Changing to less expensive gear.

I decided to start upgrading after six years of having the same system about this time last year. Being a computer programmer, I figured that the best place to start was on the digital end.

I began with the digital cable, replacing my old MIT Digital Reference ($325.00) with a Stereovox HDXV ($75.00).

I then listened to a used Conrad-Johnson D/A-3 ($500.00), it had a fixed power cord and was single-ended. The only single ended interconnect that I had was an old Nakamichi(?) oxygen-free copper interconnect ($45.00). That c-j DAC and Nak. interconnect sounded so much better than my balanced Theta Gen. III ($3500.00) with a Synergistic Master Coupler power cord ($200.00) and Magnan Type Vi balanced interconnect (700.00), that I traded the Gen. III even for the c-j D/A-3.

I found out later that my Gen. III's used value was $1500.00 and the c-j's was $500.00. I never once regretted making that swap. Technology has made great advances forward.

I've done this with women.

Honestly, I DID DOWNGRADE my cassette deck.
I went from a 1985 Pioneer Elite CT-A9X cassette deck,
which in 1988 listed for $900, I paid $535 for it total.
I bought the NEW version CT-W616 consumer deck in
1999. It`s digital, so it REMOVES ALL THE TAPE HISS!
The signal-to-noice ratio with the
digital a-d/d-a converter is 82db, and that`s WITHOUT THE
DOLBY B/C ON. I paid $229 for that. It sounds BETTER,
cause there`s NO tape hiss! I listen to ALOT more
cassettes now.

Nrchy:

We seem to be weighing in on the same threads. I have two systems that I primarily use ... a higher end Musical Fidelity system and a mid-fi NAD/SONY system. I use the same speakers in each system ... I own 2 pair of Acoustic Research 302 Classic Series speakers ... so the ultimate sound is pretty similar. The speaker placement is very different and that causes some sound differences. But, I can also hear clear distinctions between the two systems and I am very satisfied with how both systems sound.

With that being said, my NAD/SONY set-up gives me 85% of the Musical Fidelity set-up ... so I could effectively downgrade the MF system with less expensive equipment (i.e.: buy a Music Hall Mambo Class A integrated amp and pair it with a Music Hall MMF CD 25 cd player, that I already own) and I would probably wind up with 90/95% of my MF system sound.

The ONLY thing that stops me from doing this, is that I paid about 45% for the MF equipment on closeout, but it was also brand new. So downgrading buys me nothing at this point, but I could have achieved pretty much the same sound with less costly equipment.

<<< The implication is that more expensive gear does not provide better sound. <<<

This is where I would disagree. More expensive gear CAN provide better sound. But to my mind, the 80/20 rule plays big here. The question becomes ... does the incremental difference in performance justify the price difference? I might also add, is there also a need, for our own sanity, to rationalize the typical huge extra expense that chasing down the remaining 20% in performance entails? I do not make light of the pleasure that achieving near audio nirvana can provide, but dropping an additional $10 to 20K in the process, is something to examine, as well.

I purchased the MF equipment mostly because of the excellent sale price that I was given. So many of the Agon members buy their equipment used. This is why we own the high end equipment in the first place. If we were to limit our purchases to only new and to only list price ... our discussions might look more like an excursion through the Crutchfield catalog , as opposed to the Upscale Audio web-site (btw, both first rate, exceptional companies).

To your point, there is truly a fair bit of moderately priced, mid-fi gear out there that gets you a lot closer to the high end than most would care to admit. Engage someone like Roy Hall (Music Hall products) in this discussion and he will tell you that so many of the high end products are unique, but terrible sounding. Granted, Roy's business is in providing great sounding, but moderately priced products.

So, yes ... you can downgrade and get equal/better sounding gear. I would add that it is not that difficult to do.

Regards, Rich

I've done it over and over again with cables, amps and preamps. Aside from my TT setup, I've save over 70% of my original setup with better results after 3 years of gear changing.
Again, this is subjective view based on my system and my own findings.

Cables: DYI interconnects, power cords and speaker cables.
I used to own $$$$ cables until I was able to make my own with similar and some even better results. No need to mention brands here but I've tried over 50 different cables out there before I settled for the best combination. After that, I made my own cables which can produce similar results.

Amps: Vintage. Hidden treasures from the golden tube era. Blew most of today's high price amps away. However, speaker matching is required before one can decide if the amp is good or bad.
preamps: Vintage + mod. Again, hidden treasures from the golden tube era. It might required a little work to revive them to its original state. The end result is astonishing. It beats most of the preamps that's 2 to 10 times of its price.

I'm not able to do it with source.

CD player: IMHO, Cheap ones will never be better than a better one. Compared over and over again with all the CD players from $50 DVD players to $6000 CD players. However, once you get to certain price level, the differences become much less.
TT setup: The differences between my $600 setup vs my $10,000 setup is so big that I almost felt out of my chair.
The right combination with turntable, tonearm, cartridge, phono cables and phono stages and step up devices is very critical. I guess this is where I invested most. I don't think I can make a better tonearm or cartridge myself. I know I can still upgrade my turntable but the improvement will not be dramatic. I also don't see myself spending additional $5K+ on a TT by itself.

Tuner: This is also tough. I have yet to find a better sounding tuner under $1500 than my MR71. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough but I don't use it as often as the other sources so it is okay.