Best system for opera lover at $30,000

IMHO the Levinson electronics will leave them disappointed. If your friends love opera they would enjoy a trip to the Met in NYC or to San Francisco to hear a live performance or two. With their ears freshened up they could then visit the high end dealers in either city and listen to the stuff suggested above. If they come to the Bay Area I would be happy to show them around. I spent this morning listening to some operas on both vinyl and CD. The majority of the modern recordings of the opera repertoire are on EMI or Decca. Therefore, your listening experience is gated by the preexisting recordings (pace DVD or LD). Each company has a house sound which is very different from each other. Some of the digital remasters are awful. MANY are worse than the vinyl. But, often the vinyl pressings are terrible and the digital remasters good. Keeping your turntable/arm/cartridge/vinyl tweeked is a lot more hassle than replacing tubes. So they should bring their favorite recordings because for opera lovers the performance is usually paramount. Re Feldman45 comments on Sonus Fabers and the lack of importance low bass in opera. NOT if you like Strauss and Wagner. I checked the scores this morning and many of the important themes have fundamentals in the last octave Eflat (38.8 Hz) to G(489). I played the recordings and the Decca CD remasters clearly have these notes. They are on most of the vinyl too. If I was a “Perfect Wagnerite” and dropped $30K but couldn’t get goose bumps off the Wotan Spear motif I’d be REALLY ticked. I choked a pair of Amati Homage’s at my dealer on the Prelude to Act III of Siegfried (Decca, Solti). You should have seen the look on his face when we played the same passage on the Revel’s and Dunlavy’s. If I wanted to listen to Marriage of Figaro in an apartment, Sonus Faber would be fine but way too expensive. I'd get a pair of InnerSound electrostats and a used tube amp. The Flower Song (Dessay on EMI DDD) would leave you speechless and you would have a lot of cash left over. I would stongly recommend at least a tube preamp to help prevent listening fatigue. A tube poweramp would be good too since your friends will want to enjoy 3-6 hour of music and not just contemplate the psychoacoustics of glare. I like ARC and Melos but others swear by CJ. The size of the room and their preferences in opera will most strongly influence their speaker choices. Bottom line, without more info on your friends’ opera listening habits, the SPECIFIC recommendations from all of the lunatics on this thread (including myself) are not actionable. However, the issues discussed by all are real. Remind your friends that $30K (invested at a reasonable rate of return) is about 2 LIVE opera performances a month for five years, for a couple with the best seats in the house.

Hi Snoopdog and DavidK; I do agree with David in that Fusilli has an impossible task. And David.... I quoted no one in my posts. I enjoy reading. Do you read? Carl... humor much appreciated:) Last night I listened to John Lee Hooker (MFSL, gold CD) in a duet with Bonnie Raitt-- when her slide guitar kicked in, it sent shivers up and down my spine.... and I'm feelin' FINE. Thankyou gentlemen.

Gee whiz man, $30,000 ?? After the speakers and say 10 feet of NBS Monitor 1 speaker cable, the money is all gone. Isn't the general rule for audio purchase half the cost of the new mortgage or twice the cost of the family car - whichever is less. I thought I heard that somewhere.

Try to find used Avant Garde Trios, Wavelenght Electronics, Aesthetix phono, Graham arm on any of these (Basis or VPI TNT), Koetsu (model your choice), and if you must have digital a CD-50. This would be a very musical system. The Opera musical weight, staging and voices would be wonderful, but nothing will sound as good as being there in person at the SF War Memorial Opera House. A more sane system (under $15K) might be finding, used Audio Note speakers and an Audio Note integrated and going with the rest. Peter Q(?), Audio Note president, is a big opera fan and voices his audio systems with that in mind. He does have a very serious vinyl opera collection and he knows and loves opera. I don't care for him (can be 1st class jerk), but AN system can sound very good for opera. Put $ savings towards a trip to Italy to see Opera at its best.

Fusilli, Forget Opera, cut this link before you go crazy!!!