March 2026

Pre-Loved Second-Hand Hi-Fi Is Today's Gold
Why the pre-loved audio market deserves more attention, and how trade-ins build loyal listeners and repeat sales.
Editorial By Alan Sircom

  Overlooking lots of loudspeaker reviews from recent years, in order to construct our Editor's Choice pages, something dawned on me. The second-hand market should be more vibrant that it seems. There are reasons for this lull in 'preloved' audio, but not all of them make sense.

Stepping away from transducers for a moment, I can get why someone might not want to buy a digital product that might not be supported for too long. Those who still use an original Logitech Squeezebox are finding its functionality severely limited today as MySqueezebox and Squeezebox Radio are no longer supported. I can also understand the reluctance to invest in an older tube amplifier if it uses obscure valves with no stock and limited support. But these are effectively outliers. Most second-hand products don't fall into this 'impending doom' category.

Back when I used to work in an audio store, second-hand goods had a two-fold benefit. First, they were a good way of offering a reduced price for loyal customers; it's not quite a discount, but if you know that you get a good trade-in on your existing product you tend to look after it a bit more and stay loyal to that brand.

Then, second-hand created a brisk trade in still viable products at more affordable prices. I think the fastest turnaround we had for a second-hand product was about three hours; a Naim owner was upgrading his preamp, his trade-in preamp was in mint condition and by the time we had put it on the bench for testing, there was already someone reaching for the credit card to buy it. That in turn creates loyal customers, and ones who may well trade that now third-hand product in for a new one.

It also makes good financial sense for many buyers. OK, so you don't get to be the first person to break the seal on your new toy, and it might have a few dings and scratches from its past life, but a second-hand product is often valued at half the price of a new one. Put a couple of iterations between that product and its new example and you could be paying a fraction of its new cost. And yet, many prefer to play the performative angst card and moan about new prices, instead of looking for lightly used versions at more enthusiastic prices.

In fact, the only mistake in buying used audio is mistakenly thinking it's an investment piece. With very few exceptions, nothing in consumer electronics gains value with time, unless you are considering putting it in a glass case for 500 years. Buy it, enjoy it, and then a few years later, do it once more.

Congratulations go out to Mike Kay of Suffolk, who wins a Network Acoustics Origin streaming power supply worth £2,295. Well done, that man!

Alan Sircom, Editor hi-fi+

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