Really so many "water fishes" at neighbouring forum???

S6Edge

Same Water Fishes seeker "cuts" the price of his so-called first generation TOP Argento digital cable from the original asking price HKD7,000 to HKD3,800 (but still claimed to be then the TOP MODEL despite others pointed out that there was a VDM Master Reference series on the TOP).

價錢 HK$: 3800
Argento VDM reference digital coaxial

Truth is now very hard to sell given the cease of trust!

S6Edge

My concern is "relevance" - if it happens at R33
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R## is just a platform.  Those who try to sell there will also attempt to sell their gears here or at 67, or at any one AV consignment shops in Mongkok or the Central.

Just to point out how absurd are their claims (98% new, "looked brand new" for a twenty year something Accuphase 280V, and surely NO BARGAIN! and "NEW" CDs AFTER ripping!!!)_

S6Edge

Another WF seeker:

價錢 HK$: 6000 (Revised)

A pair of RARE custom made Ortofon 6N TSW-5000 Silver (L) tonearm cable, 'L' DIN to RCA in 2.2m long. (6N pure silver means 99.9999% pure silver). The condition is about 90% new where the earth ground lead is special made and not original which DO NOT affect the performance at all.

Ortofon TSW-5000 tonearm cables are sought-after items in the market and the L shape DIN version is the most expensive type among straight DIN and RCA.
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Truth was this TSW-5000 sold for less than HKD4,000 back then.  And many claimed the sonic signature of this silver cable to be too "see man" and lacking energy.  And another truth was Ortofon discarded producing this series because of mediocre sales!

S6Edge

Another water fishes seeker:

BMW 535i GT   
價錢 HK$: 300000
女仕車主、用作接送孩子上學、0首、行貨、2011 July, 電尾冚、泊車鏡頭 bluetooth....
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Pardon me? Half of the brand new price having used by 6 or 7 years???

S6Edge

Another laughable one:

價錢 HK$: 16000
SONY SCD-1 SACD/CD機連遙控
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Come on! A 15 year-old FIRST generation SACD player famous (or infamous!) for its harsh, mechanical sounding with edgy highs???  And as with Wadia and other older generation players, you sure you can find the replacement parts once it's broken?

Rule NUMBER one: Never buy gears which cannot get replacement/NOS parts.  E.g. include old cd players employing SONY KSS-151a laser pickup, all cd players (mostly American ones) which produced ten to fifteen years ago (currently manager at HQ Wadia in the US emailed me that they NO LONGER carry ANY parts for most of "their" players!).

Rule NUMBER two: Don't trust the naive believe that older stuff are better.  E.g. are most LS3/5a loudspeakers.  They were already NOT that great when brand new.  Just a rich mid-vocals coupled with a boosted upper bass (but will significant rolling offs in highs).  And now thirty something years after production??? With caps drying up?  magnetized coils and degenerated parts including loosened cabinet joints?  Over HKD10K? Again pardon me!

S6Edge

Another water fish seeker:

價錢 HK$: 5000.
Siltech FTM-3S 第三代銀線, RCA, 0.8m長, 全原廠線
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Second-hand price in sites in US/EU is Euro 300 to 400.

Again the "smart" strategy of starting with an ultra-high price is like treating ALL pals at R##, Hiendy and 76 as dumb heads!

S6Edge

Wa wa wa, really big mouth below:

出售: Goldmund Relief Clamp 瑞士高文唱片壓   
價錢 HK$: 9800

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Goldmund's black clamp was used to sell for less than HKD3K.  Now asking HKD9.8K ha ha ha!

And anyone who played with Goldmund's clamps know that they mostly match only with Goldmund's turntables and have strange sounding with other turntables, be hard tables or springy ones!

S6Edge

Another water fish seeker:

出售: AKG K712 pro 行貨   
價錢 HK$: 1600
行貨保養至12月，95% new. Full box.
可加錢換 HD700
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According from price.com.hk, a brand new parallel imported K712 sells for HKD1,740 (or less, after negotiation!).

Asking HKD1.6K for a headphone which might have absorbed significant germs from human skins???

RULE THREE: A large discount is to be made for headphones, particularly over the skull headphones which have DIRECT contacts with the original owners!

RULE FOUR: Acceptable price of second hand gears are TO BE COMPARED to price of brand new same second hand gears, unless the remaining warranty of the second hand gears are nearly the newly purchased ones.

S6Edge

Latest news: Asking price of Argento VDM Reference "top" digital cable has dropped to HKD3.5K, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay below the first asking price of HKD7K (and even the dumbest won't consider!)

