For years, I’ve enjoyed trading in components and ‘upgrading’ them to improve my audio experience. From amplifiers to separates and of course speakers. Each iteration becoming more expensive and heavier (speakers mostly).
I’m now at the point, retired, that I want to purchase that ‘final’ system that I can now afford. But I find myself scared to death to do it. Suppose I make the wrong choice? It’s no longer a couple of thousand dollars wasted, but much more than that.
Shipping - How do I get rid of my massive 802d’s for yet another pair of massive speakers?
I’m sitting here not enjoying my current system, getting aggravated whenever I listen to it. Yet audio stores keep closing, even the FR20’s if I don’t like them, I’m looking at over $1,000.00 in shipping costs.
Has anyone else been so disappointed with finally reaching their goal in their audio hobby?
After getting the FR20, I have been the happiest I have ever been with my stereo system, though after getting the FR20’s, I have upgraded my amp, preamp, DAC, amp again, and have started, and I repeat, started upgrading cables.
There is another upgrade that I will mention later, but getting the speakers right was just the beginning.
Look at it a a new challenge, but hopefully a fun one. If its not fun, there are many hobbies that are.
To your point, maybe look at a new way to skin the cat… I was at a similar point as well.
Simplifying helps ans speakers do not have to weigh a ton to be great.
For example…I now have a nice Aurender streamer going into a nice integrated and out to 74lb speakers. The first pair was DeVore (highly recommended) and now Totem.
This system is as fun and resolving as my Pass lab amps and Wilson 250lb+ DAWs.
If you love the hobby you can certainly enjoy it without breaking the bank or your back…
I understand your situation. For a while I’ve been thinking about replacing the speakers that I’ve owned for 20 years with something more up-to-date; like you, I’m retired and this would probably be my final speaker purchase. One of the reasons I haven’t done so (not the only one!) involves the logistics of moving and shipping heavy speakers.
One approach is to settle on a pair of speakers to be the centerpiece of your system. This is not an easy or risk – free proposition. You might have to spend money on shipping and so forth, perhaps a couple of times before you found the exact thing you want. (The FR 20 does seem like a reasonably safe bet though.) Once you’ve got the speakers, you can change or upgrade other other components as needed since they are not so difficult to ship or trade in. There are really only two choices here, to bite the bullet and spend the money (if needed) for shipping or keep what you have.
What exactly don’t you like about your current system? Someone asked me this question, and it made me stop and think. In my case, there is nothing about my speakers that I dislike; I just thought that after 20 years a newer speaker would take advantage of advances in the intervening time. The Aspen series is probably a good example of this. But my old Von Schweikerts continue to do very well. I haven’t come to a final conclusion about all this. I wish you well in your search!
That was one of the reasons I traded-in my monster speakers to FR30. Even after trade-in credit for FR30, I still have plenty credit left for future trade-in, and also the shipping cost using their shipper was one-third of what would have cost me using the regular shippers.
I am done with the speakers, and I am getting the endgame soon with this stupid hobby once the stock market recovers a bit (hopefully next year).
Get a pair of Rel subs, and go subs + monitors. You can swap out the speakers a lot easier to find that one brand/model that you like. Get the best subs you can afford, unlikely you want to upgrade the subs since most tonality is the mid range and treble and that’s handle by the speakers.
I switched from Magico A5s to TAD CE1 with just one Rel No31 and really like the combination. Positioning the TAD is so much easier too, although it’s still heavier than most monitors.
Doesn’t help your situation now though, still need to find a dealer or buyer that will take that 802s from you. Just have to take a loss there. I took a substantial loss getting rid of the A5s.
I had to deal with a similar situation about a year ago. It was depressing to even think about shipping my large, heavy speakers. There isn’t a magic wand to deal with this, but here are a couple of ideas that may help:
Dealing with weight: hire muscle from a piano moving company, or get one or two power lifters from a local gym. I was fortunate in having a neighbor who fit the bill, and I hired him. It was money well spent — back injuries are no joke.
Perhaps you can sell your speakers and not have to deal with packing or moving them via the “local purchase only” option on Ebay. Just an idea. I didn’t go this route as I dislike dealing with this type of thing, but hey, it might work for you.
I eventually shipped my speakers to The Music Room; they were helpful re packing etc. And they pay the freight.
