Restored or Unmolested

joel27

joel27

Super Member
I was wondering....

From and investment standpoint, would you want to purchase a restored vintage unit or an unmolested unit that worked well?:scratch2:
 
This will be an interesting thread. I am not a true collector so I have no input but to say that as an avid fan of vintage, I want a product that works.
 
It would depend on who did the restoration. Personally I'd prefer an unmolested unit.

An example. I spotted a Sansui AU-999 intergrated amplifier today that was advertised as not working. At this point I am very interested but I read on..."we took it to a repair man but he couldn't fix it. I don't think he had much knowledge about vintage equipment but I asked him to replace all the caps"....This put me off. God knows what kind of caps are now in this thing.
 
I don't buy anything unless it's going to be used. That said I am having as many units in my systems (starting with the amps) recapped and completely restored. And since all of my amps save 1 are Pioneer SA-9100's when I got each restored I was able to tell how much of an improvement the work was.

If this summer is decent I'm planning on having a TX-9100 and An RG-2 recapped and refreshed. If the fall construction season goes well I'm going to have one of my Cassette decks refreshed.
 
For an investment, I'd want something that was original and unmolested. There's not much gear out there that I would want to consider as an investment though. Marantz 9s, maybe. I like to use my gear, so if it's been restored by a competent technician, I'd rather have the restored gear.
 
I would think a untouched working unit would be worth more , one persons idea of restored may be different then an others .
I have seen some real hack jobs on so called restored units . Unless I know or have seen the work done to the unit I will assume the worst and value it that way .

But that said there are not that may vintage units untouched in some way .


Barney
 
I do my own restoration. There are very few whose restoration work I would trust, in the entire country. I would buy restored units, when the work was done by EchoWars, or Vintage TX, in a heartbeat. There are a very few others, whose IDs don't jump into this old head right now. Otherwise, I want raw stuff to work with. I just don't like wiping other tech's rear ends, before I can get down to real restoration.

Enjoy,
Rich P
 
The trouble with vintage, it will not stay unmolested. At some point in time, it must be serviced and repaired. It would also determine who did the restoration.

With that said, I have an H/K Citation 19 being repaired by one of our members, and who will be servicing my H/K Citation 17 when the 19 returns home. I also have a McIntosh MA-5100 getting serviced at Audio Classics, which should be coming home one day next week.

I have two Duals that have been restored by Fix My Dual, and AR ES-1 that was repaired by Marc Morin, and an XA that was modded by Steve Frosten.

At least you know my answer. :thmbsp: :music:
 
Most of so called "restorers" have little understanding of what they are doing. Add here attempt to cut corners if unit is destined for sale, rather than personal use. So it is better buy original and restore it either yourself (if have enough knowledge), or work done by trusted engineer. But in the latter case it could be overall cheaper to buy modern device instead.
 
for_p1 said:
Most of so called "restorers" have little understanding of what they are doing. Add here attempt to cut corners if unit is destined for sale, rather than personal use. So it is better buy original and restore it either yourself (if have enough knowledge), or work done by trusted engineer. But in the latter case it could be overall cheaper to buy modern device instead.
Click to expand...
Whoa! Paintin' with a kinda broad brush ain't ya there partner?

Rich P
 
Last edited:
for_p1 said:
Most of so called "restorers" have little understanding of what they are doing. Add here attempt to cut corners if unit is destined for sale, rather than personal use. So it is better buy original and restore it either yourself (if have enough knowledge), or work done by trusted engineer. But in the latter case it could be overall cheaper to buy modern device instead.
Click to expand...

I restore units to the same high standard whether I am planning to sell them or not. I'm sure most of the other people on here do the same. The simple fact is, I would like to keep everything I restore (speakers especially), but space issues and finances get in the way. I also do some research and figure out better parts to use, caps in the signal path replaced with low leakage for example.

The sad reality is, a lot of people doing this stuff on here aren't getting paid a fair market rate for the work they do. Try telling someone you charge $80 an hour for work, and see how fast they disappear. But there's a shop local to me that charges just that, and they fixed an amp for a friend of mine that blew up again within six months.

Lee.
 
avionic said:
I would think a much better investment would be gold or silver.
Click to expand...

+1!

When I repair or restore a unit, even if it's a flip deal, I do the best possible work with good parts. I care about the gear and the owner experience.

There is a part of me that hates cheap crappy things.
So much stuff fails because of a few pennies cost.
I've fixed almost everything and the failure is either cheap design, poor manufacturing, lousy work or age.

Given that vintage gear had age but is fairly good quality, restored ( properly ) is much better bang for your buck.

I have seen some hack work that I imagine was wham bam repair work that I would not want. I've cleaned that up when I find it.
 
Rbuckner is going to restore/recap my marantz 2600 this summer for me :) no doubt it'll help add to its collectability and value. Done right is done right!
 
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