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The suspense is killing me... on the verge of a BIG scroe?
- Thread starter Arkay
- Start date
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..............:scratch2:.............
:ntwrthy:
BwanaJim
Well-Known Member
Arkay, I feel for you, I really do, but you have got to understand that after the big buildup of your first post you have us on the edge of our seat's clawing at our screen's waiting to find out what the "Thing" was.
Have a heart and put us out of this torment.
I feel like a fish on a line.
Have a heart and put us out of this torment.
I feel like a fish on a line.
theebadone
Super Member
Michael jacksons silver glove?
jimfet
Lunatic Member
I hope it's not Zeb.
d-ray657
Ain't this boogie a mess
Sharpstik
Stuck in the 70's
Looks like it.
We're getting annoyed.
Whatever it is, I figure I probably have never heard of it.
toxcrusadr
Omelette au Fromage
Not from this guy.
mech986
Lunatic Member
I posted a request in his turntable thread for him to come back and share his experience with us. I guess he's been PM'ed so much, his mailbox is stuffed and won't take any more PM's till he clears it up.
Hopefully, he'll make it back to this thread. We're all audio brothers and can help those who have missed the big scroe. Hey, we've all been there and are going to be again.
My recent miss - not buying more Apple shares when it was below 90 ( bottomed 3 times!!! :tears::tears
within the last 8 months. Today, 157!
Regards,
Bart
Hopefully, he'll make it back to this thread. We're all audio brothers and can help those who have missed the big scroe. Hey, we've all been there and are going to be again.
My recent miss - not buying more Apple shares when it was below 90 ( bottomed 3 times!!! :tears::tears
within the last 8 months. Today, 157!Regards,
Bart
Arkay
Lunatic Member
Geez, guys... lighten up, please! Very busy these summer days, and didn't want to post "downer" (for me) stuff the one time I was back on AK between then and now.
No, I didn't get it. The STUPID thing is that I could have, if I had been adamant about wanting it, instead of trying to play it cool (not give away too much eagerness) and say I thought I wanted it, but would check first, online.
The guy wasn't sure I wanted it, and went ahead and called a mainland buyer to come take it away...
...and I'll never forget the lesson, this time. A similar thing happened to me once before, with Westlake monitors I wanted.
Anyway, there are two types of buyers in Hong Kong used audio: the quick and the gear-less losers. This time, I was a loser.
Okay, I'll end the suspense: What I almost got for somewhere around US$125 was an Immersive Simmetry:
http://www.audioholics.com/news/pre...w-simmetry-dvp-universal-dvd-player-processor
The more I read about this unit, the more I realized what an upgrade it would have been to my HT/AV system. I've been wanting a player that could do DVD-A and SACD, and this thing not only would play those at TOP quality levels (along with regular DVDs and CDs), but it would have allowed me to watch LDs upscaled to HDTV levels, etc... It upscales, downscales, sideways scales and fish scales between all resolutions known to man, including New Years resolutions... or something like that. People on boards say it runs sonic circles around reputable brands like Jolida, too. And it would have been mine for less than 2 percent of the price of a new one... sigh!
About all it didn't do that I would want is Blu-Ray, but even a cheap Blu-Ray player with direct out, routed through this, would probably be pretty darned good. Good enough for me, anyway.
But I stupidly let it get away. I'll just try to pretend I never saw it in the first place, as I KNOW other gear goes through the market all the time that I never see or know about, when I'm not there, and this might just as well have been one of those.
There is more to the story, but I won't write another 1000 words to tell it. It's all moot, since I goofed and didn't get the thing. I'm putting it behind me and getting on with life and the hobby. No point in crying over lost opportunities; learn (hopefully!) the relevant lesson(s) and move on. There is plenty more gear around in the world, and I can't have it all.
D-Ray657, you have something there about the new turntable. I'm really enjoying fixing up the Acoustical (Jobo) 3100. It's a rare and very special beast, that continues to grow on me, and I feel privileged to have it. It is hardly in the same monetary value league as the Simmetry, but anyone with money can buy one of those; this neat old beast has to be found, first, and it definitely has a retro-collectible cachet to it that the Simmetry may never have. It will fit very nicely into my small but growing "core" collection of favorite vintage TTs.
