What Do You Get When You Spend Megabucks?


It's my opinion that you could put together a high quality system for about $7,500 (MSRP). For those willing to spend more, great systems can be put together for $20,000 to $50,000. I don't think anyone could seriously question the overall quality of these latter systems, but they would in no way approach the state of the art. My question is, what's that something extra you get when you're willing to push the limits as to what is possible in home sound reproduction and spend major dollars (say $250,000+) on a single system? Another way of asking my question is, what do $80,000 speakers do that $15,000 speakers don't?

My question is a serious question and I have no ax to grind one way or another. I have significant experience with components that cost in the $3,000 to $15,000 range, but not much with products costing more. I'm very interested in hearing from those people who have made that rather large financial commitment to music reproduction.
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Showing 3 responses by fcrowder

Often headaches, sometimes a little remorse but ocassionally, a piece of heaven. Some nights everything seems to come together and you can almost convince yourself that you are actually being transported to the site of a musical event. The problem is that high prices do not automatically equate to great sound. It seems to take a significant amount of synergy among components, including the rights electrical and mechanical isolation and even the right wires, the right room and the right software. I was reminded over the weekend that even simple changes can go very wrong and of the benefit of having a friend with an excellent set of ears. Recently, I have been experimenting with mechical isolation devices. Having great luch placing a Neuance shelf under a Lindemann SACD player on a Mana frame, I assumed that the same set up would work optimally in other places. The answer was a rather qualified yes; in one other place, it yielded an improvement but in other palces it resulted in worse sound. It took a friend removing these devices to home in on the mistake.

But back to your question, when everything is right, you would be amazed at how good the sound can be; particularly playing vinyl, late at night.
The Finite Elemente has been shipped "motor freight" but has not arrived. Will comment when it is actually in the system. Thanks.
My Finite Element (including the Cerabase feet) finally arrived and resulted in very noticeable improvements in all areas. I was impressed enough to immediately order amp stands with Cerabase feet. The review in the current HiFi+ is very much spot on, including the comments about the Cerabases.