New vs. Used
If there's one thing I love about the
Ask Wes portion of this website, it's the way it
tells me what readers want to know. Apparently, one of the questions on a lot of folks'
minds is whether it’s better to buy new or used equipment. I have a simple,
unequivocal answer: It all depends.
Obviously, if you have a strong inclination one way or the
other, you should heed it. No amount of reassurance from me will convince anyone who truly
distrusts previously owned equipment. I understand this -- part of what you buy when you
buy a new component is peace of mind. New merchandise comes with a warranty, and, most
times, an establishment that will still be around when you need it for service or
assistance. (If you're not getting those things, perhaps you shouldn't be paying full
price; after all, they’re a big part of the expense that real retailers have to
support.)
On the other hand, many people just can't understand why
anyone would buy merchandise new and take the full depreciation hit for it. They reason
that, if they’re willing to wait until the new wears off, they can find bargains. And
that's true, too -- mostly.
If you don't have much money, you'll probably have to buy
new. You can buy inexpensive CD and DVD players, receivers, and pairs of loudspeakers for
well under $200 each. In fact, you should buy really inexpensive equipment new,
because it's not made to last -- you just don't save enough buying it used to make it
worth the risk.
Risk? Yeah. Because cheap'n'cheerful hi-fi isn't
made to last, it's amazing how frequently it doesn't survive the sale. "It was
working fine before I disconnected it to bring it down here," customers used to tell
me when I worked for a hi-fi store that specialized in previously owned gear. They were
probably even telling the truth.
But high-end hi-fi components are made to deliver years of
trouble-free service, and most do just that. Many come with transferable warranties, some
of them quite extended (such as Bryston's 20-year warranty).
Then there's the whole classic equipment movement. If you
wonder why anyone would buy a 20-year-old amplifier or preamp, you've probably never heard
an Audio Research SP-6 or a Conrad-Johnson MV-45 (or a Marantz 8B, to cite a 40-year-old
example). These units may not be as "uncolored" or transparent as the best
modern stuff, but they have soul and style and can have phenomenally satisfying sound.
Of course, just as you do when you shop for new gear, you
have to know what you want.
As much as I admire many classic loudspeakers, including
the Quad ESL-57, which was my entrée into the high end, there aren't many classic
speakers I'd care to live with. But a lot of models have been produced in the last 10
years that I could easily retire with and never regret a thing. (Glance at
www.onhifi.com's archives for a double handful of them.) For my money, no matter what
people might say about the golden age of hi-fi, speakers have gotten a lot better.
I think that's also true of amplification -- but I could
very easily live with a Marantz 8B or an Audio Research SP-10 or a Krell KSA-50. The state
of the contemporary art? Nah. Ask me if I'd care.
A 20-year-old CD player would be different. Real progress
has been made in digital sound -- I couldn't live with circa 1990 digital, much less circa
1981. And although it has yet to achieve any kind of market momentum, I'd hate to give up
on SACD -- so I'm happy that Sony’s wonderful early reference-level players are now
appearing on the used market. Maybe I can finally afford one.
Paradoxically, turntables have seen the same sorts of
improvements in the last two decades. There's still a lot of pleasure that can be derived
from a 1980 Linn LP12 or even a similar-vintage AR, but if I bought an old Linn, I'd be
willing to spend quite a bit of money buying the upgrades to it that the company has
continued to make over the last two decades -- all of which have made it sound even
better.
That said, there are affordable new turntables, from
Rega and Pro-Ject, that sound better than some of the classic and more costly 'tables of
old. There was a time when saying that would have been considered heresy, but sometimes we
do make progress -- and if that's true in this case, I think all of us audiophiles owe
Michael Fremer a vote of thanks for keeping the faith.
Then there's cable -- audio's orphan matchgirl. In all of
used hi-fi, there is no area where there are better bargains than in used audio cables --
and no area where the differences between designs seem more pronounced. You want to make
big changes in your system without getting rid of any of your favorite components (or your
favorite dead presidents)? Then play around with used audio cable.
But take a tip from an old married audiophile -- if you
want a long, happy marriage, don’t ask your wife, "Does this sound better?"
It'll probably just irritate her, but if you're really unlucky, she'll ask, "What did
it cost?"
No matter how much you saved buying used, your answer will
be the wrong one.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhifi.com
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