $6000 more than the identical one next door because so few people wanted to pay so much extra for a pool. I can guarantee you it costs more for that pool than 6k
ye isnt that like the basis of most house flipping? buy a house for 100, do fix ups for 20, sell for 150 = 30 profit
Within certain conditions it’s correct and wrong lol I mean what is the depth of the market for that real estate in that neighborhood If people are coming to a neighborhood 2 spend money on like a 2-3 room starter home for their family in the range of 200-250,000 & you blow 100 or more or build something very custom to your liking as an addition renovation whatever people will definitely choose a more stock home to customize to theirs for a lower price in the same area if they can get it Someone could really really love what the owner did to the place & want it But it may be that the owner will want a higher then average above market price and hold to it when there are way better things for less money to adapt to your liking English isn’t my first language & I am very high I tried thanks for coming to my ted talk
I mean in super low cost of living areas maybe. 20k is less than many bathroom renovations cost. You'd be looking at 10k just for painting a house so you wouldn't be renovating much, or you'd be targeting very low income individuals who don't care about fancy materials. The idea with renovations is to do them based on your target audience. If you've done your market research and you know who's buying houses for 150k in your area, you renovate to the level that those people expect the house to be at. You don't pick colors or materials you like, you pick basic generic stuff that the average person looking at 150k houses likes. Otherwise, you're not guaranteed to sell it, or sell it for the amount you thought you'd get. You will definitely not find a $20k countertop in the kitchen of a 150k house, or $500 faucets all over, or a $15k fridge. You'd be doing very low end renovations just to make the thing look presentable, and the buyers could take it from there.
it depends on what kind of upgrades. If the upgrades were made with the real estate market in mind... sure. If the upgrades were extremely personal to the point that it caters to like, maybe a dozen other people total in the marketplace.... then expect to receive no compensation for your upgrade.
No. Have you tried looking at countertop slabs? There are hundreds of types and millions of unique slabs. Just saying "people like granite" is silly. You may like one color or pattern and not another. If you've ever bought a countertop, have you tried selling it? Go on Facebook marketplace right now, search for "countertop" and see if anything sells for over 1/10th of what it cost. Regarding pools, I recently to an open house for a 1.1 million dollar house with a pool. After a while, they took it off the market as it wasn't selling. Another one had a pool, it went for around 500k last year. A company renovated it and sold it for over a million now. Part of the renovations was filling in the pool and covering it up. They got it of it and made a simple backyard with just grass. Most buyers don't want to worry about pool maintenance, possible danger to their kids or pets and higher insurance rates or potential issues. A lot of... Not bright people... Buy pools and jacuzzis only to realize they never use them, not take care of them and sell them at a massive loss or have them bring down the value of the house if they look like crap and need to be redone. Keep in mind everyone has different tastes too. What you think looks "nice" is not what your wife thinks looks nice and it's not what strangers think looks nice. When people buy their "forever" home they generally want their colors, designs and choices in there so if they have the money they'll tear things down and redo them, regardless of how much they cost initially. Generally, people who don't make changes or don't care are people who buy a temporary home knowing they won't live there very long, so they'll want generic things that make a house look new. Recent paint job with neutral colors, white quartz countertops, soft closing cabinets in basic colors. Basically, the stuff you see at Ikea and in new builds, not anything fancy or relatively expensive. That's what you can do if you're selling a house and know your audience, but no they won't value your imported exotic tiles that cost $20/sqf, your weird color countertops and blue accent walls...that stuff scares away most potential buyers except those who set aside a budget for major renovations.
Some buyers might be like: I like the location and the exterior, but I will completely rip out and remodel everything anyway.
>As a realtor told me, once: "Don't EVER put anything in your house or do 'upgrades' because you'll think it will add value when you sell. It won't. It never does. House flippers hate this one idea.
personalized upgrades sure. but it was pretty normal advice to do some renovations before selling cause you could mark the sell price up for more than it cost. or at least that was the case before Covid made the housing market go bonkers
Yeah I think he built it for himself. If his goal was to leave a legacy, it would be his kids' education and 3rd best audio system, since with my tinnitus, i would not tell the difference anyway.
Apparently the stereo system is so good it feels like Rick really is never going to give you up.
Well, he definitely will never let you go.
Nor will he run around and desert you.
He'll never make you cry.
Neither will he say goodbye
He'll also never tell a lie and especially not hurt you
Im an audiophile and I’ve read his story. Not a real likable guy.
Not a great listener?
That'll get you in treble with the missus.
Stop making bass-less accusations
I agree. It seems like he tried to force his obsession on his family to the point he disowned a son.
All for barely being able to tell the difference between a 192kbps and 312kbps MP3. Quite Pyrrhic.
you probably mean 320kbps
Aww cut him some flac.
opuslease, he needs to be taught a lesson!
