How cheap can you go and still be happy with the sound?

Music meaning is no more, no less, in the sound, that our thought content is in our gesture speech act. They intersect without being identical as twins conjointed for life.

I value my very good system speakers or headphone but it has nothing to do for or with my taste in music.

But because it is better to convey the same spoken message in a good clearer and more beautiful way with a clear throat, i want a very good audio/room system.

@livinon2wheels 

Your username says it all.  And, yes, being upside down with your head under a dashboard with feet sticking straight up out the top of a sports car is not as appealing as it used to be.  Those air compressors are noisey little <expletive>.

I don’t subscribe to any audio hobby anathema with a  “race to the bottom system price-wise “ as a yardstick to measure audio performance satisfaction.

i have four systems ranging from $5K to $50K. The “A” system is the go-to critical listening rig. Each of the others has its own bespoke utility and performance quotient that makes me comparatively “happy” in the context of “ good enough”.to meet its planned use.

@waytoomuchstuff I agree with you there, I spent quite a few years in SCCA chasing whatever flavor appealed to me at the time and it was mandatory to do my own work on the cars due to the cost of farming it out. It didn't help the cost of having a competitive car went up about 10-15% per year and eventually got to the place where it was no longer financially affordable to compete regularly. Never lost the hunger for it though and to this day attempt to have a slow, track ready car that I can at least go play on track days. That option is, due to inflation, going away now and so I am officially retired from motorsport involvement. Enjoying recorded music feeds my soul in a vital way that I cannot give up regardless of cost. Since feeding that hunger is necessary to continued sanity, I am attempting to rebuild several systems I had in my home before it burned this past spring. This is by necessity a slow process. I bought a pair of Ohm Walsh 2000s that I am pretty fond of for my office/music room. In combination with a pair of SVS PC2000 Pro subs, and a 500wpc VTV/Hypex NC502 amplifier, and an Emotiva PT1 Dac/preamp and my trusty crusty Dell THX certified computer, I have a nice sounding 2 channel setup for listening to music or watching videos. So for something like 8K approximately its pretty darn good. Is there better out there? Doubtful you could find better for the same money, but who knows? It was all bought new so its under warranty and should last a long time before needing to think about replacement. At 72 its unlikely I will ever need to replace any of it either due to age related issues or because it has fallen that far behind technological advances. Though now that I have said that, Murphy's law will prove me wrong.

More than one thing can be true at a time. It is generally true that you get what you pay for. It’s not realistic to think that you can  put together $2000 system that is going to sound as good as a well put together $20,000 system. Likewise, if you own a $100,000 system, it probably won’t compete with a $500,000 system. But that’s not really the point, the point is to enjoy the music. I think the point is to put together a system within your resources that allows you to take joy from listening to music. that can certainly be done without spending a fortune.

I bought my lady friend a little system for Christmas because she enjoys listening to my system with me. I got her some T plus a Caruso speakers that were demos at a good price and a blue sound power mode. Listened to it in the showroom and it sounded damn good. I would be happy spending a couple of hours every night, listening to good music through that system.
 

The only problem is, she will play horrid music from the 80s and a $1 million system couldn’t make that stuff sound good