If you had to start over...

Had that experience after a large house fire that got 50% of the house to fire damage and the rest to smoke/water damage. All the electronics in the place was destroyed: Bose 901s, Marantz 2270, Sony TT, _all my record collection of 20+ years, all the CDs melted into one mass of plastic, etc.

After I started the rebuild in a temporary house down the road, I started purchasing used gear, Vandersteen, M&K, Rotel electronics to get me back on my feet. The chase for gear took my mind off the rebuilding of the house, new furniture, etc.

It was a very bad time for me back then.

Cheers,

David
 
I would buy new gear and get away from vintage. And I would just have 1 stereo, 1 set of speakers but I would still want lots of music.
This might become a reality because a lot of my vintage gear seems to have issues and when it quits I will sell it as a parts unit.
 
Since my whole setup came from thrift stores, I'd start looking around again there. I'd probably see what baco99 had in speakers. He fixed up a pair of ESS for me and did a great job for a very good price.

I wear hearing aids and CDs sound better with them than vinyl so I'd just go with CDs. Also, I'm almost 67 years old and I'm starting to feel the effects of hauling multiple boxes of records around. CDs take up less room and weigh less. I still have my memories of collecting and listening to some great vinyl. I also don't want to stick my kids and wife with the task of getting rid of all that stuff.
 
Right now I only have the main living room to put my system, so the TV is part of it. I use an Apple TV for most everything right now, hence do I add the CD or TT first, but I just got a 3 month free subscription to Tidal, and now I'm not sure I need the CD player. I've been testing and most streams are coming in from 800-900Kbps and sound phenomenal!

A CD player was a high priority for me before, but now not so much. I'll just patiently wait around for a super deal on used player at this point. So I'll prob end up getting a TT first.
 
If flood, fire or zombie apocalypse took all my stuff in the house, I would still have my offsite backup of my flac files.As long as the lovely spouse and daughter were OK, I'd move on.
A used, off lease computer would be my first stop, then once loaded, a trip to the Maverick Audio website for a DAC, and Amazon for a new set of Sennheisers. My JRiver license is in my old emails, so I'm golden. I would raise a glass to my old stuff, and another to a brighter future and the new computer, (aptly named FlacBastard II). I'd even spring for PaulPang card this time around.
That would be a fine start, and much quicker than my first trip down this road.
If spouse and daughter are gone? No point in taking another step.
 
If the house burnt to the ground or my gear was stolen I would probably lean toward minimalism. A Mac Mini feeding content to a Peachtree Nova driving a pair of Pure Audio Project open baffle speakers.
 
Id go to every Estate Sale where I live until I have better than I have now....plus everything else I lost replaced at rock bottom dollar prices. Hopefully I can find an (E-28) BMW 535i also.....
I'd sure like to find an E28 like the one I have. Too much work to upgrade a stock one to what I have. But then there are a number of folks that are doing full restorations on these and other 80s Bimmers. Maybe I need to space (a nice heated car barn) and money to do the same. I have a few projects I would to do the rides.

Maybe I would move to digital because it would be hard to find the quality of what I have now for the prices I would pay for it. Since record sound so much better, I might get a phono system for the main rig for those serious listening times and invite friends over who have records I want to hear.
 
This thread makes me consider some issues I've been loathe to think about. If all my stuff disappeared, it would be a blessing ;) . I'm at the point that I should really be thinking about a smaller, easier to maintain house. There's a bunch of other stuff that needs to go, too. Guess I'm sort of putting things off until some of the dogs and cats move on, but the problem with that is that I keep finding dogs and cats that need a place to hang. Maybe I should sell stuff at crazy low prices if the buyer agrees to take a dog or cat?
 
I'd look real hard at active monitors being fed by digital front end. Something simple but awesome.
 
Buy some new stuff and ship to work. That way I can bring it home piece by piece so my wife doesn't notice.
 
