Has anyone made the jump to $uper High end and were disappointed?


I'm talking $50,000 and higher amps, speakers, cablesetc. I know there is excellent sounding gear from $100 to infinity (much is system dependent, room, etc). However, just curious if someone made the leap and deep down realize the "expected" sound quality jump was not as much as the price jump. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to make that jump. However, looking at another forum's thread about price point of diminishing returns got me wondering if anyone had buyers remorse. It's not easy to just "flip" a super high priced component. 
aberyclark

Showing 19 responses by inna

No, $7000 cable will not bring sonic bliss, $10k and more has a slight chance.
$50k would not be enough for speakers and monoblocks, not sure about turntable, maybe.
It's a never ending proccess, what's wrong with it, anyway ? Unless it becomes a clear obsession - nothing, I guess.
Audiophiles enjoy the sound as much as music.
$10k new will not get you anywhere close to great sound even in a small room and one source. $50k new is possible in small and medium size room but tough. That said, $10k system with one source can sound pretty good in smaller room. Great means great in my vocabulary.
Yes, trust your ears and have a common sense. But also, especially when considering a big upgrade, try to get another pair of good ears.
That person might have different preferences so it may complicate the audition but in the end would probably help more than not.
My friend musician prefers electrostatic sound, I don’t. We can argue but what we hear is very close, only his hearing is better. But I am no punk b-tch either.
I listen to what I like regardless of the recording quality, and in most cases it is not good to various degree. Yet, even the worst of them sound a little better with each small upgrade. At the same time you hear better recordings’ flaws as well. As for the tailoring your system, especially speakers, to the kind of music you mostly listen to, in reality I think you have to unless perhaps it is an absolute super high end, whatever it is. Though I listen to some jazzrock, mostly it’s various acoustic music including vocal. For rock I would choose very different speakers, Pink Floyd plays okay, though.
I also think that no super high end set-up can be called that without top open reel deck as a source, in addition to turntable. 

Speaking of super high-end, $4000 only buy used/demo cable or used cartridge or rack, though some advocate that $500 vintage cartridges can be at least just as good. 
I will never be operating at this level, I think just high end will be satisfactory. And I won't need a lot of money for that, $50k or so for everything, I guess. But of course if I want custom headblock for Studer deck and outboard custom tube playback head amp, and something like Herzan active isolation platform, that will be extra.
Throwing - no, but super sound is expensive even if you buy used. Let's not fool ourselves.
But Continuum turntable might in fact be the last table you'll ever need. I would get their classic Caliburn, though.
That’s because you have to get the entire set-up at the same time and then leave it alone until you are ready to go to an even higher level, instead of endlessly tinkering with it.
Yes, difficult and very expensive. But we are talking super high end.
We are obsessed with gear audiophiles because we are poor and lazy.

Agreed. It is worth it if you are up to what is involved. And the cost will be very high, it has to be.
Well, there would be a lot of frustration on the way. In that sentence I meant money, though.
Very good cd players can be had used for not too much. As for computer listening, my current super high-end gear consists of $200 Grado headphones. Thinking about adding $300 Oppo dac/headphone amp plus $100 Audioquest cable. Later maybe a jump to Grado RS1 or some HiFi Man phones and better dac/amp. But I have no intention to spend much on this stuff.
This digital industry doesn't care about audiophiles, generally speaking, so they will use $1 one hundred feet digital cables, no problem. And they are right, most digiheads will think it sounds good on their devices. I did hear an opinion that $1k Purist Audio USB cable is really something. I also heard that top of the line Audioquest is excellent. If that $5k cable is even better than why not $5k ? Better than the same amount for a couple of rare records with nothing to talk about music.
"Room, electricity and isolation devices". Fully agree. I would say electricity first, isolation second except for turntable, maybe.
I would also add to that cables and power cords. Many seemingly have no idea how good their active components are because they are connected with mid-level cables. Real high performance usually starts at over $1k a piece or for a pair. Ultimate performance is much more. Personally, I like to have cables at least one step above active components.
gbmcleod, you must have a very sensitive system. I didn't really experiment much with isolation devices. The biggest difference for the better I heard was when I put Boston Audio graphite tuning blocks for speakers under speaker spikes, I use Polycrystal not steel spikes. Big improvement in everything. Howerver, I have free resonance speakers that do have excessive resonant energy. Another example, much smaller but still significant, is that I put one 1/2" Walker resonance control disc near turntable motor on the maple block the table sits on. The maple 3" block is in turn sits on three big Boston Audio tuneblocks. And all this construct is on a wooden floor, no rack. I tried to put the second Walker disc near tonearm on the maple block and it got a little worse. And just one disc near tonearm made no audible difference. I also put one Walker disc on top of my Nakamichi cassette player - same improvent as with the table. And my integrated solid state amp definitely sounds a little better when sitting on brass Audiopoints than on Boston Audio tuneblocks. So yes, isolation is very important, though I call it tuning. But I don't think my sysytem is as sensitive as yours.
Electricity here is terrible, just terrible. Very dirty and voltage fluctuates almost constantly. Without my PS Audio Premier regenerator the sound is unacceptable most of the time. And I mentioned power cords, older Purist Audio Dominus did wonders when was put on the integrated.
So, my advice would be to learn how to fully tune your existing good set-up before moving much higher, or it will be a waist of funds and nervewrecking experience.