The audio hobby is a terrible financial decision.

[hvbias]

Doh, don't call me out like that! haha.

More on a serious note, I do very much enjoy watching my account going up, especially in the last 2 decades or so, it's been an incredible bull run.

However, I do enjoy my hobbies very much. My brother "collects" BMW M3's. He has some model that is holding up close to inflation and made keep up with inflation in few more years. Yeah, for sure there's unlikely any hobby that will hold up against the market, some hold up better than others.

The question is when did your brother buy these M3s? Because if they were recently I have a very hard time believing they will keep up with inflation as the desirable ones are I imagine already expensive. It's not a market I follow so this is just my guess. If he bought them over a decade ago then he was speculating that they would keep up with inflation. Speculation is not the same as investing in the S&P500.

As this is a science based forum, all the decades long research including meta-analysis doesn't have happiness tied to money/net worth. It says it's primarily based around:

1) your health
2) deep lasting relationships
3) experiences

I fulfill the experiences part with vacations, seeing concerts, and trying to build a hifi that will get me close to the experience of concerts. I don't concern myself with depreciation at all and to a lesser extent how much the system costs. I definitely consider myself fortunate to be in this position but if you are genuinely worried about depreciation on a hifi and how it will impact your future net worth then you are way, way over spending/extending yourself on the purchase(s).

 

[prerich]

Fi_earms ....that seems to be a hobby, if you get the right stuff ....it will appreciate. I've got some heirloom stuff that I'm leaving to my adult son.

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

I'm with the hobby is not an investment people. I don't know if audio is a hobby or an interest. I love music and sound has always fascinated me. I had favorite singers and actors before I started school. I loved the sound of their voices. My early favorites were Ethel Merman and Basil Rathbone. Audio equipment was a natural for me. I wanted to hear the attack and sustain of musical instruments. I was interested in the amount of reverb. I loved the elimination of background noise. Unfortunately audio gear wears out. Our AVR has been around for close to 15 years and while it shows no signs of decay, I'm not optimistic about its future. I've used speakers for over 20 years and got rid of them before they wore out so some gear lives longer than most pets. Oh, pets. I can't do without cats. I suppose I could breed them if I wanted an investment. I prefer having one or two and just interacting with them. I have too many guitars. One is probably an investment. The others have all depreciated steadily, even the one that I bought in 1963.

 

[MCH]

Yup, hobbies are almost by definition, a terrible financial decision, and is not getting better. Even if your hobby is looking at the clouds and listening to church bells, there will be someone selling a high end chair for looking at clouds better, or organizing trips to listening to the best sounding bells.i just feel for the poor souls that haven't - yet - find out and think they are making investments.
It turns out the types that just go to the bar outsmarted the rest. Who would had guessed.

 

[Timcognito]

Fi_earms ....that seems to be a hobby, if you get the right stuff ....it will appreciate. I've got some heirloom stuff that I'm leaving to my adult son.

Me too, I gave my Audio Research CA-50 to my son for his 30th birthday after cleaning it up and playing it again, I am regretting doing that. But a promise is a promise.

 

[Timcognito]

Yeah the stock market is great you can turn money into more money if you know a little. And making more money out of money is a great hobby.

 

[PristineSound]

The question is when did your brother buy these M3s? Because if they were recently I have a very hard time believing they will keep up with inflation as the desirable ones are I imagine already expensive. It's not a market I follow so this is just my guess. If he bought them over a decade ago then he was speculating that they would keep up with inflation. Speculation is not the same as investing in the S&P500.

As this is a science based forum, all the decades long research including meta-analysis doesn't have happiness tied to money/net worth. It says it's primarily based around:

1) your health
2) deep lasting relationships
3) experiences

I fulfill the experiences part with vacations, seeing concerts, and trying to build a hifi that will get me close to the experience of concerts. I don't concern myself with depreciation at all and to a lesser extent how much the system costs. I definitely consider myself fortunate to be in this position but if you are genuinely worried about depreciation on a hifi and how it will impact your future net worth then you are way, way over spending/extending yourself on the purchase(s).

Completely agreed. As mentioned, and clarify on post #4, I was not referring to hobbies being an investment. I was referring to which hobbies are better financial choices.

For my brother, he wasn't speculating nor investing, he so happens to be in a hobby that is a better (I'm not saying good, I am saying better) financial choice than some. Irrespective of financial choices, I would hope all hobbies would enhance the 3 base points you mentioned.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying and have not said just because a hobby has a bad financial outcome, it is not worthy.

 

[hvbias]

Completely agreed. As mentioned, and clarify on post #4, I was not referring to hobbies being an investment. I was referring to which hobbies are better financial choices.

For my brother, he wasn't speculating nor investing, he so happens to be in a hobby that is a better (I'm not saying good, I am saying better) financial choice than some. Irrespective of financial choices, I would hope all hobbies would enhance the 3 base points you mentioned.

Just to be clear, I did say just because a hobby has a bad financial outcome, doesn't mean it is not worthy.

Then he is in the hobby of being interested in a very specific car. This doesn't apply to the hobby of being into cars. You could say you're in the hobby of vintage McIntosh audio gear which will hold value exceptionally well.

When you cherry pick specific examples to represent a hobby as a whole it skews the argument.

 

[CDMC]

Investing in Berkshire-Hathaway stock is a better hobby.

Bought a bunch of B shares in 1999, wish I bought more.

 

[Neddy]

I scrapped one of these back in 1994. Who knew?