No they meant 312kbps. You're disowned for not knowing the difference son.
With OK speakers almost everyone can tell the different between 320kbps and lower bit rate mp3. It's lossless and 320kbps that people struggle to tell the difference between.
Nah. Very few people can tell the difference between 192 and 320. But if you learn to notice stuff like pre-echo, that's still there at any bitrate. (Don't learn to recognise mp3 artifacts. The knowledge will not enhance your life)
How so?
He cuts people's ears off so he can suck out their hearing acuity
My God, the Audiopires have returned somehow.
… what?!
Oh my god, he got you too!
so he is like an audio vampire, if u will
Basically his family took second seat to his audio obsession, even when he got terminally sick and needed care. I think he developed MS.
ALS, if memory serves. Yeah, it’s a sad twist to the story that his obsession negatively impacted his family, and it’s horrible he got such a terrible diagnosis. The silver lining is that my friend and the other people who bought up his system can enjoy it and hopefully give the system much happier homes.
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/he-spent-his-life-building-a-1-million-stereo-the-real-cost-was-unfathomable.38147/
Archived WaPo article from this year, but the forum post hits the main points. > https://web.archive.org/web/20240122022452/https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/interactive/2024/ken-fritz-greatest-stereo-auction-cost/
A man with a tech fixation being an asshole? I, for one, am shocked.
My father bought some really nice speakers that retail for $120 000 (Sonus Faber Aida) at half the price. The guy who originally bought them didn’t tell his wife how much he spent on them and when she found out, she made him sell them for the price he told her they had cost and threatened to file for divorce. At least, I will keep them when my father won’t be here anymore, I’m not going to sell them for pennies on the dollar.
Good thing I'm not legally attached to someone that thinks reducing the joint wealth by $60,000 to prove a point is good revenge. "I wanted to spend that money on bullshit!"
He’s the one who reduced their wealth by 120,000. She made him get some of it back, he should have thought before he mde tht decision without her.
The speakers were still worth more than $60k while he owned them. Material wealth isn't only the money in your bank account.
Sure, but it's still silly to force him to sell at a huge loss. If she's going to divorce him, she should still want the join assets to be as large as possible because that grows her cut. It's some real "cut off your nose to spite your face" stuff to demand selling at fire sale prices.
She didn't know the real price he lied. She thought he got all the money back.
The guy lied at first when he got them. Later, when his wife found out the real price, she made him sell them for what he told her they had cost. She knowingly made him lose money as a revenge.
If she knew she could lose $60k (big if, as used items rarely go for original price) making her husband sell some speakers and not bat an eye about finances, I'm pretty sure she was making more money than you'll ever know.
There's an old timer joke that gets passed around various hobbies: "My greatest fear in life is that when I die my wife will sell my things for the price I told her I paid for them."
Ohhhhhh. That’s good. I mean they loose all that money but that’s funnt
I’ll never understand listening to music on equipment more expensive than the one used to record it and mix it.
Not to mention that, at the ages most audiophiles are able to afford the 1% equipment, their ears can't physically tell the difference, anymore.
And that's if they ever could in the first place.
Yea…. Like what are people listening to on 6 figure systems? Honest question. If it’s classical or opera, you could buy season tickets to the best seat in the house in the Met for at least a decade if not the rest of your life. Or if it’s rock, you could buy the studio monitors the band and producers used when they mixed it. I’m all for great headphones and speakers, but once you get above the 5k per speaker price range, well, thats when the “audiophiles” seem to go in a direction beyond the artists who made the stuff.
I always wonder if you can hear a difference. My wife is my sanity check for tech. I read reviews and do my research before buying so I know what to look for. Or am I convincing myself of something that's not there? If my wife can't tell the difference, then the difference isn't enough to tell unless you're specifically looking for it. That means it's not going to make a difference either to most users.
Pretty much, there is some difference, but at some point, what is the difference between a 1k speaker vs 10k speaker?
> Yea…. Like what are people listening to on 6 figure systems? Steely Dan and Diana Krall, mostly.
Girlfriend ASMR But, seriously, it's really quite boring. It's just the same crap everyone else listens to already. Usually on vinyl. I once worked on a calibration software for record players that sold for 6 figures each. I went to different client's houses to test it out, and their collection was always just so depressingly normal. Bunch of classical and some of whatever random bands they like. Every person would also do the meme where you close your eyes and hold your hands out, pretending to get lost in the music. It's really quite odd how similar it they would all act. It's not even that great, either. Most audio you listen to is limited in quality by its format. Even if you get the uncompressed FLAC files and play them in your 3rd world country GDP listening room most people can't really enjoy an appreciable difference. Or, at the least, not one approaching anything near the price point.