On that topic, I moved closer to a deal in negotiations on my fixer-upper TD124 today, as well. The price has moved down to around $425, perhaps $450 with a decent new plinth added. I also have been offered the option of a complete, original one in good, clean working condition for around $750-800, if I prefer that.
To my pleasant surprise, the SME 3009 tonearm that came on the Acoustical is in far better shape than I thought. As soon as I put a counterweight on it (borrowed off of another one), the knife-edge bearing sat right in its track; the weird looseness I was sensing was just the insufficient weight to anchor it properly. Also, what I thought might be corrosion was just some surface gunk that wiped right off. It took little more than a wiping-off to have it mostly shiny-gleaming. The arm-lifter works, but doesn't quite lift the arm high enough. A clean-up and new fluid should fix that, I think.
I need to rebuild the arm, but it is not the total basket-case I had feared, and will restore beautifully with a little time and cost. All I need is to find the counterweight and the other two weights, and do the work. Haven't checked the wires yet; still might need to replace the wiring(?), which I might do anyway, as part of the restoration of the TT. I want to do this one right, as it will be a "keeper", at least for a good while. On the good side, it is anything but a complex TT, so the restoration won't be too difficult nor too time-consuming.
On the flip side of that (no pun!), I may also have found a new channel to sell some TTs through, which will help me to get rid of the excess of them that I have. I'm gradually getting enough GOOD ones that I don't want to keep the more plebian mid-fi ones around any longer, taking up space and getting little or no use. I'll keep one for testing old LPs on, and one or two for single-brand gear stacks (which I may also sell, eventually), but no others that aren't really 'special'.
Sorry about the UNintentional "wind up" and the 1-day delay in getting back here and posting about what it was, guys. Didn't realize people would take this so seriously! That said, I was genuinely excited about it, and genuinely disappointed (mostly with myself for not "nailing it down" when I had the chance)... but now it is history, no more than a "one that got away" story. For me, it's my biggest/most serious "one that got away" story, BY FAR ... but still, only a story now. Not a scroe, not something I can do anything about, and not something that will change my life. Only actually getting it would have been/done that.
On the bright side, I learned a bit more about newer HT formats and some new gear choices, while researching this. If I ever see another one, or anything like it, I'll know better what I am actually seeing, and what it is worth. Who knows? Maybe there will be a second chance at one? I wouldn't think so, but I wouldn't expect that thing to have ever showed up in the market here where it did, in the first place. It still totally baffles me how it got there, where I saw it... in the hands of people who had no clue to its function or value, who couldn't even read the label on it, and were guessing blindly at what to charge for it. I understand how 30-year-old vintage stuff get there, and how 10-year old plastic cr*p gets there, but THIS? Even after several years, this market can sometimes still surprise and amaze me.
No, I didn't get it. The STUPID thing is that I could have, if I had been adamant about wanting it, instead of trying to play it cool (not give away too much eagerness) and say I thought I wanted it, but would check first, online.
The guy wasn't sure I wanted it, and went ahead and called a mainland buyer to come take it away...
...and I'll never forget the lesson, this time. A similar thing happened to me once before, with Westlake monitors I wanted.
Anyway, there are two types of buyers in Hong Kong used audio: the quick and the gear-less losers. This time, I was a loser.
Okay, I'll end the suspense: What I almost got for somewhere around US$125 was an Immersive Simmetry:
http://www.audioholics.com/news/pre...w-simmetry-dvp-universal-dvd-player-processor
The more I read about this unit, the more I realized what an upgrade it would have been to my HT/AV system. I've been wanting a player that could do DVD-A and SACD, and this thing not only would play those at TOP quality levels (along with regular DVDs and CDs), but it would have allowed me to watch LDs upscaled to HDTV levels, etc... It upscales, downscales, sideways scales and fish scales between all resolutions known to man, including New Years resolutions... or something like that.
