By: Yvette Pollozo
High fidelity audio – as a hobby – is really a no place to be ungrateful to your “richer-than-thou” audiophile brethren, especially if you are the type who can afford only used audio gear. Every time your well-heeled audiophile compatriot upgrades to a better, newer, and more likely much more expensive audio gear, it is more than likely that their pre-loved audio esoterica is now up for grabs in the second-hand market. Given access to this "inexpensive" diversity since I became a full-fledged audiophile since the 1990s, it is no wonder why I never found a reason to buy a brand new audio gear.
Add to that that I also learned to solder at about the same time after I have to do a science project “daring” enough to get a passing grade. Very cheap non-functioning equipment can be easily be brought back to life – especially sine most of them expired due to loose solder joints and loosened fuses. Though I still need a really steep learning curve in order to re-animate a dead Fisher 500-C receiver, but this hasn’t stopped me from collecting an impressive audio system for more than a decade now.
From my perspective, I guess the audio component that had undergone significant progress is the loudspeakers. Especially those in the entry-level bracket that are priced between 300 and 500 US dollars, though I never did manage to move away from my Mission 731 LE speakers – given that they date from 1995 and I’ve been tweaking them over the years by upgrading the internal wiring. And despite of what reviewers say, these speakers do work very nicely with the famed budget integrated amp of the 1990s – the Pioneer A400.
Maybe in the future I will be able to delve into the specialist tweak region of vacuum tube esoterica, especially since after joining our local audiophile club I’ve finally learned some theory about how tube amps work. Someday, I could finally find that fixer-upper of an Fisher 500-C receiver.