RULE FIVE (for sellers): It is indeed very stupid to set a skyrocket HIGH asking price, hoping others won't double check and can still reap a good returns even after "heavy" negotiations.  The result (most often) is honesty is lost and few will believe with comments of the seller...And end result is:

YOU CONTINUE TO BE THE PROUD OWNER OF THE GEAR FOREVER!

S6Edge

Indeed Rule Number 5 also applies to most hifi shops, which scare the bulk of potential buyers all these years by 1) asking a skyrocket high price; 2) show poker faces, black faces and poor services; 3) A COMPLETE lack of professional knowledge and ask the potential buyers to go check online!

Go visit Tim Chi on Sat. and one will notice there only a few small cats even during the busiest hours.

One word: DESERVED!  Increasing of these PK hifi sales will lose their jobs as economic downturn persists ha ha ha!!!

S6Edge

[#1] 出售: Meitner MA-1 DSD DAC   
價錢 HK$: 27000
升級放售, 100% 正常. 有盒冇單, 九五成新.
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RULE SIX: Discount of digital gears should be DEEP, VERY DEEP, due to the rapid advancement in digital and particularly DAC technology.  It is insane to ask HKD18K for a Wadia 2000.

Always remember Moore's Law: CPU power doubles every 18 months!!!  That means the calculation power of today's DAC maybe 2 to the power 13 compared to old DAC 20 years ago.  Conclusion is to avoid buying ALL old DACs!!!

diamondblack

S6Edge 發表於 2016-4-11 06:00
[#1] 出售: Meitner MA-1 DSD DAC   
價錢 HK$: 27000
升級放售, 100% 正常. 有盒冇單, 九五成新.

I don't quite agree with your rule 6. The analog stage has a lot to say about a DAC's sound character and signature. The development on the digital front gives us, well, a processor with the capability to decode even DXD and DSD256 at a very low price, but then who needs DXD and DSD256, and why would the same chip sound so differently for different brands?

S6Edge

The analog stage has a lot to say about a DAC's sound character and signature.
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Only true when comparing apples to apples, i.e. DACs are prices at similar prices and/or similar specifications.

Indeed, in the old days, quite some DACs had to "bend for the deficiencies of the then low resolution and high noise of their digital processors".  Wadia 2000, among others, had to set a rather low corner frequency, so that the noise emitted from the digital processing boards would not transmit to the analogue parts.  That was also the same for some other medium to even higher end DACs (including those from Mark Levinson and Audio Synthesis, for example).  That is why many audiophiles found that older DACs sound blurred and limited high frequency extensions, despite some of the DACs had rather good analogue output made by FETs and not Opamps (and also despite a sturdy power supply).

Indeed, Moore's Law seems to apply not only to digital processors but also to Opamps and even power supply.  Nowadays, resolution and definition of some good opamps can be very listenable and their performance are very near to nicely built FET/MOSFET output stages!  Class D power supplies are also evolving rapidly, believe it or not.  Sonic performance of some Class D powered pre-amp using ALL opamps can also be very pleasing (e.g. is Capri of Jeff Rowland, Devialet, Nuprime, among the others).

Frankly I could no longer endure the poor resolution, truncated frequency extensions (at both ends) and high noise floor in some so-called top end/legendary DACs!  And indeed even medium-level CAS DAC now can challenge many of the DACs made by the big names.

Thanks technological advancement!

S6Edge

Indeed, a recent USB-based DAC from Mytek, Benchmark and/or Wyred already sound MUCH MORE transparent than an old Wadia 2000, Wadia 26 and/or Mark 36 or 36S.  Sure the top models from Wadia, Mark and/or Spectral still have their merits, underpinned by their much better analogue output stage (not opamp-based) and excellent power supply.  However, remember what I meant by comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges.  It is just utterly unfair to compare a HKD10K plus DAC to, for example, Wadia 9, Wadia 27, Mark 30/30.5, Spectral and/or top Cello or Jeff Rowland.

That said, try audition the more recent entries from Berkeley Audio, MSB Technology, Bricastic Design, Metrum Pavane etc and one will realise and appraise the much better sonic performance, which are NOT restricted to only higher resolution, and/or frequency extension but also to much quieter background, much more precise clock, which is reflected in excellent pace and rhythm and much better micro and macro-dynamics.

Old DACs? Suck in not only resolution, higher frequency definition and details but also in the time and order of music.  Those water fishes seekers who continue to claim their DAC are "analogue" sounding are just trying to confuse audiophiles of the limitation in frequency distribution with warm, good texture mid-vocals from LP systems!

S6Edge

Another "over-charged" second-hand gear:

Chord Symphonic MC phono stage   
價錢 HK$: 20000
Chord Symphonic MC phono stage 連原裝架
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Result is CANNOT dispose of for months!!!