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$35K to spend, how will you build a system?

Never in any stereo system arrangement have I or anyone I know, ever initially proportioned out the money for the whole enchilada. We just bought this or that. We began somewhere and finished it all later on. Somehow.

Or, the proposition ‘finished’ became a moving target and the trek wandered about here and there, as the effort continued past the intentioned budget. Some steps were sideways, some allowed for definite improvements. Some moves took us a step backwards or merely into a different perspective.

All of the moves provided one benefit everytime, experience.

Experiences are what is being asked for in this topic.

Then one day, suddenly, buckets of duckets land in your yard and you want serious sounds? .

Here’s the question…

If you had it to do all over again, what do you put into a home audio system if you have $35,000.00 to spend?

Regardless the format, tubes, Solid state, mega watts or flea powered doesn’t matter. Its your rig and your money.

The destination is a rig with copius amounts of Acquired Illusionary Reality (AIR) in short, an involving alluringmost respectable, , “man I really hate to turn this thing off”, stereo system.

Because invariably someone will ask, so For the truly anal, the room is not in a mansion, has no dedicated power lnies, and is of moderate size 14 to 17ft wide, 18 to 23ft. long, 8.5ft. ceilings. Acoustically untreated. Closed off, or opened onto other areas, you make that call.

How do you feel you’ll spread the dough around immediately?

Address all four areas? Maybe attend to only amps and speakers, then later look towards other parts of the affair?

Example 1:
Find someone who already has a stellar sounding system, rent a room, and buy the new entry level Tesla..

Example 2
Buy new amp and speakers along with better than average cabling and isolation, just on a smaller scale.

Example 3
Spend it all in thirds, source, power, and speakers obtaining the best value possible, new or as re-sold because everything matters.

Example 4
By new SOTA speakers that you can find with the whole wad! Steal everything else.

What is your approach with $35K burning a hole in your pocket to acquire great sound? Can it even be done in 2017 with such a budget?

blindjim

Showing 2 responses by dcevans

dcevans
178 posts
 

If someone approached me about helping them build the best system for them for 35k (about what I have into my own), I would want to know several things. What is the room size? What kind of music do you listen to? Do you want to play vinyl, vinyl and cds, or will you be streaming high resolution files through a DAC? 
If a small room
dcevans
178 posts
 
Vinyl will eat up 10k or more of the budget. If I had it to do over, I don't think I would've gone the vinyl route. I would spend the money on better speakers and electronics. 

I would travel to a major metropolitan area and audition speaker-amp combinations. I would like to hear a SET amp with a high sensitivity speaker (e.g., Shindo or Line Magnetic amp, Devore speakers). I would want to hear an OTL system (e.g., Atma-sphere or David Berning) paired with a higher sensitivity speaker. Also, a dipole speaker (e.g., Magnepan 3.7i, Martin Logan 13A with built in room correction), paired with a high quality SS amp (e.g., PASS Labs 250.8, Constellation Inspiration). If I went the latter route, I would probably still go with a used Audio Research Reference preamp. 
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