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The craziest vintage hifi collection I have ever seen - mindblowing, yet anonymous!

Is this more vintage audio equipment than any one man should have?

  • Yes, this one guy is hoarding all of the best stuff and driving up prices for everyone else.

  • No, individuals should be able to hoard as much of anything in this world that they want.

  • WTH, so that's where all of the vintage gear I've been trying to find ended up!

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I don't know why, but looking at those pictures just made me feel sorry for his family, or who ever has to deal with all that stuff when he passes.

I'm quickly getting to an age that I can see the finish line, and the idea of leaving all my stuff to my kid and/or wife to deal with seems cruel. I'm slowly trying to get rid of the hoards of excess stuff I have accumulated through the years. The hassle seems worth it now so that my kid won't be burdened with having to deal with it later on. He has a say in what he wants, but anything I don't regularly use and he doesn't want has a limited time in my possession.

That being said, it is a stupidly impressive collection.
 
Bone Yard said:
Awesome collection! I have personally seen many like that up here and some really nice stuff also wasting away in falling apart environments.

For the guys that say the money could be spent elsewhere, sorry you're on another planet....Personally I save stuff that would have been 2' under dirt, doing nothing for the enviroment, and have been doing it for years, I used to get laughed at for "hoarding" tape decks, now I'm sitting on a small fortune. I saved a lot of the stuff everyone wants now, and there was a lot more guys like me, even Crusty had a storage unit back in the early 2000's when the early "hoarders" were saving this equipment. Some of my $5 boomboxes are worth hundreds, if not thousands. I've also bought equipment from guys down on their luck or charity groups, what better way to make everyone happy? Locally we even have training classes that fixes electronics and sells them and it's a win/win for both sides. Back when the charity thrifts were actually selling this equipment I was a buyer, I even remember begging to buy non-working stereo that Goodwill wanted to throw out.

The younger members might not understand the late 90's to the mid-2000's, everyone wanted mini stereos, Bose ruled the world and we were laughed at for owning a monster reciever. I was buying (saving) a big-ass reciever every few weeks but I still heard horror stories of the Pioneer Silver Stack that was thrown away last week because it was just too big.

Yes there are a lot of guys like this around but not just stereo, I've personally seen huge pinball/video game collections, vintage clocks, vintage toys, and one guy also collected vintage car engines, no cars, just the engines set up on stands, it was amazing.

The American Pickers said it best, the collectors have the stories and the passion and they're very interesting, sure there's real hoarders but they have crap like 50 jars of aspirin and 20 boxes of cereal along with a ton of other stuff.
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I've acquired a nice but small collection of vintage audio, but even more vintage guitars, basses, keyboards, synthesizers, and amps (edit: I release and record my own music to the major streaming services, so I actually use the music gear. Not a "collector"). My rule has always been "never sell," and it's satisfying to realize that holding on to just a little too much stuff ended up being worth it.

You mention tape decks, and I was just looking at eBay in the past few days having my mind blown by how much people are asking for Nakamichi tape decks now - like crazy, insane prices: $10,000 for a Dragon, $850 for a BX-100, prices like that. Nakamichi decks are one rare case of me getting rid of stuff and now regretting it. I owned a CR-1A, BX-100, and CR-3A over the years and by the early 2000s I was living in a tiny NYC apartment and had no idea where to take audio gear for repair and restoration. I left the CR-1A and CR-3A on the curb, and also a NAD Monitor Series 5000 CD player that didn't track. All of that stuff could have been restored, but I was moving and in NYC when you run out of space you have no choice but to purge.

The good news is I bought a Nak DR-8 brand new in a close-out sale at one of the famous Manhattan audio outlets. There were only 5 left and after that I believe there would never be another new Nak deck. I only put about 20 hours on it digitizing some cassettes and it has remained pristine ever since. I found a H/K CD91 cassette deck in mint, working condition at the local Goodwill for $6 a couple of years ago. Still mourning my decision to leave those Naks on the curb though!

These days I'm noticing that the asking prices for stuff I thought I'd have a chance to buy when I had the funds are now moving out of my reach, I mistakenly believed that that gear had flatlined in price and wouldn't ever go up again. Now I'm widening the search wondering what I should snatch up before it also gets re-discovered.
 
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There can't be many people that can afford to do this. Not just the money, but the time. Like the big car collectors like Jay Leno or Seinfeld. I wonder if this person has some people that help. Man, just the dust!

I signed up to Instagram just to see.... I wish there were bigger/higher resolution images.
 
What he wants to collect is his own business. What gets me is showing off the equipment like bragging. I could see documenting pieces for others and to record some history. Or letting people visit and see and hear.
 
What does it cost to join a high end golf club? $100k? How about Bill Gates having an affair? $3 billion. Or Ford investing in a really great vision system for autonomous cars, only to abandon the project? $12 million?

His system needs to be put in perspective. Maybe $70k looks like a lot, and it would be to me, but I’m not in that world.

Peter
 
Of course anything using tape is obsolete today and wouldn't be even considered. Everyone streams now days. So no turn tables or disc player either are needed. So lets say you have a 1000 stereo LP's and 200 mono records. Do you need one TT or two? Further lets say you have 1000 cassettes and maybe 1000 R2R tapes. Do you give up your tape machines. What if you have a couple hundred of Beta Hifi tapes or a 1000 Laser discs do you give up your laser player? Speakers. Well that can be an issue to. Line array, Horn loaded or point source, each nave a specific purpose and sound. Which to choose. Some performances sound better with one type and not the other. So you keep all the equipment. Don't critisize unless you walked in the other mans moccasins.
 
It isn't for me to tell this person how to spend his coin.

I wonder, tho.....reckon he techs for himself, or sources it out??

Regardless, this takes me back to being a precocious kid, salivating and wanting all this goodness.
 
Asmodeus2112 said:
He is Demirayak. He posts his music on his feed. Googled his name. Looks like he is in Turkey.
https://postkolik.com/roportaj/demirayak-music-ile-yeni-albumu-freeze-uzerine-konustuk
https://www.haberturk.com/yasam/haber/907688-afyonda-bir-muzik-muzesi

I haven't spent the time to try to figure out where his wealth comes from.
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I listened to a couple of his tracks on Spotify, and as a musician/producer myself, I'm relieved to find out that he uses his amazing synthesizer collection to make very competent, professional sounding music. Mystery finally solved!
 
botrytis said:
Some old pics of AK Beemer's collection....

I don't know what happened to him, he was gruff but when you got to know him, he would give you the shirt off of his back.

View attachment 2233566 View attachment 2233567 View attachment 2233568 View attachment 2233569 View attachment 2233570 View attachment 2233571 View attachment 2233572 View attachment 2233573 View attachment 2233574 View attachment 2233575
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What's the make and model of the tall speakers with all of the small drivers? I've always been really curious about how that design sounds - amazing, I imagine.
 
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