People on boards say it runs sonic circles around reputable brands like Jolida, too. And it would have been mine for less than 2 percent of the price of a new one... sigh! About all it didn't do that I would want is Blu-Ray, but even a cheap Blu-Ray player with direct out, routed through this, would probably be pretty darned good. Good enough for me, anyway.
But I stupidly let it get away. I'll just try to pretend I never saw it in the first place, as I KNOW other gear goes through the market all the time that I never see or know about, when I'm not there, and this might just as well have been one of those.
There is more to the story, but I won't write another 1000 words to tell it. It's all moot, since I goofed and didn't get the thing. I'm putting it behind me and getting on with life and the hobby. No point in crying over lost opportunities; learn (hopefully!) the relevant lesson(s) and move on. There is plenty more gear around in the world, and I can't have it all.
D-Ray657, you have something there about the new turntable. I'm really enjoying fixing up the Acoustical (Jobo) 3100. It's a rare and very special beast, that continues to grow on me, and I feel privileged to have it. It is hardly in the same monetary value league as the Simmetry, but anyone with money can buy one of those; this neat old beast has to be found, first, and it definitely has a retro-collectible cachet to it that the Simmetry may never have. It will fit very nicely into my small but growing "core" collection of favorite vintage TTs.
On that topic, I moved closer to a deal in negotiations on my fixer-upper TD124 today, as well. The price has moved down to around $425, perhaps $450 with a decent new plinth added. I also have been offered the option of a complete, original one in good, clean working condition for around $750-800, if I prefer that.
To my pleasant surprise, the SME 3009 tonearm that came on the Acoustical is in far better shape than I thought. As soon as I put a counterweight on it (borrowed off of another one), the knife-edge bearing sat right in its track; the weird looseness I was sensing was just the insufficient weight to anchor it properly. Also, what I thought might be corrosion was just some surface gunk that wiped right off. It took little more than a wiping-off to have it mostly shiny-gleaming. The arm-lifter works, but doesn't quite lift the arm high enough. A clean-up and new fluid should fix that, I think.
I need to rebuild the arm, but it is not the total basket-case I had feared, and will restore beautifully with a little time and cost. All I need is to find the counterweight and the other two weights, and do the work. Haven't checked the wires yet; still might need to replace the wiring(?), which I might do anyway, as part of the restoration of the TT. I want to do this one right, as it will be a "keeper", at least for a good while. On the good side, it is anything but a complex TT, so the restoration won't be too difficult nor too time-consuming.
On the flip side of that (no pun!), I may also have found a new channel to sell some TTs through, which will help me to get rid of the excess of them that I have. I'm gradually getting enough GOOD ones that I don't want to keep the more plebian mid-fi ones around any longer, taking up space and getting little or no use. I'll keep one for testing old LPs on, and one or two for single-brand gear stacks (which I may also sell, eventually), but no others that aren't really 'special'.
Sorry about the UNintentional "wind up" and the 1-day delay in getting back here and posting about what it was, guys. Didn't realize people would take this so seriously! That said, I was genuinely excited about it, and genuinely disappointed (mostly with myself for not "nailing it down" when I had the chance)... but now it is history, no more than a "one that got away" story. For me, it's my biggest/most serious "one that got away" story, BY FAR ... but still, only a story now. Not a scroe, not something I can do anything about, and not something that will change my life. Only actually getting it would have been/done that.
On the bright side, I learned a bit more about newer HT formats and some new gear choices, while researching this. If I ever see another one, or anything like it, I'll know better what I am actually seeing, and what it is worth. Who knows? Maybe there will be a second chance at one? I wouldn't think so, but I wouldn't expect that thing to have ever showed up in the market here where it did, in the first place. It still totally baffles me how it got there, where I saw it... in the hands of people who had no clue to its function or value, who couldn't even read the label on it, and were guessing blindly at what to charge for it. I understand how 30-year-old vintage stuff get there, and how 10-year old plastic cr*p gets there, but THIS? Even after several years, this market can sometimes still surprise and amaze me.
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