How much have you spent on hifi?

[Anonymous]

I'm sitting on about £4k worth of kit, including some I'm about to give to my dad. Not bad really given that I use it virtually everyday. I'm 29 and have probably given charity shops as much money for their used CDs!

I have so many CDs and continue to buy so many that I think my OH might just run out to buy me a DAC and NAS

 

[SHAXOS]

AMP COST ME 2300
CD PLAYER COST 500
SPEAKERS 1400
STANDS 300
spent a futher 1050 on a cinema set up..
OUCH! I could have a car instead or..? And Im still a stundent! Luckily i dont think ill lose too much should i wish to cash in.

 

[Anonymous]

From the top of the rack..

Rega 3 [ circa very old ] £30..

Lenco [ for playing 78's on ] free

ADC XLM cartridge... couple of quid from charity shop !

Technics A600 amp... tenner

NAD phono stage £90

Beresford DAC £130

Cambridge D100 cd player £20

Ancient Technics tuner free

Denon tape deck of uncertain vintage £20

Sony mini disc player free [ rescued ]

Spendor BCI's free [ local freecycle ]

Stands free from somewhere?? skip probably

Heywire speaker wire scrounged

various leads about £60

Rack about £20 from a charity shop [ it is a good one all the same, unknown make but quality ]

about £400 for the current pile of old electrics..... most of it has been acquired by luck especially the BC1's and Rega

The missus thinks I spend loads on my kit

actually it is my bicycles that I spend big money on but they live in the shed out of sight

 

[Alec]

igglebert:I'm sitting on about £4k worth of kit

And then, you see, you get folk who spend good money on their kit then treat it like that.

The mind boggles.

 

[Flatsound]

Well, I don't think I spent a lot of money in hi-fi. I spent around £2.300 and I realized that I could spent less money.

In my opinion the most important in this hobby is discovery what kind of musical presentation we really enjoy. There are so many hifi gear and I believe very few can be pleasant for everyone.

 

[cheyworth]

Something like £6.5k on current system but maybe £1k to add with other stuff.

Chris

 

[idc]

I never intended to include the cost of all the music/DVDs etc, that would be seriously scary

. I didn't include my most recent purchase which was £99 on a years Spotify Premium, which now looks an absolute bargain.

So how many of you are revising household insurance after adding it all up? Usually anything worth more than £1000 has to be declared. I checked with my insurer and the hifi is not valued as a whole, each part is valued separately. Which seems a bit odd, as if someone would break in and unplug different parts and leave others behind.

 

[pwiles1968]

AV in the front room is about..... Ummmm Please don't tell the wife but A little shy of 6.5K sitting in my front room including Plasma and interconnects, 1/2 to 2/3 of that is stereo specific, that is if if I had ever paid retail price, around 4 to 4.5k in real money but I have built my system over the last 15 years bits at a time when I can afford it and feel the need.

I know lot of people don't understand someone spending thousands on AV, but I know Golfers and Fishermen that spend silly amounts on their Hobby, I have probably spent as much on Archery Kit in the last three years as I have on AV.

 

[John Duncan]

I stopped counting around the 7 grand mark (that's outlay, ever, ignoring any sales or trade-ins).

 

[chebby]

No idea.

Not a huge amount in any given year. (This year was atypical.)

My budget system cost me about £2400 over the last year (includes everything, turntable, cartridge, DAC etc.) but was probably worth about £300 more because of ex-dem deals.

I am not counting the proceeds from selling the Arcam Solo-Mini.

The 'core' system (CD, amp, speakers) was only £1900 in total.

Given that we spent £22,500 of savings on the house last year (all in 6 weeks) it sort of pales into insignificance really.

 

[John Duncan]

Agreed, my current system was £212 (CD), £315 (amp), £400 (speakers).

Though I have had the measuring tape out......

 

[crusaderlord]

When i moved into my first flat i spent £350 on my NAD / Mission set up from Richer Sounds. I kept this for almost 20 years only adding some Sennheiser HD595 phones i got new for £100 when kids came and i needed to be quiet.

When i hit my 40's my Nad amp packed up and it set of a whole new hobby. The Arcam FMJ / Neat system i have upgraded to cost me £2,100 but the extras including stands, speaker cable, interconnects, isolation platforms, mains stuff have added another £600 by now over the last year.

But stereo hifi is my priority for relaxing and i think its money very well spent - i have never enjoyed a hobby or got as much use out of anything else.