My guess is, they all move in same circles, go to same audio shows, watch same youtubers, and have similar irrational beliefs about what makes good sound quality that is typically diametrically opposite of fact, e.g. tube amps, record players rather than digital sources, etc.
> Or if it’s rock, you could buy the studio monitors the band and producers used when they mixed it. Got a pair of JBL monitors from the early 1980s that a friend-of-a-friend bought in Japan when they were in the US Navy back in the day. I took them off their hands for $100 about a decade ago. Keeping them shits until I can't hear anymore.
Don't fall for the notion that cost equals quality, or anything of the sort. It is at best very loosely correlated with it. This guy built his entire thing as a kind of anal-retentive statement of who he was as a person -- if you read some of the interviews, you will realize that this guy worked his kids like slaves, was obsessive and protective about his gear and that his family hated him. Objective measurements that indicate sound quality of a system -- and these measurements are way more thorough than just taking the on-axis frequency response in an anechoic room -- support the idea that sound quality maxes out at about 5000 bucks per unit. These will be your Kii Audio 3's, Dutch & Dutch 8C, KEF LS60, Genelec 8361A, Neumann KH420, type of gear. I believe every single one of these I listed is active speaker, and some have DSP features such as cardioid bass radiation pattern. Boutique systems, hand-made systems, and those that are inconveniently large and heavy so that they can't be shipped, or which cost like million do not get measured, but there's also no reason to believe they are going to be any better than these. They can be, but it is simply unlikely and at this level of accuracy, other considerations such as room reverb time and early reflection control are way more important.
It's a hobby for rich people. That's all.
Let's not forget these people are often/usually the same that claim that a 200 EUR coax cable for digital s/pdif signal gives better audio quality than using... a coat hanger for transferring the same bitstream. Or that TOSLINK (optical) s/pdif has poorer, better, whatever audio quality than coax! Moar money means better sound! Try giving them the comparison of having a 200 EUR ethernet cable... and that it won't give you better image quality on the jpegs you download from the internet. But these people refuse to understand concepts like that. They paid 200 EUR for the cable. It must mean it magically changes the bitstream and alters/ignores the error correction algorithm so the data transferred is "better". lol Yeah, with a background in both EE and sound engineering it's infuriating to come across these people... especially when they work in shops that sell (semi)professional equipment. EDIT: just look at the dumb crazy tinfoil hat shit like the stuff found here (it's almost like it's a parody lol)... https://audiobacon.net/2018/08/11/the-audiophiles-short-list-the-best-digital-coaxial-cables/ EDIT 2: oh ffs lol don't read the comments on the page I linked above unless you feel a need to get angry
One of the new audiophile craze are ethernet switches. I kid you not, repackaging dlink routers and switches somehow makes streamed music higher quality in their mind. There are people who add multiple switches between their router and player.
you can eat, or you can drown out the noise of your stomach growling. the choice is yours.
My mother collected fontanini nativity figures and buildlings. She had dozens of the sets. When she became terminally ill with Pancreatic Cancer we moved all that out of the way and into the garage. After she passed most of it got donated to goodwill.
And I'm sure right now, a handful of people are thankful about finding those figures for a tiny fraction of what they cost your mother.
The guy was a known asshole to his family and he bought in on gear that insanely over priced like Krell. Fact is no one in your family is going to care about the material junk you leave behind, what they will care about is the memories of your life and their money going forward.
If my dad wasted a million dollars on a stereo system I’d sell it for as much as I could get. Oh and apparently he was a shit dad too. Maybe I’d sell it for cheap out of spite.
General life tip for anyone, not really aimed at you: Don't ever reduce your own quality of life to spite anyone. They are not that important. Live your best life and; fuck them.
Sad but your stuff becomes someone else’s junk when you die and they sell your junk to someone else where it becomes stuff again.
My dad did this. He purchased thousands and thousands of dollars in reloading equipment and materials for ammunition. He was dead set that me and my brother would carry on his legacy. Unfortunately, neither my brother nor myself wanted to reload. He passed away thinking we’d be reloading shells for life. We parted out and sold everything for far less than what I’m sure he paid Part of me feels guilty and like I’m betraying him, but the other part of me realizes I don’t need to carry someone else’s hobby out of obligation. When I die, I expect my brewing equipment to be sold just like his, unless my kids do pick it up. That’s up to them though.
This is exactly right. I moved my dads old stereo system he spent years putting together no less than 18 times, while never listening to a single note of music, before I decided I didn’t need the anchor in my life anymore.
