How competitive are you with your system?

@toddalin I listened to the audio recording of your system playing Landslide and it sounds very, very good. The sound is very clear and you get the warmth & the extra harmonics from the “tube simulator” which adds body. You have a really nice sounding system.

Compare the sound of your system to the sound on the recording of this guy’s system, who has the top of the line Gryphon speakers & electronics, and the new $350K dCS Varese digital playback stack in a dedicated custom built “acoustically engineered” room:

Landslide on the Big Dig System

How does the sound of your $6k system compare to the sound on the recording of the over a $1 Million dollar room & system?

This post should be Tagged as a “teachable moment” for those that think that stereo systems’ audio sound quality is all about cost.
 

OMG! Your system sounds better than any $million systems in the world. I love it! Your sound slight forward for my taste but it’s matter of taste. And you can push back the sound-stage if you want later. You’re almost complete control of your system sound at this stage. Congrat! Big time! Alex/WTA

toddalin  https://youtu.be/zSX0HLSauag   https://youtu.be/TykEDQDdtaE

That's the purpose of the "Contour" control if so desired.  The recordings were done in the "20 ohm" position.

I am absolutely non-competitive - not even sure why anyone would be.  It isn't a race, it's a pastime.

Amazing! While people switch DACs few times and pay $$$$$ ($260k for a DAC?), 15 years old Oppo-95 sounds this. Again the separate DACs can’t avoid veils and glare (4 extra connectors on d cable destroy delicate d signals). Cheers! Alex/WTA

toddalin   this is an Oppo-95    https://youtu.be/zSX0HLSauag