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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
parkergetdean
1,094 posts
 

taking stuff apart, reverse engineering it, building a copy and selling it on the black market or on the real market, becoming a major brand (and never inventing anything) is older than hifi.

Some companies don't even bother to change the Sonus/Usher/etc. look

deep_333
2,450 posts
 

I am all for copying, reverse engineering, whatever you wanna call it. I just get mildly irritated if ya toot your horn too much as if you were something ’exceptional’, after you’d done it.

The lifespan is short. If the Chinese came up with something great, i’d rather not re-invent the wheel like a fool and reverse engineer it, copy it as much as i can, build up from it.....If they’re able to do that, great for them.

In fact, reverse engineering certain things in other fields of engg (forget the audio crap) can be quite difficult. If you are able to successfully do it, you deserve it!

There’s also the question of industrial espionage and all kinds of sht...they do it, we do it relentlessly (so saint anywhere). Life is short, carry on boys, stand on the shoulders of giants or reverse engineer away, whatever...advance humanity as a whole.,........quickly...make haste.

’Copy’?  I am not confronting your statement but do you have evidence to prove that.  A lot of the innovative engineering method and technology they have deployed in the field and manufacturing do not even exist before.  They may build on the work of earlier scientists and engineers just like Benjamin Franklin and others.  Benjamin is famous for his experiments with electricity but he actually built on the work done by earlier scientists including Steven Gray who studies conduction and Pieter van Musschenbroek (Dutch).

Do you understand the difference?

desktopguy
456 posts
 

My days of big 2-channel gear are decades behind me (all my audio gear now is desktop/home office-based). But a couple weeks ago I went to a big audio show in New Jersey and heard systems costing a great deal of money, many in the $100K to $500K range. With the 3 exceptions noted below, the speakers in particular sounded shriekingly bright, edgy. I couldn't live with most of those systems.

Three exceptions:

  1. Quad: their latest iteration of the electrostatic panels sounded quite good
  2. Legacy Audio: I heard two Aeris systems in the show. Both sounded somewhat bright, but definitely promising. IMHO those 2 AMT tweeters put out a ton of high frequency energy that's not completely balanced out by the 4 x woofers (but that balance can easily by changed by their crossover/processor). Even better was the considerably more expansive Valor speakers. I could live with either model.
  3. Audio Note: I seriously doubt whether those classic speakers can sound bright under any conditions.
lanx0003
1,961 posts
 

I am all for copying, reverse engineering, whatever you wanna call it. I just get mildly irritated if ya toot your horn too much as if you were something ’exceptional’, after you’d done it.

What entitles you to be irritated?  Reverse engineering means analyzing an existing product to understand how it works in terms of its design, components, and underlying principles. It’s often performed to learn, improve, or ensure compatibility and is recognized as a legitimate engineering practice in many industries, provided it doesn’t violate patents, trade secrets, or copyrights. Copying, on the other hand, refers to replicating a product without adding originality or innovation, often with the intent to duplicate it directly and, in many cases, infringing on intellectual property rights.

devinplombier OP
1,677 posts
 

@lanx0003 

How do you feel about having exact copies made of, say, unobtainium circuit boards, to restore vintage hifi gear? Say the original PCB was damaged by overheating to the extent it’s no longer safe to use.

Technically you’d be infringing on the manufacturer’s IP, but said manufacturer has gone out of business or it no longer services so-called legacy products, essentially narrowing down your options to a) reverse-engineer the original PCB and have copies made by JLCPCB or another such service, or b) take your gear apart and sell the good pieces on eBay.

Not an uncommon situation on the DIY side of this hobby. 

 

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