Lol. Enjoy the process. It’s a free country. I don’t care who you sharpen your pencil to.
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?
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Audiophiles are in two groups: Not only the subjectivist and objectivist gangs conflating acoustics with room acoustic, but the other two group are the filthy rich and the filthy poor... The rich one brag about their brand,the poor at least (i am one) sometimes know that sound quality dont related merely to price but also to basic knowledge... Discussing about which brand is better or with car is better or which wrestler is better remind me of the children playground... The OP experience is also mine... Anything at any price not well optimized may sound and often sound underpar...
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@devinplombier I started reading your post and recognized the shop right away, made me smile. It’s under new ownership, we lost a treasure. |
- Great sound has to be engineered. It requires a guy with smarts and a good ear to tune things. Some things that can’t quite be measured have to be arrived at empirically. - If you give a dummy 80k, he just won’t get smarter and make anything sound better. He’ll a put a few more polishes on the cabinet or hire some designer to design a fancier looking cabinet...or make an infinitesimal sonic improvement to some driver.... put an extra shine on his teeth and give you a big wide smile..If you pay him 200k, he won’t get smarter either.... only that smile might get wider. - If the wallet is slimmer, ya gotta zero in on the smart guy in the pool without wasting too much cash grasping in the dark/sitting on the merry-go-round for too long. There is usually only 2 or 3 really smart guys in a crowd of 100. On the same note, it takes that guy to provide great sound at low prices. - For example, a pair of Tekton Epic 15 speakers for around $2200 or so from a very high IQ guy, a couple of Schiity Gjallarhorns for around 600 dollars or so (if it clicked for your tastes) won’t make you miss some 80k things from a very low IQ guy...or one could also go the diy route.
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