By contrast my new Sony HD TV, Bluray and 5.1 Surround sound set up only cost me £600 and actually it does a pretty decent job - its not used for music though.

 

[Anonymous]

idc:
Paulthefilmfan:Too much, I almost want to cry thinking about it...........

I just don't see it that way. Measured as pound per hour hour of enjoyment it is way less than I thought or what I have spent on other enjoyable things.

P.S - I would imaging that the cost for av fans will be much higher, to factor in the cost of TVs, Sky, VCRs, DVDs etc.

I was including my av stuff too thank goodness, so guess I was not answering the question above.lol.

 

[Anonymous]

idc:

So how many of you are revising household insurance after adding it all up? Usually anything worth more than £1000 has to be declared. I checked with my insurer and the hifi is not valued as a whole, each part is valued separately. Which seems a bit odd, as if someone would break in and unplug different parts and leave others behind.

Already have done as I have a very large music collection so I have a lot of money and time invested in it ! Current system approx £3,100.

 

[Dave_]

Around £4k on hi-fi,and around £5k on A/V.Though soon to be considerably more on A/V

,and dread to think how much has been spent on cd's/dvd's but more than HI-FI/A/V combined would imagine over the years.

 

[Anonymous]

Around £8k (rrp £11.5k ish

) on AV set up, not including old speakers (3 sets) an amp and a 42" lcd I've donated to my family.............

Scary!

 

[Anonymous]

Approximately 2000.00 in the last 10 years.

 

[Mike_Schmidt]

ah around $30000

 

[idc]

Mike_Schmidt:ah around $30000

(at todays conversion rate that is £18,852

)

 

[Tear Drop]

Current system about £25k. In total since I started? I dread to think. However, whenever I play an LP I instantly know it has been worth the time, effort and money.

 

[Anonymous]

I am sitting at a modest £1.3K outlay (1.7K at RRP)... but this is far from over

(That's for current system - not historical total

 

[JoelSim]

Current system only

Arcam A85/P85/T61 £540 (2nd hand)

Arcam CD192 £400 (new)

Dali Ikon 6 £650 (ex demo)

ProAc Tablette Ref 8 Sigs £595 (ex demo)

Panasonic TH42PX70 £730 (new)

Arcam DV79 £265 (2nd hand inc free vdh D102 III)

Chord Chameleon £66 (new)

QED SA XT x16m £180 (new)

16m copper cable £65 (new)

CrystalCable Piccollo £free gift

Merlin Black Widow £45 (new)

Russ Andrews PK £free gift

Nordost Shiva £74 (2nd hand)

Clearer Audio Silverlines x2 with Furutech & wattgate gold £300 the pair (2nd hand)

Tacima x2 £50 (new)

Hifiracks.co.uk £280 (new)

Chord Silver HDMI £30 (2nd hand)

Graham Slee Gram Amp 2 £135 (new)

ProJect Debut III £gift

That's £4,405 on my current system, but RRP for this would be £9,030 ish

 

[Big Chris]

For my Hi-Fi, at present it's:

Arcam A65+.............................380 quid (new in '02)
Arcam CD192............................320 quid (2nd hand, earlier this month)
B&W 602 S3s............................300 quid (new in '02)
Partington Trophy stands...............100 quid (new in '02)
Kimber Silver Streak I/C...............60 quid (2nd hand, about 4 years ago)
QED S.A Biwire (5metres)...............Free when I bought the speakers.
R.A Classik Powerkord w/W320 x2, 3ft...Circa 150 quid (Can't remember exactly. New in '04/'05)
R.A 8-way Silencerblock................Circa 180 quid (Again, can't remember exactly. New in '06)
R.A Classik Powerkord w/16A IEC, 6ft...Circa 100 quid (Ditto above, bought for the Silencerblock)
Rothwell Attenuators...................38 quid (new in April this year)

All in.................................1628.00 quid

 

[up the music]

I figure new cost of kit in sig to be approx £9500. I paid £3200. 2nd hand value £2650. Losses are mostly due to PC and cable depreciation.

Total cash spend on everything including stuff on loan, in the cupboard etc = approx £9250.

If this and all my other stereo and AV kit were sold, equipment that has died factored in and electricity usage added on, loss of bank interest over the years accounted for I could be about £5750 better off.

 

[gbhsi1]

Too much...especially on little tweaks. My next buy will be a Roksan LIII stereo power amp to accompany my Kandy LIII intergrated! hi-fi heaven..well, almost!