You really have to admire Ken Fritz's craftsmanship. I wish I had 1% of his skills. I'm not so sure his audio design skills were commensurate. I do think a lot of effort and expenditure was misplaced. For a start all those class A amps where quite "over the top". The creates enormous wasted heat which has to be removed by AC. There is no benefit here over more efficient designs.
As I have pointed out I have concerns about some aspect of the speaker design.
I don't think there was value for money from that massive financial outlay. The trick is to make it look like you spent a lot of money, when actually you were quite frugal. He spent years putting all that together but few years of pleasure from it.
So, I certainly have been on a very different path. My plan is to get maximum returns over time for the least expenditure.
This means picking your items carefully. Longevity is the hardest to assess, and I guess in that regard I have been lucky. I buy carefully and keep long. I have items still in use that I bought as far back as 1966. I do as much of my service work as possible. I seldom upgrade. AV changed that somewhat in the last 20 years or so, as it has been an evolving technology. However three of the five AVPs that I have purchased are in daily use. One is boxed in storage, and my first AVP was sold.
Generally I buy units new, but I do buy some used but more often in years past for restoration. My Thorens TD 125 Mk II was a restoration job and bought for very little. The three Revox A77 open reel machines were restorations.
My most significant expense of my whole audio career were the parts and construction of my front three speakers.
The power amps were all collected over time, as the system expanded. Added together that was the most significant expense.
Out of it all I have three systems in daily use.
After my half day out with the undertaker, hopefully my sons can make good sales on eBay. Many items especially the turntables and the Quad equipment is highly sought after. Home built speakers never fetch much, so the drivers will probably be sold.
On a year to year basis, I have spent actually very little. I try to buy once and not upgrade, unless due to obsolescence which has been required, but even so, this equipment has been moved into other systems.
I am still using all the flat panel TVs
nbabite I have ever bought, except one Sony LCD I sold with our lake home.
The HTPC has had two rebuilds now, and the DAW one.
So, with care you can achieve state of the art on a comparative shoe string. This is also something the family have, and continue to enjoy.
