“Performance doesn’t last so put your money in beauty. Just look at your grandma.” – Arthur Rogers Garza (Anthony’s late grandfather)

I have never made it a point to churn out scuttle about products in the audio marketplace with only a few exceptions. Although Nakamichi is out of business at the time of this writing I have great respect for a certain element of their repair business which sticks with me to this day. As a matter of fact I have original documentation of this issue in my Keepsake Krate concerning a “bad” machine out of the box back in 1980 or so. I have the first sentence of that documentation committed to memory… “This is a very difficult letter for us to write.”

I have much respect for a company which admits to certain problems and Nakamichi was definitely the champion of prim-and-proper public relations in the audio field. But enough about Naka. I have a story to tell here.

Just as any other run of the mill Texan I enjoy hitting garage sales (rummage sales for you folks on the East Coast and Canada) in my spare time hoping to find that special B&O unit that someone’s grandfather brought back from Europe on his military tour of duty. On one special garage sale endeavor I came across something fascinating outside of my B&O interests and I couldn’t understand why this machine was in such an offering. According to the owner this particular CD player would not work and he didn’t want it anymore. I knew darned well that the original list price of this machine was well over $3000 and the price tag was a measly $50. I bought it after “talking audio” with the seller for about an hour over a cup of coffee. I was offered a real coffee mug and not a styrofoam cup. You see, I was a special buyer since no one earlier in the day cared to give the $50 tag a second look.

When I opened the machine for inspection the following week it was determined that the seller was correct. This CD player wouldn’t do a single thing. After a couple of hours of prodding the circuitry without a manual I decided to use common sense and replaced two capacitors which appeared to be “good” when measured out of circuit but for some crazy reason they would fail when asked to be charged. This machine fired up immediately and began to create some very nice sound. I tested the machine continuously for a week and then packed it into the car to be returned to the original owner. The owner was hesitant about my report since the machine had been sent to the factory on two occasions and had eventually been written off by him as citric fruit. I offered the owner a special deal since I didn’t care for the general “look and feel” of this machine. If he was not satisfied with the machine after 30 days I would come back and take the machine. If he decided to take the machine back then I would ask for my $50 plus $100 for my time. The owner agreed to my terms which basically took no money out of his pocket but he added a Texas-style stipulation to our oral contract… if I took it back I had to treat him to dinner at a restaurant of my choice. In the end I didn’t have to buy him dinner and he increased my wallet by $300! He told me that $300 was a very cheap investment to have this machine back in good working order.

Two years have gone by and his machine still performs well although I believe it is one of the most homely CD players I’ve ever seen. I should know.. I’m rather homely myself! However, $3000+ gives anything a certain attraction, I suppose. This fellow is now a B&O owner as well. He has heard stories about B&O being too expensive for what you get. Well, experience is worth a lot of moolah and he is wiser for not listening to Scuttlebutt talk of late. He is convinced that the refurbished Beogram CD 6500 he purchased from Beomuse can perform as well as his esoteric ugly duckling for about the same original bucks.

A friend of mine passed away in February 2003 and most of his esoteric audio gear was up for sale by the surviving family. Naturally all the audiophiles in the area showed up to see what was available for sale. One of the audiophiles was a local non-B&O dealer who trashed my B&O interest when I brought up the issue. My late friend believed that B&O was “too pretty” for his tastes but was good stuff in any event. I didn’t want to bring up the issue of the $3000+ CD player since I wasn’t interested in starting an argument in a grieving house.

So, remember… Grandpa married Grandma because he thought she was beautiful. I have always thought so, too. I have heard stories from the family that Grandpa also thought Grandma had a great clod-chunking arm as a child. Yeah, those red haired Irish gals can pop a tin can at 20 yards easy.

© Copyright Anthony Garza, used with permission.