...Uh, Bruce; this is your conscious speaking;

I think we should begin recommending people buy new speakers rather than fixing their 20yr old + 'vintage' equipment. They will thank us later...Especially when they realize the cost to update the drivers in the left and right speakers should be done at the same time so they sound the same and when factoring in the individual component and labor costs they could most likely get a brand new pair of speakers that out perform what they have for the same price as a partial repair.

:)

bRYAN,
Yeah well... a lot of people have strong sentimental attachment to the speakers they grew up with. We also cater to the working class... not the 1% like I did at Madrona... I of course match the left and right speakers so they are balanced.
we use high quality drivers and do a great job rebuilding. Some of these older speakers when updated / rebuilt... outperform a lot of the speakers produced today.
Ive been working on / with speakers for over 40 years. Most of these customers cannot get better sound with new speakers for the cost of repairs. Of course...I often suggest new speakers when the cost to repair the old ones makes no sense.
I DO take pride in resurrecting older speakers and giving them extended life---usually to their owners sheer delight in this throw-away society. I make a lot of people happy on a daily basis. It is more satisfying than doing large complex costly systems that take forever and don't fully satisfy or meet expectations 100%... For wealthy spoiled clients who are never happy.

Boom! Hopefully no one means any of the crap they give you for what you do Bruce. Why not restore classic loudspeakers? People restore all kinds of old stuff.....cars, homes, boats, planes, furniture, and on and on. And sometimes they spend many times more money restoring those things than they could to go out and buy a new one. Restoration is not really about value for money. For some people, yes...if they can fix a set of speakers for $300 vs spending $600 on new ones, they see 1/2 the cost and go with the repair to save a few bucks....and there is nothing wrong with that either. Even poor people need good tunes! But I imagine most are simply emotionally attached and want to breathe new life into something that has brought them years of happiness. Kudos to Bruce for helping make that happen. :)

Now let me get back to stuffing dead mice, feces, and fish heads into these Fisher 15" 3-ways I need to send up to get resurrected. :P

I have some 901's that need new surrounds...

Lol.....we all do.

Went to look at a house that we installed a system in (my predecessor installed just before I came on board) that had been sold. New owner called us to evaluate what was there, see if any upgrades were needed etc. Checked the theater room first, all good (well, I did notice that the HC300 was acting as a standalone controller and not even connected to the network, but that was something my predecessor was fond of doing and I've grown used to fixing over the last 3 years). Get to the main equipment location to find the previous homeowner had taken the amps, controller, matrix switch and source components when he moved out. After our sales guy had told the new owners that there was a complete, fully functional system in place and we just needed to show them how to use it and maybe do some minor tweaking.

And this, folks, is why I'm taking a job as a fishing guide this spring and never touching another system besides my own again as long as I live.

Thanks. Yeah people get a real kick out of fixing up their old speakers, plus there is quite a groundswell movement of younger guys (millenials) who are totally ionto the stuff from the sixites and seventies---the Golden Age of HI FI. Accross the street from us is a used HIFI shop that sells a sh*tload of used gear from that era. I see 4 or 5 people a day walking out with turntables alone.

And I'm more than happy to keep this stuff going, save our working class customers a buck or two, and keep stuff from being discarded or tossed into landfills. Plus while it does not make us rich, it IS cash flow and creates goodwill / karma.

ANd again, if it looks like a losing cause I'll sell some new speakers... But a lot of people end up upgrading their electronics after their speakers get rebuilt. We can even refinish the cabinets and make new grilles, upgrade the crossovers etc. Its all good for the most part.


Yeah ha ha I've seen a lot of wierd stuff inside speaker cabinets. Back when I got drafted, a lot of guys would buy those big speakers at the PX's in Nam or wherever, and load them full of pot and ship them home. Haven't come across that yet... but we had a car install and the car had a big bag of coke hidden under the dash!

So who screwed up? Did a sales guy do a half @ss walk through and make these assumptions? Or did a sales guy just pull this all out of his @ss? You guys owe the new home owner nothing. A walk through would have told you what was missing and then a possible sale to replace what was taken...instead you have a client whos just been punched in the balls and thinks you are all morons.


If i was any good at fishing or at least knew how to swim i would tag along.

Gotcha Bruce.

I think at Madrona we were trying to cater to more of the .01% which was neither of our forte's. The 1% I'm happy to handle...the .01, I'll leave to Madrona as I can't 'afford' to do those jobs.

I dealt with a lot of the .01% back in the day... but now I'm actually glad to see them in the rear view mirror...



Yeah. We are dealing with the working class heroes and Homer Simpson types. Funny thing is... they are a lot more appreciative of what we do vs. the 01.% ers that you and I used to deal with!

Looks Great Chris!

Was late to work this morning. Overslept... Got home last night at 8:30... Guess what my key didn't work! My stupid landlady changed the locks, but didn't bother to call me.
I waited out in the cold until 2:30.
"Oh but Bruce, I sent you an email"... Yeah thanks, well I don't check my email every hour.

"So why the hell did you change the locks???"... "Well after your roomate Vanessa moved out I thought it would be a good thing to do."

"But hell, she gave me back the key and she is in COLUMBIA for crying out loud!!!

No apologies from the landlord. I texted and called her no less than twenty times - no answer... You coulod say I was a little pissed when she finally called me at 2:00 a.m. "Sorry man, I was at my guitar class, then I went out Concha-dancing --- didn't have my phone on, I'm on my way".

Some people are well... I dunno!

I asked her why didn't she CALL me and arrange to like leave the new key under a flower pot or something??? "Oh, yeah, I could have, but didn't think about it".


I think I'll dock her a week's rent! Son of a ... Blood pressure still spiked!

Rent?


WTH are you doing renting? People are supposed to be paying YOU rent.

My ex got the house when we split the sheets! Now I can't afford a house in Seattle... The average cost for a tiny house is around $650,000. In my neighborhood (Magnolia) the median price is $1,700,000.00 I cant even afford the property taxes on one of those!

Bought our house in the 70's for $85,000, two bedrrom one bath... the ex sold it in the 90's (without putting a penney into it for $645,000!!!).

Seattle is becoming the next San Francisco when it comes to housing. The big new thing here is "Apodments" they are like 500 square foot living spaces that rent for like $800 --- no parking either!!! They assume everybody will be taking the bus or biking it.

Plus they have strict garbage recyling laws... if the garbage dude finds recylables in your garbage you get a $50 ticket (the first offense) $125 for the second --- or if they find recyclabes in the garbage bin!!!

I had to move my car, because if I park two days in a row I get a ticket. Recently went out of town for four days and came back to $225 in parking tickets and they were going to tow my car! SO much for city living.

I'm seriously thinking about moving to Curitiba -- collect soc. sec.!

Thanks to your average liberal voting, you get all those freaking laws. You guys get what you deserve.