Did you ever find out the story of why it ended up at a thrift? My PSBs are small potatoes compared to your player, but I wonder why they were donated. My guess is somebody was cleaning out a house for a relative and figured they were just big old speakers.
I also wondered why there was a pair of Altec Valencias at my local Savation Army store. About 3 years after I bought them, I spoke to the guy at the SA store who handled the transaction for my speakers. I asked him who on earth would part with them? He told me that a nightclub on the beachfront(about a mile and a half away) had been demolished and a new nightclub built. Supposedly there were three pairs of speakers(all Valencias?). Two of the demolition guys took one pair each, and the last pair was donated to the Salvation Army store. At the time that I bought those Valencias, the Aussie dollar was worth MUCH less than it is currently. I paid the equivalent of $190US for them, in 2002.
That donated pair set me onto three different paths simultaneously:
I had been an audio lover since '77. My mindset was that newer is better. The Valencias caused me to have a rethink. A huge rethink. I was under the impression (from the media) that horns were crap. Not to my ears. Not from what I was hearing from the Valencias. Another spin-off of this rethink was to reconsider the Belt-Drive and Direct Drive situation. The same thing happened, I'd never owned a direct drive. Now, I've bought a succession of them and it has been the best decision I've made music-wise, ever.
That was the first path. Vintage is not always crap. The second was that I wanted to find-out information about the Altecs. I had never been on the internet. Not once ever. My brother visited me for Christmas. He wanted to go to an internet cafe(I, not having a computer). There was one a few miles away. After my brother had gone, I figured-out that there might be information about the Altecs on the internet. That initial need for information about the Valencias introduced me to the internet.
Thirdly, AudioKarma and internet forums.
I lurked here at AK for about six months before joining. I was wanting to find out information about a Kenwood amp I had bought. I saw a post on Audio Asylum by 'Bully' which had a link to AK at the bottom. Coming here, I found via a search, that EchoWars was an informed fellow on all things Kenwood. Plus, I liked the tone of AK as compared to AA. AudioKarma led to other forums and ultimately to going on the internet on a regular basis.
What a fateful decision it was, when those Altec Valencias were donated to the Salvation Army store by the demolition guys. A decision which changed my life in many ways. :yes:
