€50,000 for a compressor :-o

I got plenty of rack space for her 🤗

Now maybe I'm nuts -- But a couple studios I used to work at back in the 90's had them and I was like "Meh..." about them. For vinyl mastering, they were pretty cool (but still "meh" by today's standards IMO/E). I'll take a fresh Manley Vari-Mu --- which I also sold off --- most times.   I also noticed that all the big mastering places sold them in a heartbeat as soon as they found out they could get $15k for them.  

And at $50k?!? For a high-maintenance box filled with stuff that's nearly impossible to find?!? Not a chance.

I didn't care for the plug that much either. When it was super-popular with UAD (had it... didn't use it much) we called it "Child Abuse" (to varying amounts of laughter and applause).  

Don't get me wrong - It's not like they sucked or something.  And for the time, one of only few players in that particular game.  

But geez - $50k?!?  I can't even imagine.  I can imagine $5k.  And I'd *still* get another Manley at that price.  

You'd think they would put up a few more pics, or maybe some sound going through that monster for that price point.

Over how Many years?

You're really asking that? :-)

Well .. by the time you include insurance, staff, parts and maintenance its going to be 2-3 years minimum .. just to cover costs .. not talking about moving into profit.

As to the thought process that this will increase in value without ever stopping ... how did that work out for the stock market or housing and land? All you need is for an evolotion of ITB processing to nail the h/w sound 100% and the value drops out of these old processors (apart from minimum collectors items market)

So, I'll take the plugin and the holiday (instead of the mouldy gear :-) ) every time. (That said, I have a h/w Zener on the way! )

50 k its just stupid.
I have no idea why all the audio geeks are driven by a nostalgic romantic feel, like with oldtimer cars....
Yes, some tools are evergreens, but the future is in front of you.

My two oldest sons like to call this stuff SPIs (Small Penis Indicators)
like jacked up monster trucks and tricked out street racers. Over-compensation for something lacking!!

It will be bought by a conceptual artist with grant money from the NEA (if and before it is gutted by the current administration), to be unemotionally destroyed by a robot in order to officially state the of the end of the analogue era and to herald the new age of pure digital reproduction. I will not be in attendance.

Maybe I will too, just for gits and shiggles. And tell them what I passed on one for many years ago.  (a different story, but probably my next post in the thread.) Or maybe not.

Except that that will never happen. ITB processing will never get there. Programmers simply don't understand what makes some gear special, for one thing. They're too locked into badly broken modelling techniques and inadequate "analysis" procedures that dictate what is and what isn't "important". They're unwilling to admit (to, most importantly, themselves as well as everyone else) that there are some things that we just don't fully understand yet and there are many things that are beyond their primitive modelling techniques.

Plugins are getting pretty damn good - but they don't, and never will really sound like hardware.

As far as "increasing in value without stopping"? Ever heard of inflation? things may not increase in REAL value, but they sure will increase in dollar "valuation".