Audio

Audio gear sorted by who has to hear it:

one person, one room, or the whole patio. Headphones handle the first, from earbuds for the bus to over-ear sets with noise cancelling for a long flight. A room is the job of a soundbar, or of a receiver driving a pair of bookshelf speakers, usually wired to a set from television and film. The patio belongs to speakers in their loudest form. Turntables and older amplifiers sit alongside, and the people after them tend to know exactly which model they want.

Party towers, mains power and the karaoke mic:

towers from JBL’s PartyBox line and Sony’s ULT range are what a lot of Panamanian families bring out for birthdays, Carnival weekends and a Sunday at the river, and many are sold with a wireless microphone. Two things decide which one suits you. Power comes first: some of the biggest towers have no battery at all and only run from a socket, which rules them out for the beach. Then the mic: check it is in the box and pairs, because a brand’s own wireless mics are sold separately and are not cheap to replace. A mid-size tower is around $500 to $700 new, and the flagships pass $1,200. Used, the battery sets the price. A tower that still plays a whole evening unplugged keeps far more of its value than one that only works on mains, and a cabinet scuffed from riding in pickup beds tells you how hard it has worked.

Soundbar or receiver for the TV:

a soundbar is one box and one HDMI cable. Plug it into the TV’s ARC or eARC port and the TV remote runs the volume; Sony, Samsung and JBL are the usual names. A receiver from Yamaha, Denon or Onkyo with separate speakers takes more space and more cable, but lets you replace one piece at a time and plays a turntable, a CD player and the TV through the same pair. The catch with bars is the wireless subwoofer and rear speakers: they pair only with the bar they were sold with, so a sub on its own is worth little to anyone without the matching bar.

A used receiver, turntable or Bluetooth speaker, heard before it is paid for:

bring a track you know well and listen at real volume. A receiver should play from every input and every pair of speaker terminals. One that clicks off as you turn it up is dropping into protection mode, and some older models lose sound over HDMI when that board fails, so test the port with your own source. On a vintage amplifier, a crackle as the volume knob turns is dirt in the control and often cleans out; a dead channel is a repair. Look at the ring around each speaker cone, since foam surrounds crumble with age while rubber ones last. A turntable needs an unchipped stylus and a belt that holds speed. With portable speakers, the fakes are mostly copies of JBL: lighter in the hand than the real thing, a logo stuck onto the grille instead of moulded into it, and a power button that stands proud of the case.

Photos and a sound clip for the speaker or soundbar you are passing on:

a short video at decent volume does more than any description. The photos should show the model label, the remote, the subwoofer or rear speakers that belong with a bar, and the mic, cables and charger. Say how long the battery lasts now, not when it was new, and mention any repair or replaced driver. Give the height of a tower, because it does not fit in every car. Someone driving in from La Chorrera for one will want to hear it turned right up before loading it, so meet where you can do that without the neighbours coming out.