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Buy well, buy once

fellow.ventures

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Re: Buy well, buy once

#221

Post by bob1029 »

itsoktocry wrote: post #213
pwpw wrote: post #141

An observation I have made of my grandparents, who certainly had a bit of money, is everything they own is high quality and has lasted them years. My grandfather still has his Hickey Freeman suits and sports coats tailored and repaired by a local menswear shop. Their Dualit toaster still works while I have personally gone through many Cuisinart toasters. Their technics AV components still work with their high quality…

> My grandfather still has his Hickey Freeman suits and sports coats tailored and repaired by a local menswear shop. Do you think people are getting new suits because they are "worn out", or perhaps because they're no longer in style? > Their technics AV components still work with their high quality speakers. I'll bet modern engineered speakers will beat those high quality speakers, at a fraction of the price. That's…

> I'll bet modern engineered speakers will beat those high quality speakers, at a fraction of the price.

You'd be surprised how shitty most "modern" speakers are.

Size is still king. Doesn't matter how fast your fancy microcontrollers are. The big-ass cabinets from the 80s and 90s still sound incredible when you put them next to the typical experience you'd find on the shelves of Target or Best Buy.

Re: Buy well, buy once

#222

Post by photonerd »

itsoktocry wrote: post #213
pwpw wrote: post #141

An observation I have made of my grandparents, who certainly had a bit of money, is everything they own is high quality and has lasted them years. My grandfather still has his Hickey Freeman suits and sports coats tailored and repaired by a local menswear shop. Their Dualit toaster still works while I have personally gone through many Cuisinart toasters. Their technics AV components still work with their high quality…

> My grandfather still has his Hickey Freeman suits and sports coats tailored and repaired by a local menswear shop. Do you think people are getting new suits because they are "worn out", or perhaps because they're no longer in style? > Their technics AV components still work with their high quality speakers. I'll bet modern engineered speakers will beat those high quality speakers, at a fraction of the price. That's…

Eh, speaker tech—outside of miniaturization—seems to be the one area that feels pretty static.

Mainly because the market did large speakers is so much smaller now. Feels like the price/quality trade off is about the same as it was 40 years ago.

The speakers that are “a fraction of the price” now are there, but they’re really terrible Chinese-made junk for the most part.

Re: Buy well, buy once

#223

Post by CPLX »

nerdchum wrote: post #214

I think a lot of times this philosophy is just rich people justifying paying a lot for high status items. a pair of Crocs is 50 bucks and that's one of the highest quality pairs of shoes you'll buy for the price. you could buy 10 pairs of Crocs for a $500 pair of Alden's so even if the crocs only lasted a year, it would take a decade to recoup the investment on the Alden's. but the crocs don't have the same status th…

Pretty on the nose.

I think even more accurate is that quality/longevity and price are almost completely decoupled.

Spending more doesn’t guarantee higher quality it mostly gets you exceptional graphic design and deftly nested packaging that makes you feel good when you open it.

But it’s not like all the cheap stuff is better. A Rolex is an incredible engineering marvel and is in fact very high quality and durable. So are Festool tools, and so on.

But like so is G-shock and a random and difficult to pin down subset of Harbor Freight.

The broader point is that none of this really makes a fucking difference most of the discussion is just people preening about their choices instead of admitting it’s mostly a roll of the dice.

And the old stuff wasn’t “better” it was just different. When I was a kid in the 70’s and 80’s garages were full of shoddy junk from the 50’s and 60’s. That stuff is just all gone right now.

Re: Buy well, buy once

#224

Post by peteradio »

aardvarkr wrote: post #98
emodendroket wrote: post #94

I vacillate on this a lot. On one hand, yes, it's nice to have well-designed items that last decades or a lifetime. And obviously we're awash in disposable goods at great environmental cost. On the other, who hasn't been burned by buying a garment "for life" that no longer fits, no longer appeals to us, or otherwise gets rendered unusable? Or buying a beautiful, premium tool that only sees one or two uses? Or having…

For the tool conundrum, I’ve found that the best course of action is to buy the cheapest option (within reason) to start with. If you don’t use it, no sweat, it was cheap. On the other hand, if you use it soo much that it breaks it you outgrow it then you get to buy the best version of that tool. At that point you know what you like and don’t like, as well as what’s worth paying extra for, so you end up with the perf…

This is a decent strategy and well-trotted in every buy-once thread but I'll offer my advice as someone who has been on this tool purchasing train for a few decades now. If you know the precision you require you can buy the tool you actually need. As an example if you are doing some leveling work over a 20ft by 20ft area you can figure out how well it can be done with an 8ft water level including disaster scenarios where you fuck it up and then you can consider a self-leveling laser and weight up your choices properly. Following the advice to get the cheapest tool will likely lead you into disaster scenarios because you end up with the entirely wrong class of tool.

