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Insurance Approved our Proposed Alternates!
Insurance has approved our proposed alternates for the stereo, the turntable, and the monitor Miriam was borrowing from work. We approved the new assessment report, so the next thing is that we'll get a check for the "assessed cash value" (ACV) of the items. After we buy replacements and send receipts, we are further reimbursed up to, at maximum, the full assessed replacement value.
I was waking up as Miriam told me we'd gotten that email, and for whatever reason, my initial response was deep fear. That I had done something wrong, that insurance company and adjuster would be angry and not want to deal with me, and other more nebulous fears I can't really identify. It was a lot; enough to give me a panic attack if Miriam hadn't been there to give me some snuggles and help me stay grounded.
But that's the next step of all of this done. Once we get the ACV check, we'll start buying stuff in earnest. We may end up with a bunch of things like furniture pieces or who-knows-what in boxes in the spare room here, but far better that then moving into the new place and not having a bed!
So now I have a decision to make about replacing my vintage Marantz. Insurance approved the more expensive (and honestly more appropriate) integrated amp I proposed, which puts the replacement value for the item potentially within a few hundred dollars of getting an actual vintage 2270 in good condition. Miriam thinks it would be reasonable to spend extra out of our own pocket on this to get the thing I really want, and I'm torn.
I absolutely didn't want the NR1200 they wanted to give me. But the PM8006 is a tough choice. It's fully analog (except for the electronics controlling the volume adjustment via remote control) and has amazing specs. The 2270's 0.3% total harmonic distortion, for instance, was pretty good for 1973, but the PM8006 has 0.02% THD. That's an impressive number.
And the 2270s out there are 50 years old now! I was *ridiculously* lucky to get one in good condition at a thrift store that was completely functional, and then have nothing go wrong with it for the years I was using it. Buying a used one with recent servicing is likely still out of reach for me unless I find a really good deal, and there's no reason something wouldn't go wrong with one that's in good, functional shape but hasn't been serviced. I was planning, someday, to replace whatever out-of-spec components existed inside inside of mine (mostly caps), and I would have enjoyed that, I think. But it's also intimidating.
And sure, the 2270 has higher distortion than the PM8006, but that distortion is part of the character of their sound. The nature of that distortion will be similar across all 2270s, because they all share the same design, build, and components; that's a big part of the 'vintage sound' that so many people love from these units. That, of course, will be different on the PM8006.
Once, I would have wanted the best specs possible, and the closest performance I could possibly get to a flat response across the whole audible spectrum. But now, for various reasons, the subjective experience is at least as important to me as any other aspect of listening.
And aside from the nature of the sound reproduction, part of the experience for me too was touching and using this 50-year-old piece of gear. Owning and taking care of a working piece of history. And when it comes down to it, the 2270 is just *prettier* with it's gorgeous blue-glowing radio dial and the horizontal tuning wheel and the shiny aluminum faceplate with that cursive script "Stereophonic Receiver" legend on it.
This is hard.
I was waking up as Miriam told me we'd gotten that email, and for whatever reason, my initial response was deep fear. That I had done something wrong, that insurance company and adjuster would be angry and not want to deal with me, and other more nebulous fears I can't really identify. It was a lot; enough to give me a panic attack if Miriam hadn't been there to give me some snuggles and help me stay grounded.
But that's the next step of all of this done. Once we get the ACV check, we'll start buying stuff in earnest. We may end up with a bunch of things like furniture pieces or who-knows-what in boxes in the spare room here, but far better that then moving into the new place and not having a bed!
So now I have a decision to make about replacing my vintage Marantz. Insurance approved the more expensive (and honestly more appropriate) integrated amp I proposed, which puts the replacement value for the item potentially within a few hundred dollars of getting an actual vintage 2270 in good condition. Miriam thinks it would be reasonable to spend extra out of our own pocket on this to get the thing I really want, and I'm torn.
I absolutely didn't want the NR1200 they wanted to give me. But the PM8006 is a tough choice. It's fully analog (except for the electronics controlling the volume adjustment via remote control) and has amazing specs. The 2270's 0.3% total harmonic distortion, for instance, was pretty good for 1973, but the PM8006 has 0.02% THD. That's an impressive number.
And the 2270s out there are 50 years old now! I was *ridiculously* lucky to get one in good condition at a thrift store that was completely functional, and then have nothing go wrong with it for the years I was using it. Buying a used one with recent servicing is likely still out of reach for me unless I find a really good deal, and there's no reason something wouldn't go wrong with one that's in good, functional shape but hasn't been serviced. I was planning, someday, to replace whatever out-of-spec components existed inside inside of mine (mostly caps), and I would have enjoyed that, I think. But it's also intimidating.
And sure, the 2270 has higher distortion than the PM8006, but that distortion is part of the character of their sound. The nature of that distortion will be similar across all 2270s, because they all share the same design, build, and components; that's a big part of the 'vintage sound' that so many people love from these units. That, of course, will be different on the PM8006.
Once, I would have wanted the best specs possible, and the closest performance I could possibly get to a flat response across the whole audible spectrum. But now, for various reasons, the subjective experience is at least as important to me as any other aspect of listening.
And aside from the nature of the sound reproduction, part of the experience for me too was touching and using this 50-year-old piece of gear. Owning and taking care of a working piece of history. And when it comes down to it, the 2270 is just *prettier* with it's gorgeous blue-glowing radio dial and the horizontal tuning wheel and the shiny aluminum faceplate with that cursive script "Stereophonic Receiver" legend on it.
This is hard.