The math on used speakers finally clicked after 3 blown tweeters

So I've been piecing together a 5.1 setup for my basement in Cleveland, and last week I blew my third tweeter on thrift store speakers. That's when I actually sat down and did the numbers. Over two years, I spent $180 total on five different pairs from garage sales and Facebook Marketplace, but only two pairs actually worked for more than a month. The two that lasted cost me $40 combined, so my real cost per working speaker was $90, which is more than just buying a decent new pair from a clearance sale. I found a spreadsheet someone posted in a home audio forum breaking down the failure rates on used gear, and it said roughly 60% of vintage speakers need some kind of repair within a year. Has anyone else tracked their actual cost per working component, or am I the only one who kept buying dead cones out of stubbornness?

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anna_craig7d agoOG Member

Nope, you're not alone... my thrift store graveyard says the same thing. Dead tweeters are basically a rite of passage at this point.