In my experience a higher priced DAC, Speakers, etc... equates to more performance. Buy what you can afford and enjoy the music!! No need to disparage anyone else just to pat yourself on the back.
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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I have the Yamaha NS-5000's mentioned in this thread paired with a Luxman Class A integrated and the Marantz SA-10 also mentioned and dissed. It's a great system but as also mentioned I just experienced the Sphere in Las Vegas and Eagles concert. First thoughts are to build an igloo sphere in my living room and put a pair of Clarysis electrostats inside! Maybe we're all doing it wrong. |
If you have the courage to explore how the pros do it and try to incorporate some elements in a home system, here’s a pathway... https://usa.yamaha.com/products/proaudio/afc/afc_enhance/index.html#product-tabs If you want an easier solution, more packaged and turnkey for home use, here’s one from Sony. Such things require significant engineering R&D & investment....and can only come from the big dogs...Li’l weener dog brands don’t have the resources to deliver such things.
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@facten next time, read the thread before you post. Anyway, what difference does it make whether components were new or pre-owned? My point is, here is a $80K-when-new system that gets trounced by a modest $2,300-as-found system. And my question is, what does it mean for our hobby when $80,000 doesn’t even buy you a great system?
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?? @invalid ,,,dude, if you looked at my earlier comment, i said Boseintosh used to copy the old school PIONEER amps. Pioneer has been around since the 30s.....I had all of them spread wide open, taken all apart, measured a long time ago ....decades before you all started to look at a couple of the ASR charts from that IT guy and started to feel like fancy scientists or something..
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