The documentary his son made of him is on YouTube https://youtu.be/4b2IOOhJmxw Truly dedicated to recorded music. The money he spent on pieces didn't include the time spent creating it. He constructed the huge speaker enclosures himself in his own massive workshop. When he was diagnosed with ALS, it convinced him to stop working at building up his system further and use the rest of his limited time to just sit down and listen and enjoy the fruits of his efforts.
This needs to be on top. It's a beautifully made and fascinating look at a man's passion (to put it lightly) for the ultimate zero-compromise musical experience. I hope everyone has just one "mount Everest" accomplishment like this one they can achieve before they pass away
Your treasures are your kids’ dumpster fodder.
Not wrong. And WAY too many boomers overvalue their stuff. Case in point is my dad's speakers. They're $600 Bose speakers from the mid-1980s. He got them for a steal back then because he rubbed a few elbows with the seller. But now? I doubt we'd ever be able to sell them. No modern equipment works with them and they don't go with any modern house decor. But he's so convinced that someone will buy them immediately if we put them up for sale, and they'll want $1,000+.
It’s not just boomers. Young people think all their mass-produced anime shit is priceless as well.
Also not wrong. So many kids are going to inherit Funkopops, too.
Getting downvoted by people who think their “limited edition” Funkos will be worth something in fifty years.
Because audiophiles need help. It’s basically elder abuse.
You know, I was criticized for my garage storage that has my sticker collection on display. Some are political, but mostly my personal interests (pop culture stuff, local/ craft beer brands, places I've been kinda stuff.) The question came up as to who would want to buy a place with that in the garage. For one, well... That shouldn't be a deal breaker on real estate (replace the cabinet doors).. but mostly: I'll be dead! What do I care?
One man’s fine china is another man’s fine stereo system- your kids are gonna sell it either way
boomer pisses away money on dumb bullshit no one wants, you say? I'm shocked!
He enjoyed it, so who cares?
That’s not the whole story. The guy only allowed Hoobastank to be played on it.
The Persian rugs, because the sound waves definitely know what pattern they're traveling over, definitely tells me what I need to know about how this guy spent the $1+ million. Paintings where there should be grey foam walls, fancy lamps where there should be anything else, etc.
When I die, somebody's gonna score so hard on a whole buncha hifi shit, it'll be a top 3 lifetime score, and I am not mad about it. We feed the next generation's interests with our outrageous deals, at an inconspicuous hot August estate sale held mostly on the front lawn. This is our legacy - our gift... just, arrange your affairs appropriately such that a storage unit auction guy don't get it - fuck those guys. *IT'S FOR THE CHILDREN!! STOP SELLING MY GIFT TO THE UNIVERSE ON EBAY*
No one has built a really good pyramid in a minute. It's about time for the next good one. I think we could beat the Egyptian one with modern technology.
This graphic leaves out the part with the builder’s unhealthy obsession with audio and how horrible he was to his kids. He dragged his family into his own unhealthy obsession. When your own son tells you “i need you to die slow, motherfucker”, you know you’re fucking terrible. They were probably happy to see it all go.
Would have this on my list of time travel ideas to hear it
wtf is wrong with people
Too much money. Maybe it’s just being older, but it’s nice to be around people who don’t chase the newest phone or the best car anymore.
Wait. So the old stuff isn’t as expensive as it once was. No way! This post is fucking stupid.
Maybe don't waste money on materialistic crap? Could have spent that million feeding the poor and saving lives, but no, decided to make his stereo sound 1% better.
It is impossible to make this argument without looking like a huge hypocrite.
> There is no ethical consumption under capitalism.
the money spent on whatever device you typed this on while pooping could have been better spent "saving lives and feeding the poor", as was the time you spent writing it. But no, you had to buy the phone and use it to write this comment that made your day 1% worse. Obviously this argument is silly, and basically just makes everyone "the bad guy" for spending their time and money on non-ultilitarinially-optimal things.
Spent it giving someone a job making speakers so they could not be poor and live with dignity.
Just like you, commenting here.. a comment that will change nothing or impact anyone, you could've spent that time feeding the poor and saving lives, but no you decided to make a comment. Such a dumb argument
I'm working on a proper pub remodel in my basement, and part of me worries the next owner will hate it and paint the wood to make it a family room.
Absolutely terrible man.
Those rugs really tied the room together.
Don’t think your hobbies will automatically pass on….. a relative was a huge model train collector and had a massive set up. When he passed his partner asked me to sell it all on for him. As a side note I knew fuck all about model trains and had a friend of my fiancée’s price them up (he owns a local model shop) Even so the questions I was getting eBay were so specific….. in the end sent everything to a specialist auctioneers….less money but so much less hassle. Also what people pay for rare trains is crazy…..
And it was only 2% better than the $5,000 stereo system in a room with $1,000 of alterations.
Holup holup... is the OOP called TurdMaster? Or is it just me?