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What Does 80 Grand Get You Nowadays?

A system was playing in a shop. I sat down and pretty soon I thought gosh, I’m glad my system sounds better than this.

That system - just preamp, amp, and speakers - cost about $80,000 new.

I didn’t make the speakers at first, because Sabrinas look far better than the usual Wilson house look. They were driven by one of those new high-end Marantz amps, and I don’t think that was a match made in heaven. The Marantz was driven by a Dan D’Agostino pre that looked like a Minion had been crushed in a hydraulic press. Audiophile music was streaming, but I did not catch whence issued those dulcet ones and zeroes.

I suppose that system constitutes high-end for some. Now, it certainly sounded competent, but it also sounded boring. I thought, this is the Audi SUV of audio: competent and boring.

Conversely, I was impressed and pleased to no end that the end sound of my modest system from the last century could play in the same league as an almost-six figure modern system, and do so in a more engaging and fun fashion - to my ears, at least.

I’m biased, of course; and I am certain many high-priced systems out there leave mine in the dust. Still, I would have thought $80,000 guaranteed a better baseline sound.

How about you, have you heard a lot of gear whose sound was way out of whack with its price?

 

devinplombier
incorrigable
203 posts
 

$15K for Yamaha NS-5000's (with powerful class D amps) is all you need to spend. I attend quite a few live music venues in Las Vegas so I do not try to equate my home system with what I hear in shows. It's not going to happen unless you own a 500 seat hall with line arrays and cash flow to book good artists. 

Recall I write "all you need to spend." You can do it for less. Price is like the number of flips a gymnast can do, degree of difficulty. $80K for a system is not that difficult, compared to $5K. The Yamaha model I cite was done by a team of young engineers in the world's largest musical instrument company leveraging tech synchronies from their other divisions. No "high end" brand has these resources.

invalid
1,376 posts
 

@devinplombier  why don't you tell us where this listening session took place?

roadcykler
340 posts
 

I'd be much more concerned with the cables and interconnects and if they had any tuning dots or hallographic soundfield "optimizers" in place. Those make more difference with the sound than any component except maybe speakers. 

 

(sarcasm for the humour impaired)

devinplombier OP
1,670 posts
 

@invalid 

Given the disparaging comments made about the shop, I am not going to name it.

If you’re local, you already know this is a beloved and highly regarded shop, something with which I trust respected local audiophiles who are active on this forum concur; and if you live in some other region, knowing its name won’t do you any good anyway.

Personally, I love the shop and I don’t want bad vibes going its way. It’s not like there is a surfeit of good hifi shops left around, here or elsewhere.

 

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
7,942 posts
 

 

invalid

1,326 posts

 

@devinplombier  why don't you tell us where this listening session took place?
 

it took place in his imagination. Marantz dealer that ended up with dagostino and Wilson as pre-owned. Someone must have traded the dag for a high end narantz preamp and Wilsons were traded in for a high end Polk speakers. 
This is unbelievable what people come up with. 

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