1981 Ford Fiesta White Manual, 4 speed Right Hand Drive i...

1981 Ford Fiesta White Manual, 4 speed Right Hand Drive in United Kingdom - For Sale | Car & Classic, £34,995 FOR SALE JF Classic Cars pr...

www.carandclassic.com

20 years ago suggested to a pal we buy some 1980s Fords and store then in his big empty garage, he declined. We'd have made ten times our money back.

Wow. I had two of those, both scrapped.
One (bilious lime green) survived an off road-down and up the ditch-flying over the 2 lane highway (and traffic) adventure, with only brake lines needing replacement.
It survived another 4+ years before I could afford a replacement - but never quite drove right again, though. (Me Too

The first ('81?), a fancy Ghia model I bought new, but turned to rust in my driveway and had to hire a tractor to haul it out.

But they were a blast to drive, esp in heavy snow - I got ticketed once for doing endless handbrake 180s (360s, actually) down the local road to town...the only cars on the road were me...and the cop parked at the bottom of the hill. I took it to court and stated such, and that I was driving completely safely, never deviated from my lane, and was keeping in practice for snowy road conditions. The judge tossed the ticket.

The Ghia had a customized front bumper for inserted driving lights and custom stereo above/behind drivers head (barely visible), wheels, etc.


The one time I stuffed it in my driveway.
Before I could go in and grab a shovel, a big lineman's truck stopped, 4 huge guys got out, picked up the Fiesta and put it back on the road! They were gone before I could even get out the door to thank them!
I took pictures because it was funny, not bc I couldn't get it out....



Ah. Fiesta memories. Have a lot of them like that... including the visitors from Japan who tried to drive a bugeye sprite thru a Wisconsin blizzard, went off road, and had to walk to a farmhouse nearby for help. The farmer got their tractor out and hauled them out to the house we were partying at, No Problem.
(I'd blasted OVER the same 4' drift they got stuck in, about 20 minutes earlier - I was going so fast I couldn't slow down before the drift...so floored it and clawed/scraped it's way over the top of the drift, and Just Kept Going! Apparently they saw my tracks and assumed they'd make it through too

IRCC, the young lady was wearing a kimono, and spoke no English.
The farmer was absolutely astounded to find a Japanese couple on their doorstep late at night, in a blizzard!!

They were all audio friends.

 

[ivayvr]

It does not have to be expensive. Before my time with ASR I was constantly doing some "upgrades" based on audio magazine recommendations. Nothing extremely expensive, but more like keeping the pace...
Once I switched to my current, humble, Genelec speaker/sub system, I lost interest in paying a constant ransom to audio press, that I was doing for previous 30-40 years.
My current system probably costs less than what most people consider a decent TV and probably, it will outlive most TVs.
About the sound? There are better sounding systems but the current one is absolutely adequate for the role of music in my life at this stage.

 

[Waveform Fidelity]

I find the DIY part of the hobby the most rewarding….learning the theory, making practical measurements, and building equipment is really an educational journey. This week, I have been measuring diffraction effects with speakers in the garden. Using FIR filters to EQ a mid-range unit - ripples in the passband which move with distance and angle. These are non-minimum phase responses that cannot be equalized - at least over a range of positions. So no amount of electronics can fix this acoustic wave problem. So yes lots of $$ but better than classroom theory! Priceless.

 

[PristineSound]

Then he is in the hobby of being interested in a very specific car. This doesn't apply to the hobby of being into cars. You could say you're in the hobby of vintage McIntosh audio gear which will hold value exceptionally well.

When you cherry pick specific examples to represent a hobby as a whole it skews the argument.

You absolutely can make the argument that vintage McIntosh holds value, that is a very valid example.

 

[terryforsythe]

At least with hobbies like mechanical watch, or cars, there is a chance some collectibles may hold on to its value and some may go up in value.

With cars, it depends what you mean. Few cars hold their value, but there are some exceptions, mostly limited production runs with low milage and old collector cars. But, if you like speed, built motors don't last long if you use them the way they are meant to be used. I have an example in my garage, second built motor spent. It was a heck of a lot of fun, but definitely a poor financial decision.

 

[Power Pop 23]

I have gotten a lot of value out of my Hi-Fi purchases over the decades.

A philatelist advised me to never collect for investment purposes unless one was collecting unique items or assembling a collection regarded as 'complete' by other collectors.

 

[Redacted]

I'm often told by friends that their "object X" is worth Y£.

It's hard to keep reminding them that it's only worth what other people will give you when you actually sell it.

 

[JeffS7444]

I reckon that this hobby, HiFi Audio, is a terrible hobby financially.

Only if you do it correctly

 

[kazuviking]

DIY audio is an even worse financial decision. The amount i spent on my sapphire and whammy could've bought me an topping A70 pro or even A90 discrete if i count in the soldering station and other misc parts.

 

[mpw]

Completely agreed. As mentioned, and clarify on post #4, I was not referring to hobbies being an investment. I was referring to which hobbies are better financial choices.

For my brother, he wasn't speculating nor investing, he so happens to be in a hobby that is a better (I'm not saying good, I am saying better) financial choice than some. Irrespective of financial choices, I would hope all hobbies would enhance the 3 base points you mentioned.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying and have not said just because a hobby has a bad financial outcome, it is not worthy.

if he has many manual e36 M3's and got them at a good price and worked on them himself then making a profit on them might be possible.

 

[CDMC]

Hobbies are not investments, period. They can be expensive or cheap. Whether cars, bikes, guns or audio, buy the latest and greatest and “upgrade” regularly and it gets expensive. Buy new and keep a long time, or buy used and sell to fund replacement purchases, and the cost goes down considerably. But make no mistake, unless you got lucky and bought something like a Dino 206 for $10,000 in the 80s, you aren’t going to make money from it.