Re: Buy well, buy once

#225

Post by gnicholas »

johnchristopher wrote: post #159
gnicholas wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use a broccoli rubber band as a minimalist iPhone 'case'. [1] It makes the back and bottom of the phone grippy, so it's easier to hold. It does slightly block the corners of the screen, but not much. It doesn't provide much protection in case of a drop, obviously. But the added grippiness makes drops much less likely! I have occasionally bought broccoli that I didn't need just so I could get another rubber band, af…

> It doesn't provide much protection in case of a drop, obviously. But the added grippiness makes drops much less likely! I found popsockets and ring holders a better option in that regard https://image.gsmpunt.nl/blog/image/image_3.png

How do those interact with the MagSafe charging are on the back of the iPhone?

Re: Buy well, buy once

#226

Post by ghaff »

bob1029 wrote: post #221
itsoktocry wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My grandfather still has his Hickey Freeman suits and sports coats tailored and repaired by a local menswear shop. Do you think people are getting new suits because they are "worn out", or perhaps because they're no longer in style? > Their technics AV components still work with their high quality speakers. I'll bet modern engineered speakers will beat those high quality speakers, at a fraction of the price. That's…

> I'll bet modern engineered speakers will beat those high quality speakers, at a fraction of the price. You'd be surprised how shitty most "modern" speakers are. Size is still king. Doesn't matter how fast your fancy microcontrollers are. The big-ass cabinets from the 80s and 90s still sound incredible when you put them next to the typical experience you'd find on the shelves of Target or Best Buy.

Yeah, I'd probably ditch the big stereo system if I were starting over from scratch at this point. But that would be in the interests of downsizing, not because I have any illusions that a soundbar is as good as my surround sound setup with large speakers and a subwoofer.

Re: Buy well, buy once

#227

Post by mym1990 »

nerdchum wrote: post #214

I think a lot of times this philosophy is just rich people justifying paying a lot for high status items. a pair of Crocs is 50 bucks and that's one of the highest quality pairs of shoes you'll buy for the price. you could buy 10 pairs of Crocs for a $500 pair of Alden's so even if the crocs only lasted a year, it would take a decade to recoup the investment on the Alden's. but the crocs don't have the same status th…

I would say rich people who want to signal status would not get caught with those. But there are plenty of rich folks who want to fly under the radar, your millionaire next door types.

Re: Buy well, buy once

#228

Post by Am4TIfIsER0ppos »

nebula8804 wrote: post #73
dublinben wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m fond of the conspiracy theory that the rise of minimalism is actually propaganda to placate Millennials who can’t afford the same level of material comfort as their parents and other earlier generations enjoyed.

What if its just Millennials discovering it own their own as a result of their reduced standard of living? The powers that be would want maximum consumption and minimalism goes against that no? Same probably goes for "vanlife". It is millennials just realizing they cant afford a home ever and so they improvise with what they can resource.

Where have you been? TPTB are desperately trying to make you poorer by banning cars, banning air travel, banning meat, and inflating the fuck out of our money.

Re: Buy well, buy once

#229

Post by bombcar »

bob1029 wrote: post #221
itsoktocry wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My grandfather still has his Hickey Freeman suits and sports coats tailored and repaired by a local menswear shop. Do you think people are getting new suits because they are "worn out", or perhaps because they're no longer in style? > Their technics AV components still work with their high quality speakers. I'll bet modern engineered speakers will beat those high quality speakers, at a fraction of the price. That's…

> I'll bet modern engineered speakers will beat those high quality speakers, at a fraction of the price. You'd be surprised how shitty most "modern" speakers are. Size is still king. Doesn't matter how fast your fancy microcontrollers are. The big-ass cabinets from the 80s and 90s still sound incredible when you put them next to the typical experience you'd find on the shelves of Target or Best Buy.

Correct. The only downside on some of those large speakers is the paper cones can get brittle and break, but when properly repaired they sound great.

Often the woofer on the speaker is larger than a modern 5.1 subwoofer.

Re: Buy well, buy once

#230

Post by bombcar »

joshspankit wrote: post #190
Retric wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don’t notice much difference between 4k and 1080 or even 720 as long as it’s minimally compressed data. High compression ratios is IMO is a huge driver for 4k because you can hide a multitude of artifacts once individual pixels aren’t as noticeable, but rarely do you compare identical bandwidth streams at 1080 and 4k. That’s IMO what’s driving a lot of technological advancement. It’s not necessarily about ne…

I have direct experience that supports your point: There’s a local TV/internet provider who rolled out a new system of TV boxes. They compete with the big giant who had “4K” at the time. This provider sent out a signal that was 720P natively but it looked way better due to the rock-solid bitrate that was planned from the beginning. It was so noticeable that sports on the big giant’s boxes were a smeary blurry mess by…

I wish we had standardized on advertising bitrate instead of resolution.
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