Well if it was all lost in a fire, or some type of catastrophe, the first thing I would do is get the house replaced. If this means moving, then I would evaluate the new listening space.

I think if all my software is gone, I might end up doing all digital. I would still have the same kind of set up, which is discs ripped to a hard drive, and then a stand alone DAC. I might change speakers from my JBL. Since I shop the used market, I might try to see if I could get a couple models up from my 4365. If not, then I might go an entirely different direction and try some Magnepan 20.1. Whatever speakers I have determine my amplification, so i cannot say for sure what that would be. But I would essentially be consolidating funds, as my combination of analog gear is worth a lot of money, and I am not sure I would want to go through all the work to replace it again. Especially finding all my replacement vinyl.

Regards
Mister Pig
 
First is always speakers. The more efficient the less power you need. Once thats done then comes the integrated amp and the multi-format CD/dvd player. If there is any money left and you have to dabble in Analog then buy your TT. But don't do it on the cheap. Just like your speakers being a electro-mechanical device, your turntable needs to be the best you can afford. Whether you choose DD or belt drive, if you are on a budget, buy the best table, and then upgrade the arm and cartridge as you go at a later date. When making these choices, you have to decide if the integrated amp needs a phono pre-amp. You could bypass this option for now and plan on adding an external pre-pre-amp later with the TT. And just like the Pre-preamp, a DAC can be purchased later or you can use the one in the Multiformat player to handle additional digital sources.
 
It was fun starting out a few years ago , flying down the freeways, careening through the hills and dales visiting places in the city I'd never seen and rolling up to someones house to pick up someones cast off treasure.
To start over today would be quite challenging and I doubt I'd become as well set up as I am now.
Today a different mindset would be required with "starting over":beatnik:
 
Great question. It's making me think about moving my spares to another location. Haha. I have received a lot of gifts from AK in the form of fraternity and knowledge.

All my source material is digital or stream-based, so I would simply replace all my electronics with the same ones and build my own speakers. With the help of this site, I have finished some fine-sounding projects. I have the parts to build more like pairs and would do that. I don't even have the 4430s wired into the system. Shame on me.
 
i would get some MMGs and a Rythmik sub or two, a decent but not high priced tt ($1-2k) setup, an oppo 203 for digital and electronics with tubes in the preamp and ss power. perhaps an ARC or VTL or maybe Rogue preamp. and either Adcom or Odyssey power.

in that vinyl is so much more organic than rbcd i would have to be buying a fair amount of used vinyl and the special to my heart music on new vinyl. amazon usually includes an "auto-rip" digital copy with the LPs, burning off a cd copy is easy enough and great for the car.

oyeah, i would buy a tascam cd burner from a music equip supplier like guitar center for roughly $400. burning LPs to CDR results in getting much of the vinyl sound which is quite astounding. they usually end up sounding steps ahead of the equivalent commercial cd.

it would hurt quite a bit to lose my current setup which includes my 1975 Fried Model RIIs which kick booty on many current speakers. the MMGs are a similar bargain and never cause me to make excuses for them. my ARC SP3a1 preamp would be another big loss. the sound is magical. my adcom 555II amp is a great power delivery device bukt then so would be the Odyssey. i would probably go with all affordable Audioquest wire, spending no more than $100 for each piece including the Type 4 speaker wire which is a screaming bargain.

not a beginners system but low on the totem for cost and relatively high on the sound quality stratum.
 
Had that experience after a large house fire that got 50% of the house to fire damage and the rest to smoke/water damage. All the electronics in the place was destroyed: Bose 901s, Marantz 2270, Sony TT, _all my record collection of 20+ years, all the CDs melted into one mass of plastic, etc.

After I started the rebuild in a temporary house down the road, I started purchasing used gear, Vandersteen, M&K, Rotel electronics to get me back on my feet. The chase for gear took my mind off the rebuilding of the house, new furniture, etc.

It was a very bad time for me back then.

Cheers,

David

I truly feel for your loss Sir. :(
 
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