I'm seeing more Dragons missing their serial number plates these days.
I can only put it down to them either being stolen or owners attempting to conceal that they're really early production units, which command significantly lower prices due to the various technical caveats they posess.
My own Dragon is s/n16990 and falls into what I regard as the sweet spot in the entire production run, that of anything between 10,000 and 20,000. There are supposedly anything up to 30-35,000 Dragons produced during its' production although the exact figure remains elusive.
I had 3 Dragons on the bench at one point, one <10k, one 10k-20k and one >20k and following extensive listening and recording sessions they all sounded slightly different with their own particular sound signature. I kept the 16990 as it sounded the best. The other two departed the bench, predominantly because of failure-anxiety as well as under-use.
So, I'm becoming a little suspicious of these Dragons which are missing their riveted-on s/n plates. Those things don't just fall off. They have to be de-riveted, which is not exactly an undelicate task!
I asked the seller of this one why the plate is missing and if he knows the s/n. 'No' to both questions was the response. Suss. Very suss.
It's been very recently revised by Tom van der Hoff here in NL, who is one of two renowned techs and as can be seen by his service sticker on the rear panel. The other tech being Norman van Wijnen, who incidentally has serviced my own 16990.
Would you buy a Dragon without its s/n plate? Provenance goes a long way for me and these days it's sort of akin to buying a car wth no service history or registration plate.
Has Tom's service sticker. Very recent too! I wonder if Tom asked about the plate. Probably not.
Where's the s/n plate?
Er, the dog ate it. It got stolen, Aliens abducted me. An old friend came in from outta town.
Too many Dragons = failure anxiety
I can only put it down to them either being stolen or owners attempting to conceal that they're really early production units, which command significantly lower prices due to the various technical caveats they posess.
My own Dragon is s/n16990 and falls into what I regard as the sweet spot in the entire production run, that of anything between 10,000 and 20,000. There are supposedly anything up to 30-35,000 Dragons produced during its' production although the exact figure remains elusive.
I had 3 Dragons on the bench at one point, one <10k, one 10k-20k and one >20k and following extensive listening and recording sessions they all sounded slightly different with their own particular sound signature. I kept the 16990 as it sounded the best. The other two departed the bench, predominantly because of failure-anxiety as well as under-use.
So, I'm becoming a little suspicious of these Dragons which are missing their riveted-on s/n plates. Those things don't just fall off. They have to be de-riveted, which is not exactly an undelicate task!
I asked the seller of this one why the plate is missing and if he knows the s/n. 'No' to both questions was the response. Suss. Very suss.
It's been very recently revised by Tom van der Hoff here in NL, who is one of two renowned techs and as can be seen by his service sticker on the rear panel. The other tech being Norman van Wijnen, who incidentally has serviced my own 16990.
Would you buy a Dragon without its s/n plate? Provenance goes a long way for me and these days it's sort of akin to buying a car wth no service history or registration plate.
Has Tom's service sticker. Very recent too! I wonder if Tom asked about the plate. Probably not.
Where's the s/n plate?
Er, the dog ate it. It got stolen, Aliens abducted me. An old friend came in from outta town.
Too many Dragons = failure anxiety
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