??? Where Does "High End" Start ???

Interesting thread. I personally think high-end is an eye-of-the-beholder assessment. How many dollars does it take to reach nirvana? Probably as many opinions as there are people to form them. I'm reminded of something the late Sir Kenneth Clark (historian, author, TV presenter, and crashing bore) once said on his series "Civilisation," (the British spelling): he couldn't exactly define civilization, but he knew when he was in its presence. That's how I feel about high-end audio--I flatter myself that I can appreciate it when I hear it, but what makes it so is not easily translatable into words. Or dollars, come to that. 

As for our opinions on the subject, let's remember this astute Will Rogers quote: "If you laid all the economists end to end, they'd face all different directions."

Of two thing one or the other :

We define high fi by pricing...( i refuse this because i heard one million bucks system sounding bad)

Or we define it by the optimization learning process necessary to make any system/room able to reach his potential..

Why?

Because there is no relation between a system/room ,at any price, before and after the optimization process.. No relation at all... ( i suppose a minimal level of synergy already given between the gear pieces here)

I know for a fact that most people dont know what their system/room optimal level S.Q. is because they dont know how to optimize it...They prefer to buy than to learn...It takes times...If their budget is low they resign to an unsatisfying experience...

It is why they upgrade uselessly half the time to shift the pain for a moment ... The other half upgrading could be motivated by absence of budget constraint or synergy lackings...

it’s amazing, and a little bit sad, how the relative amount of financial resources expended on a hi-fi system is such a point of division. Everyone has their own budget representing what they are willing and able to spend on a system. If someone is able to use that budget to get something that is satisfying, well, they are in the winners circle. I’m also amazed that there are people who claim to know what motivates folks who they don’t know, can’t name, and will never meet to make certain buying decisions. I don’t know what is in someone’s mind when they buy hi-fi gear unless they tell us. I assume, and maybe it’s an incorrect assumption, that whether someone spends $5000. or $250,000 on a set of speakers, for example, they do so because with the information they have, they believe it will provide a satisfying listening experience in the room they have set up for a price they are willing to pay. How could you assume that someone you don’t know made that decision out of ignorance or arrogance? Lots of long distance Mind readers in the audiophile community. No reason to fixate on how other people spend their money. Take care of your own. 
 

You might say there are two ways to be an audiophile.

One is to study, learn, listen, search, find.

The other is to spend a lot of money.

Some folks do both.

Which one do you want to be?

I kinda wish people stopped talking about money all the time. The tenor of this pursuit should never be money.

You will notice that accomplished audiophiles rarely, if ever, mention money.

You might say there are two ways to be an audiophile.

One is to study, learn, listen, search, find.

The other is to spend a lot of money.

Some folks do both.

Which one do you want to be?

I kinda wish people stopped talking about money all the time. The tenor of this pursuit should never be money.

You will notice that accomplished audiophiles rarely, if ever, mention money.

 

Exactly right!

And we do not take the cost of a system as a meter of our acoustical satisfaction nor as a meter of a system acoustical value..

All is in the way we optimize it...

For sure my low cost amplifier even well optimized will not beat a very costlier well done designed and well optimized system...(if the costlier system is not well optimized it may be another story though)

I must specify this because some people taking me for an idiot think that i put my low cost system on the same level as all the costlier beautiful system i had seen here in the virtual pages...

my point is: any system must be optimized nervermind his price...

With my low cost one i reach the level of "the minimal acoustical satisfaction threshold"... It is enough for me , my needs and my budget...

Give me money i will optimize any chosen system at any price...

Then i will reach "the maximal acoustical satisfaction threshold"

But in the money you will gave me add the cost of a perfectly well designed acoustical dedicated room, i will not install a 200,000 bucks system in a room made of resonators made of plumber plastic etc (mine was homemade at peanuts costs)