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Help me spend $100,000 on a new system

I’ve recently been considering moving and downsizing my home. While exploring how much I might sell my house and land for, I was shocked that I might have an excess of $100,000 after selling and buying a smaller new home with less acreage. I’m 71 years old and can’t take it with me, so I’m trying to figure out how to spend that potential resource.

One possibility would be to purchase a new stereo system with all that cash. I would like to demo a system costing that much to see what sound quality you could get for a stupendous amount like that. But I don’t have any idea what brand/model components to look at. Perhaps you could suggest components you might consider if you were setting up a system at that price point. Also how would you budget the total amount per component including wiring.

I am not interested in adding streaming or anything else I might not already have to the system. I would be open to buying separates to replace any single component such as the integrated amplifier. Maybe a separate DAC, phono stage, preamp etc. Please tell me what you would do.

Following are the components I already have to upgrade. My system consists of Magico A3 speakers, a Luxman 507uX MK2 integrated amp, a Marantz Ruby KI CD/SACD player, A VPI Classic 2 turntable with a Fatboy tonearm and a Lyra Kleos cartridge. Wiring consists of Audioquest Rocket 88 speaker cables, and VPI house brand wires that connect to the tonearm. I forget the brands of the other wires and cables, but they are of similar quality to the above.

I also have a Shunyata Hydra Denali 4000 power conditioner with a Venom power cord (I think) that I will continue to use without upgrading.

I would welcome any of your suggestions and utilize them next time I go up to Washington DC to visit dealer showrooms for demos. Thank you much.

It does sound weird to consider spending that much on a system costing over three times what I paid for my first home, so I hope I’m not sounding uppity here.

Mike

 

 

skyscraper
audioman58's avatar
audioman58
3,944 posts
 

I highly recommend getting rid of the cumbersome CDs when streaming 

is much easier and with good cables linear power supply 

and Highly recommended T+A 200 dac - preamp - just read the reviews ,that is my next dac I will be buying soon.

At $7200 retail betters other digital at 2x+ its price 

just investigate QObuz as your library of millions of titles , and 

buy a Innuos streamer with Solid state hard drive , No you are not too old 

I showed 2  guys in our audio club  both over 75 , and they are now controlling their 

music collection from a Tablet like a iPad  or droid it is  so much easier and sounds superior buy  a large amount vs the digital setup you currently have ,

I speak by experience ,I am 65 owned a Audio store for a decade  and system synergies have been my forte , your sources  is just as important as your speakers 

for that is where all your music starts if lacking in any way ,it cannot be improved upon down stream .

mahgister's avatar
mahgister
12,961 posts
 

Wise post!

Especially if we add the fact that we must learn about system embeddings before spending as much money anyway ...

And in the actual context of  insane and toxic  geopolitics climate  this money will be best used for other means ...

Add the BACCH filters to your actual system and go with the advice of jacobsdad2000­..

I would hang on to that money. Who knows what the future brings.

zlone
477 posts
 

Find the house with the right room first and get the electrical done right. Set up your existing gear and hire an expert to treat and design the room. Now look at incremental improvements on a system that is already quite good. 

But in the meantime, upgrade the speaker cables yesterday. After quite a few trials, Acoustic Zen delivered the goods for me, but there are lots of choices. I like the idea of OCC, it makes some sense. And definitely don’t write off streaming, it’s awesome. 

boxcarman
351 posts
 

Start with the room.  You could spend big bucks on the system and still be unhappy if you do not start with the listening space.  Then, pick  speakers that fit the room and then the components and wires.

vthokie83
706 posts
 

OP, a great problem to have!

As others have mentioned, I'd start with a dedicated room...pay attention to room dimensions, Greek golden method will get you in the ballpark. A badly designed room can ruin any great equipment purchases.

Pull at least a couple of dedicated lines for the room, at least one for signal components, and one for power amplification. Use audiophile receptacles (Furutech GTX-D(G or R...gold or rhodium) or Oyaide R1. I'd recommend that you NOT run an amp through the conditioner, IMO it should be plugged directly into the receptacles. There is some great information here to use. The best use for $1,500 to $2,000 you can make.

Reach out to Mike Major or John Dykstra at GIK Acoustics for room treatment ideas. They can help all of the way from design ideas to product choice, to placement, etc.

Make sure that proper speaker placement is taken into consideration first and foremost, then equipment placement.

Choose what pieces you already own will work in the new environment, and which ones will need to be replaced. You're getting great recommendations: maybe the turntable, power conditioner, and speakers are good enough already?

Have fun!

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