Has anyone made the jump to $uper High end and were disappointed?

The $1 Million super system at CES 2001, which I’m pretty sure was comprised of monster Wisdom Audio speakers and a bunch of huge Plinius amplifiers sitting on a stage of the appropriate proportions, sounded, well, not..too..good. I hate to judge before all the facts are in, but I’m pretty sure throwing money, even massive amounts of it, at the problem is not the answer. I was supposed to go listen to the Million Dollar System, which had generated considerable buzz that day 🐝 with a couple of guys but I made the mistake of sticking around at two big rooms I was supporting hoping for a miracle.

Which reminds me. In the 80s they had a CES in Washington DC area and I attended a big demo of the Audio Research electronics driving the monster Infinity Reference speakers, the ones with the outboard stack of woofers for each channel. The source was a big reel to reel. The dude conducting the demo stood on the stage and alerted the audience that they were about to hear sound that was indistinguishable from live music. I cannot recall what the recording was they played but as soon as it came on everyone looked around at each other, incredulous, and raced for the EXIT doors, your humble scribe included. 🏃 🏃 🏃

"A rich man has about as much chance of attaining Audio Nirvana as a camel has of passing through the eye of a needle." - old audiophile axiom

In my little side career of live sound stuff, I use extremely clear sounding multi thousand watt systems for live shows, with basically a mono mix for each side. Is that the "live sound" we all strive for? It shouldn't be…and do home systems reproduce the magic 10th row center of orchestral performances? Uh…maybe sort of, but if the music get's its point across evenly enough to be enjoyable, that's all you can ask for. Think about what a home system is doing, and where it's doing it (8 or ten feet from your earballs), and understand that putting your faith in Audio Salon sales people is in THEIR interest more than yours. Much more. If you're in to this stuff, and have some experience, you may have heard some tiny English monitors driven by a tube amp in the 70s and thought, wow…that's nice. Or a pair of old Altecs or ARs or whatever and been happy as a clam.  I've listened at length to the magic of Magicos or whatever in various carefully controlled environments over decades and have always thought, "my home stuff sounds better." Because it does…and it all cost an almost irrelevant amount of cash compared to the pricey stuff because I think that's where the actual magic resides. You just have to work at it to get it there, and dumping big bucks on what Inna imagines is worth it is the actual lazy approach. Kind of like relatively unpopular brilliant musicians in the "folkie" (or acoustic) scene as compared to hyped popular ones…in my experience I've found that the lesser known performers are often simply better, and the good new is there's more of them…but you have to get out there and hear 'em…don't be lazy...

Good thread, hard to add much to the very good views presented.  But here's a question that over 39 years of system building still baffles me.  That is what seems to me the impossibility of building a system the way it should be built, i.e. by auditioning any significant purchase in your own system.  You can go to shows, read reviews, and other research, but it is just not practicable to home audition most gear (yes, The Cable Company is an exception).  So what happens, at least to me, is that you need to meet a dealer you can trust.  And even if he is willing to allow home auditions, your choices are still limited to the brands he carries.  You can still do well this way in building the system, but have to admit you have no idea how it sounds compared to the great variety of good equipment out there.  The point being that in building a system, one's knowledge base is necessarily limited.  And I want to Listen, not work (while admiring those who do want to work).

Not to mention the forest of directly conflicting claims by numerous respected professionals in the field, most of whom presumably are people of integrity who just have differing views, but nonetheless they provide little reliable ground to stand on.

As for the original question, rephrased, "have your high end system purchases remained worth it?", my general response is that, even though I consider myself a value shopper always very mindful of diminishing returns, and am in fact very happy with my system, I have seldom gotten the level of sound quality I expected from any major purchase.  Maybe inflated expectations.  I agree with those who have cited small tweaks as often exponentially more cost effective than major component changes.  And I agree with the many comments about good sound from modestly priced systems, having owned my fair share (how about Infinity 3000 speakers, or any Rogue or NAD product).

But to emphasize, the above statement does not contain an implication that I don't enjoy my system--it sounds beautiful, I am glad I've spent the coin and feel I've gotten good value (while acknowledging there may be very different opinions of that).  System is Aesthetix Eclipse stereo amp and preamp, Resolution Audio 3.0 CD/DAC, Antipodes DX digital front end (no vinyl, tape or 'phones), Vandersteen Model Seven MkII speakers, and medium-high end Audioquest wires, old RGPC power conditioning with amps plugged into wall, Mapleshade rack with 4" shelves.  Maybe new retail total somewhere around $130k (yes, a ridiculous amount of money), I bought majority used or at good discount.  Again, despite liking my system very much, I would have thought this level of expenditure would provide better sound, mindblowing sound, actually.  Again, maybe unrealistic expectations.  But that consideration doesn't matter.  What does matter is that I enjoy the system and am glad I've bought it.

As you can gather, my response to the original question is that I am delighted at what I've gotten for my money, and disappointed at what I've gotten for my money...

I also agree with a previous post who suggested it takes a lot of time and effort to put together an agreeable system, and with another who said that very good sound is unavoidably expensive.

And now, with the mercifully increased dark enabled by the end of DST, I am about to turn on the system and enjoy the beautiful music.
jimski

My current rig is total value of around $50K.
My first real high end system was around $5K.

I can honestly say that all components I have upgraded over the past 12 years until now have been improvements over their previous versions.  This includes speakers, amp, preamp and turntable.

Of these upgrades the ones that had this biggest impact were speakers, turntable and phono preamp, in that order.  

For now I am sticking with what I have, as I am very happy with its performance.  I do get curious about other gear quite often, but when I consider the cost to go up the line I decide it's not worth it (at least where I am at right now).

I cannot imagine ever owning a system that eclipses $100K, but I do dream about it.  I think at that point it becomes more about status than about dramatic improvement.  A lot of people care just as much about what their gear looks like as the performance.  My guess is my system gives me 90% of what a $250K system would, but it definitely doesn't look as cool or exotic. Ultra high end is sexy stuff.  I get why it is so attractive to so many.  The feeling it gives you when you look at it is definitely a big part of the equation.
 

We can go on forever about it, can't we ?