Hey all, hope this isn't off the charter for the group that much.

Was sort of looking for an opinion/comments if you were stuck in my shoes
and course of action to take.

I have a pair of Soundlab R1's, with the bass cabinets. Owned them since
around 1983. Probably the best I've owned, but that isn't saying all that
much if you knew what else I've picked up through the years.

The thing is, I haven't used them at all in the past 5 years or so, they
have been in storage. Reason they are there, at least one of the brain boxes
is bad again. Those boxes are basically the electronics for the panel, where
the amp hooks up to and the ac for the power.

I guess it's a transformer inside that fails, the panels still power up but
the audio is slightly distorted. Soundlab can still fix these (but no longer
the panels according to Roger West). I imagine with inflation it's more but
last time I sent them in, it ran about $250 each, plus shipping. They (he)
recommended both boxes go in for rebuilding, to make sure they match.

But here is my query, I'm not all that interested in using them anymore.

I don't think they really fall into the area of being junk either. After
thinking about it for the past few months on and off, the choices seem to
be...

1) table saw them and bid a fond farewell to the trash
2) give them away "as is"
3) sell them "as is"
4) get them repaired, clean them up and try to get best dollar for them

The way I see it, both option 3 and 4 have a problem. I'm not so sure the
speakers have any value anymore. Even though I'm in a large metro area
(Chicago), it seems like it would be an uphill battle to find anyone to even
pay a nominal price these days. If they were repaired, you would need to get
$500-$600 just to break even.

Like I said earlier, I don't consider them junk so chopping them up or just
plain giving them away seems distasteful to me. But #2 and #3 seem the most
logically to me, especially since they have been collecting dust for half a
decade already.

The opinions/comments would be on #4. Would trying to sell them, repaired or
not have any merit? Even if I just shot for a break-even solution, does
something this old (but kind of unique) have any value in the $500-$600
range?

Randomly checking ebay hasn't been that much help, Soundlab shows up once in
a while, never seen an R1 listed though.

Keep in mind with all of this, shipping them would probably be in the same
range pricewise as getting them repaired. These are curved panels and those
bass cabinets they sit on are fairly heavy themselves. Crates would have to
be made custom. I bring that up because although it's possible some rich
Asian might see a collectors value to owning them, I also could hit the
lottery and start looking at A1's.

thanks,

-bruce