Is it possible for something to be the best?

Twl is right on; no absolute best is possible. Best for your music, in your room, for your taste, at your budget? Yes, you can accompish that - just be prepared to be open minded and do a lot of listening. An important point to remember: each of us hear and perceive music differently, so the best for one person is probably not the best for another. This is undoubtedly why high end audio is such an intriguing hobby; there are so many choices and such differing points of view.

If by chance you do someday find "the best" system, please repost and let us all know what it is so the rest of us can immediately re-mortgage our houses and jump on the bandwagon!

Nrchy, with a moniker like that, i assumed that you wouldn't mind someone throwing a little "chaos" into your thread : )

Honestly though, i have messed around with enough gear to come to the conclusion that there is no "best". It is how each individual component melds together in the system. I have heard "top notch" components assembled into a system that sounded like crap. I've also heard systems composed of "budget" gear that absolutely smoked. As such, i've come to put less faith in reputation / brand names / individual performance and learned to live by trial and error. The only thing that brand names / reputation / individual performance may give you is an idea of what the house sound of that company may be. Whether or not you like it or it is compatible with the rest of your system would be personal. As was mentioned earlier in the thread, that would make it someone's "personal best within the confines of that system in that room". Whether or not someone could duplicate those same results with an identical system in another room with different AC is another story. There can be a "best" under only VERY specific conditions. Sean
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I have been trying to get people to think in absolute terms when they refer to their systems rather than the subjective whims they currently use to describe their obsession. I love to see/hear people actually think. Many of these threads are so meaningless. It's fun to engage in some intelligent intercourse via AudiogoN.
So there is no best pre-amp, or amp, or turntable? What about the Rockport turntable? Does that mean Monet was not the best impressionist painter or Greene and Greene were not the best architects of the prairie/mission style. Can't there be a mathmatical equation to determine the best interconnect?
It just seems as though something must be the best at any given time. Am I wrong again?!?

No Nrchy, it's just that when such statements are made there are people ready to jump in the discussion that care more about the art of argument than the point of the subject being discussed.

For what it is worth, I agree Claude Monet was the best impressionist painter. I love Renoir and Degas almost as much, at least when discussing French impressionist art that preceded the impressionist music movement.

The Rockport is the best turntable, all things considered. To judge in a fair and absolute manner, every facet of the product must be considered.

The Walker Proscenium performs as well musically, but when every point, such as finish, fit and attention to detail is tallied, the Rockport wins. Sometime you must ask (and answer TRUTHFULLY) if you could have this upgrade for free, would you prefer it over what you have now? Much of the time the afford ability of an object plays a huge role in our judgement.

I suspect I have already furnished enough fuel for a two week tirade.

To add to my above post, I do feel that there are absolute bests, but the parameters for judgement must be set. And as Albert points out, not all will agree. As an aside, were the impressionists experimenting with an early form of digital representation, using large "pixels"?