Ken Fritz - his "Million Dollar System" up for Auction

I’ll put this as bluntly as I can:
What a stupid, moronic auction company. They limited the demographic to a very small area with their terms. The family should be furious. If there was shipping (on the buyers dime), and at least a week pick up window, the prices realized at the end of the auction would be much, much higher.
A few things I would love to try for, but with these terms, it’s a waste of time. I’ll pass.
 
@trinhsman I think they know evactly what they are doing....Virtually none of this stuff is shippable other than preamps and raw speaker parts....Who would be responsible for crating a 1500lb turntable or 9ft tall speakers???? This stuff isnt going to be bought by a thrift store type of audiophile.....Im sure the family would be thrilled to get 10-20% of the monies that he spent on this system....Im fairly certain most here on AK are not their target market! That includes me BTW.......
 
There was an interesting discussion on AVS Forum earlier this year about the system:
www.avsforum.com

Need advice on how to sell "The best stereo system...

So I wanted to bring something to the group’s attention in hopes that some who are more knowledgeable about this can share some advice. You might have seen this story on the internet about a guy named Ken Fritz who built a completely amazing sound system in his house here in Richmond Virginia...
www.avsforum.com www.avsforum.com

Honestly the custom stuff is going to be a tough sell. Big homebrew speakers that need serious setup (so many processors and electronic crossovers!) have an extremely limited market, and the overlap between people who would be interested in such a thing and people with the money (and means to move them) has to be almost zero.

Their "comparable resale price" are pretty laughable ($12,500 for a first-gen Krell FBP-600 with no service history when there are several for sale at <$7k; $22,500 for an Evolution 403 when there's one that's been listed for almost a year at $4000). They couldn't even be bothered to dust off the electronics or get non-blurry pictures for a lot of the stuff.

At least they were smart enough to start at decent prices, so everything will probably sell. I'm guessing they want to sell the house so they need to clear it out, the most valuable thing for them right now is to get stuff gone with minimal hassle, hence the no shipping. The one-day pickup window is a questionable decision, but that's not unusual, even for high dollar auctions.
 
I have to agree, few people with the means to spend even six figures for an audio system, want to fool around with used gear and someone else’s choices. The custom speakers are cool I’m sure, but I’d prefer something factory, unless I can see all of the Engineering involved and have it vetted by someone extremely knowledgable in the art, even 10% of the investment would be more than I’d spend on someone else’s custom choices.

I hope that this goes well for the sellers, but think @RossW is spot-on.
 
But what museum? A bunch of random esoteric audio equipment built by someone who's barely even internet famous is going to be of zero interest to a museum, and they're certainly not going to pay for transportation.
 
j!m said:
They might be well served to donate the unusual bits to a museum and take the tax credit...
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I agree in regards to the main system. The speakers are just too large, difficult to move, and technically complex for 90% of potential buyers in that area. Combine that with the many constraints of the auction house and the market becomes incredibly restricted. I would not be surprised to see the three main speakers sell for <$5k.
 
WillRobinson said:
I would not be surprised to see the three main speakers sell for <$5k
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I think they'll do better than that (parts value alone and all that), but I predict we'll be seeing a lot of Panasonic leaf tweeters and 7" ScanSpeak drivers on eBay in the coming months! Wouldn't surprise me if the winning bidder shows up with a screwdriver, a sawzall, and a dumpster.
 
I was thinking the same thing. Not many will have room or want those giant speakers, but the parts are certainly worth a good amount. Taking them apart in the house would solve a lot of problems. Might take the whole 8 hours of pick up time to do it though.
 
I would take any custom speakers in a heart beat, seeing the Krell equipment and turntables. With the money invested he could have brought any speaker he wanted. So what is custom should be incredible.
 
Looks like the guy was somewhat in the industry...Talks about direct relationship with Thiel.....
 
Looks like there could be many deals available based solely on way too many rules, regulations, and stipulations ...

Buyers that can play will make out well.
 
Gotta love the stereo grandfather clocks. Gotta keep the symmetry. Wonder if the carpets are for sale, I don't think they were from Ikea :p

clocks.jpg
 
I wonder if the Million $ spent on all this,
he purchased 1 mil worth of say a dozen pair of Fairchild 275's
and 12 Marantz 7c's, 12 pair of JBL Hartsfields. Throw in a Dozen 30" EV woofers and enclosures.
Aprox cost 15-20 yrs ago? $384,000 a fair guess.
I'll even add $36,000 to Re-tube, and upgrade all the electronics. = 420,000
Me thinks the collection would certainly not be worth less than the Orig cost was.
 
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"Thus, the dream began and Ken spent almost 27 years building the best audio system he could with ho holds barred. It was completed in 2018, shortly before he was diagnosed with ALS."
And now he's dead, and everything he owned is being sold off at public auction.
Nature is a cruel b!tch.
 
nolasally said:
Also I believe he realized that the journey to create such a space and buy and integrate all this into a system was as much if not more enjoyment than actually sitting down and enjoying the fruits of his labor!
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He said as much in the background document. Ken said “It was a fun journey; the journey is better than the destination. Now that I’ve reached the destination, the music is going to tell me every time I put it on, you didn’t waste your time and money and you spent your time and money wisely, so enjoy it and I will.”


The terms do say you can arrange for shipping on your own, but doing that out of town and the company has to show up in the 8 hour window and pack for you. Maybe for some smalls but tough to do. And if you or your shipping company miss the pick-up window it and your funds are forfeit - legally I think they would be limited to loss after having to resell but still a pain.

It is to bad they had not made arrangements with a company to at least ship small items like drivers and crossovers. There are a lot of very interesting components.
 
I checked out some of their "recommended" shippers and they all seem to have pretty terrible reviews online. If there was someone with good reviews I might consider bidding on a couple things, but it really doesn't seem worth the hassle, and buyer's premium plus tax plus shipping is going to add up fast.
 
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