You can get this done, the main problem is getting over the mental/emotional hump of starting the ball rolling. Best of luck!
Being an audiophile for over 40 years, and previously able to AFFORD some of the best stuff out there, things have changed. Will be 74 in a month, now retired and living on a fixed income, cannot afford much. I have a decent system but I see all these messages about upgrading stuff and it get frustrating. I am using 20 years old cables and looks like I will continue to do so… I’ll still read all these messages but hope I win the lottery to afford some of the stuff like a lot of you guys have sitting in your closets unused. Frustrating that I know what would be best for my system but…
I would list them as a local sale and the purchaser would need a find a way to get them home. You’d be surprised how many might be interested. B&W 800 series have a series following world wide the 802 is a classic! As far as another massive pair of speakers have you ever considered a panel speaker like Magnepan? My speakers are large but only weigh 115lbs. There are many speakers that sound great and are not massive. I think the FR20’s fit that description. As far as cost I think the Maggie’s are hard to beat.
As long as your problem with your present speakers don’t involve things like soundstage or transparency but rather frequency related problems like brightness you might find your solution with an equalizer. They exist to address problems like that. I use a Schiit Loki Max and it allows me to adjust my sound in a predictable and repeatable way with absolutely minimal sonic downsides. There are many out there and some are very affordable. No need to deal with replacing your heavy speakers and both you and your spouse can find a setting that suits both of you.
Speakers have been my bugaboo for the past couple of years… just not sure i’m finding what I want. In my living room I’ve had Magnepan .7s, Harbeth 30.2XD, KLH Model 5, Klipsch Forte IV, Dynaudio Heritage Specials, and currently Kilpsch Cornwall IV.
The only reason I mention this is that I’m kind of also looking for that perfect thing so I can stop tinkering. But what we think is perfect now might change over time. And as they say, “perfect is the enemy of the good.”
So if tinkering is in your nature, don’t be surprised if you’ll always be tinkering, even if you think you’ve found nirvana. I’d suggest taking the pressure off yourself calling it the “end all.” Buy used and don’t sweat it.
The one pair of speakers I need to revisit is a pair of Dynaudio Special 40’s I borrowed from my buddy when I was looking at the Heritage Specials, which I thought would be end-game speakers.
I loved the S40’s so I assumed the HS’s would be soooo much better. But when I got he HS’s into the house, yeah, they sounded good. But I couldn’t deny that the synergy of the less-than-half-the-price S40’s might have been better in my space.
I’m fortunate, I guess, that my current system still brings me great joy and frequent amazement, so I don’t follow along with a lot of the upgrade threads. The upgrading I’ve been doing has been relatively modest in size and dollars, but with outsized results (to my ear, anyway). But the specter of downsizing looms on the horizon (as I alluded to in another thread), and I’d be lying if I said I haven’t given thought recently to what I might need to do when the time comes. Separates, even the slim Stellar line, are not likely to fit in the typical retirement community living rooms I’ve seen, and with the amount of space media takes up, I’ll probably find myself selling the turntable and disc transport along with the LPs andCDs/SACDs, and look for a reasonably inexpensive integrated and a small DAC, and move to an entirely file-based system with maybe (if I’m lucky) a pair of FR5s. We’ll see.
But I share a lot of your concerns re selling/shipping/schlepping heavy equipment with an already bad back. I’m not looking forward to that.
Been reasonably happy with my Strata MK I. Even with the wonky bridge it sounds fine in my condo. Perhaps a new Strata with an Airlens and Aspen FR 5’s will fit the bill for your retirement home.
I’ve thought about the Strata, and I’ve been curious about the Airlens ever since Paul first hinted at its development. If it had file storage, I’d probably be all over that solution.
I ripped all my CD’s to my laptop. It takes a while. They stream perfectly without the need for a physical (USB) connection. Lately though I just stream everything. Of course if you have some recordings that aren’t available through streaming services you would want to rip those. CD’s are just a storage medium and they are bulky and antiquated at this point.
My 8 TB internal storage is the best thing I got; it provides streaming SQ very close to PST. I ripped all regular CDs in there, and I keep buying from HDTT and NativeDSD (DSD256). I bought often from QOBUZ too. I still have nearly 4TB left, and that will be enough for another 10 years. The PST is reserved for SACD mostly.
So, this hobby is still fun to me, as long as I don’t think about the $10k cables
