I’ve walked the shows and heard all the $100,000+ gear. If you are proud of that kind of excess you probably don’t really care about ‘the music’ or ‘the sound’ anymore, you are trying to accomplish something else (in your mansion built around your ‘sound system’ [as I’m sure you call it when referring to it from your yacht]).
If your system costs more than the studio gear that originally recorded it back in the day, you might be going overboard. If your system costs more than a contemporary studio, you should put that space to good use and let people record music in it!
I’d say an excellent level of quality and indisputable full-on ‘audiophile experience’ can be had for around 6k to 10k. Part of being an audiophile is the search for how best to spend the money you do want to spend and realizing you don’t have to make all the right choices the first time. Just enjoy the journey!
And honest, with a little bit of study, lots of patience, some super smart choices and solid room treatment, you can have an audiophile system for much, much less than what I’ve stated above. But a certain subset of audiophiles won’t even talk to you. But all of them will offer at least one or two little, smallish suggestions.
So dont listen to the million dollar babies... They have spent so much at this point that they could never question their own love, doubt their aural acuity or practically understand the absurd amounts of money they have spent for an experience that will ultimately not get them closer to the truth.
Aaah don’t worry about it...most of them probably rely wholly on suggestions from others for their gear purchase or don’t realize they are being upsold by dealers who stroke their buttocks to get at their wallets.
...and really at what point aren’t they just paying for more gold bricks be placed in their speaker cabinets as the most inert ‘sound dampening’ material.
...and remember, every guy with a sports car thinks he’s a racer. I mean really we all know the guy with the best car, or just really proud of his car and how that all goes. And just because your car is the fastest or the best it doesn’t mean you are the best driver. Some people I guess might need million dollar systems because they really need the help to hear into the mix, but probably more for the boasting.
The Audiophile...
For me, part of it is loving the music and really hearing into the sounds. Part of it is trying to find what enhances your experience. Part of it is gaining greater context on both the music and sound reproduction by carefully moving music making machines in and out of your system. Part of it is realizing what is of real value to you in your life and making choices.
