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?
How far will 80 grand go? Royal Caribbean are offering an all in drinks and gratuity package balcony stateroom round the world voyage, for just shy of $83,000 per cruisephile. Chill out. Swap show rooms for staterooms. This would take some hot headed angry minds off this mind boggling subject for 275 days. |
@facten they carry the cheapest Polk and Wharfedale and the most expensive Børresen and second most expensive SF speakers. So yes, from $250 to 50K. 3 out of 5 of their speakers is probably between 2 and 4K. The setup in most of the rooms is awful. Other than for nearfield listening, it’s useless. It sounds awful, like a 10th of the value of the gear that’s being played. I spoke about it with many people who frequent the store. They all agree that there is just little need to make it sound good, the new buyers won’t know what to hear and the experienced buyers will know what they are missing. (It’s not a good logic but we assume it’s what the store owner thinks based on his character.) The audiophiles will just take home a demo piece and check it out with their own setup.
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I guess I'm just "uninformed" with "pedestrian ears", because I have never understood the hype around Wilson speakers. I have a Wilson dealer in my town, and the store owner is a friend. I have heard every model except for their flagship, the Chronosonic. Every time he demos a line for me and I see the price tag, I just ask myself, "Why??"
I just don't get it. |
@allenf1963 that's an excellent question. Maybe they are good at reproducing certain specific music genres, I don't know. I've heard Watt Puppies, Sashas and Sabrinas. All best summed up as competent and unexciting. Granted that's only Wilson's low end, so I would be curious to hear properly driven Alexxs for instance. |
