After a 3 year roller coaster ride with so called "Audiophile High End" Tube Amps,/Tube Preamps, multi thousand dollar DAC's, Speakers of all shapes and sizes, and several DIY mods. I've settled on what will be my "forever system" and stop chasing a Dragon that I'll never catch. There's more important things in life to worry about. Plus HIgh End crap can be very fickle at times. It has taught me though what sounds good and how to get there and of course how much it will cost new or slightly used.
For the first time, I'm building a system around the Speakers. I'm an electronics Geek so that has ALWAYS come first. I've always done DIY Speakers as well form High School to College to married life (my Wife puts up with A LOT).
My Bose 901 "passion" will be with me forever. I will defend those Sealed Box odd shaped boxes till I do. Any old Geezer will be told off wherever they knock that Brand down. I did it last last week.
Anyways, the list :
Klipsch Cornwall IV's driven by a pair of resto modded McIntosh MC50's
Sony UBP-X1000ES (gotta get some more before they and the 1100ES become as rare as the overpriced Oppo crap) with my mods to the Analog Output boards
Orchard Audio Ultra Amplifers x6 (I'm getting near the end of hand buiding/soldering the 6 pcb's)
Stax SRM-007tA with Koss 95/X Electrostatics
Surround Speakers will be 4x Series I/II Speakers with two on Tulip Stands and two more hung from the ceiling (what the Wife can see sitting down but can hear is always a good thing)
Center Channel with be two Heresy's resting horizontally angled up towards the screen slightly
two double stacked 12" H-Frame Subwoofers on the back wall
All the Electronics will be mounted in the wall giving lots of space for the Cornwall to do their "thang"
In classical economics as defined by Marshall you have come up against the punishing law of Marginal Productivity. One could draw a graph with audio "quality" on the side and $ spent on the bottom resulting in a curve that rose steeply at the start, then flattened to the point there was no real increase for ANY amount extra spent. In other words you hit a plateau of economic and hi fi reality.
Before he music industry and home reproduction to the DIN 4500 standard crumbled in the face of commercialisation of the digital domain for hedgefund profit, a thriving electronics industry catered for a wide range of needs providing on the whole equipment and listening pleasure that was realistically priced in the mid range.
I suggest you delve into the world of vintage electronics (but make sure you have the services of a good tech!) whether it be 1970s Japanese monster amps and receivers such as Sansui or design led beauties from B and O or Philips from the same era. A Linn Sondek table will still deliver the gods as well as anything looking like a prop from a SciFi movie. Lastly remember the audio chain is only as good as its weakest link. Sticking to one manufacturer for components that have been designed to work together will cut out a lot of wasted time. Audition speakers before buying and place and tweek the room to get the best acoustic. Aim for simplicity. Unless you live in a mansion with a dedicated music room surround sound will be a waste of time. Stuck to two channel stereo. Avoid silly theories such as pre-amps without tone controls - bi-wiring speakers - spikes for speakers - over priced inter connects and speaker cable - valves sound "better" than transistors "full stop" - all digital is bad - you can get good sound via streaming and downloads - etc. etc. Finally the MORE you spend the better it IS! The basics are: if you are listening to the equipment, after setting up which should not take a lifetime, and not the music then give up!
There is a nice DIY mod for those Cornwalls that really add to their performance. Involves damping those plastic horns. Bracing the cabinet. And some work on the crossover and wiring. It's a few hundred bucks but it's a good nice positive change. Don Sachs let me in on it from someone else and brought those Klipsch up to another level. Look it up.
What most people call " high end " is related often to dynamic and details resolution improvement which is the MOST deceptive perception related to high end upgrading..Especially when the room is not treated really or poorly treated and not mechanically controlled at all...
What you called "high fidelity" of tone and sound perspective is coming from a better TIMBRE perception which is the acoustic CONDITION and BASIS for improving all other acoustical cues in the room..
My system is low cost ( 500 bucks) and because of the control over my dedicated room acoustic i experience a so good sound that i will never need to upgrade...Nobody believe me because of the low cost of my gear...Price tag import more for most people than acoustic science...
Most people dont know what is "timbre" and the "time envelope"of the timbre components and his "spectral envelope" and what are the acoustic conditions for the optimized perception of timbre using the pressure zones dynamic modification and the timing of the first frontwaves with the reflected waves...It is necessary to transform the room for the specific need of a particular type of speakers for your specific ears structure and history...
Most people buy electronic basic gear or very costly one without placing much attention to acoustic...
This is the key error pervading all audio....Underestimating acoustic and throwing money on a 100,000 bucks piece of gear...
I dont needed gear ...Basic one do the job...
I needed acoustic thinking and a dedicated room , and way more than panels, be it reflective, absorbing and diffusing one in a balance way..This is passive material acoustic treatment It takes way more...I needed mechanical control of the pressure zones with Helmholtz method using resonators but also diffusers...I used near 100 tubes of size varying from a straw to a 8 feet one...
I disconnected definitively 7 pair of various headphones type and put them in a closet with my subwoofer...Guess why? they cannot compete with the speakers/room controlled synergy...
Think about acoustic being potentially like a powerful huge transfprmation of ANY gear system to the sky...
Acoustic is way more than upgrading...
My best to you....
In the distant past I never questioned whether High End equals High Fidelity. And then it has happened to me (in 2002) that I heard a guitar recording (made with my guitar) that my musician friend made (without processing or editing, straight recording, only level was adjusted). I have listened to him play the guitar between my speakers and the recording to compare one right after the other.
I think very few have the chance for such hard core comparison for fidelity, with an instrument I intimately know, and my musician friend, whose playing I have enjoyed for uncounted hours in my lifetime. Plus, unadultered recording that allows looking into fidelity.
Through my system at that time I had no trouble identifying the exact guitar on the recording - after two notes I knew on which guitar he picked for the recording. (He has about a dozen guitars, all with different tones.) My system gave about 90% of the detail level of the actual guitar being played. The tonality was right, the perspective was right, the image projected was same size as the real guitar. The recording proved to be high fidelity, giving me 90% of the original sound. Now, this was through a heavily modded Dynaco stereo 70 - Fostex Voigt pipes - heavily hot-rodded purist all-silver PAS3 preamp - heavily modded Micromega Stage 3 CD player system - al DIY cabling including PCs (all DIY, yours truly).
The "High End" comparison was BAT and Wilson speakers, and I forgot which very high end CD player & transport & MIT cabling - it was SOTA at that time, and the league of the most expensive High End one could put together in that year. What I heard was very striking, and also a tremendous blow to the head forcing a MAJOR reality check and reorientation of my goals. Yes, there was a jump in detail level, but it did not sound anymore like listening to my guitar from the listeners position. It sounded as if I stuck my head within one foot of the guitar (yes, I have done such experimentation with real guitars). The tonal balance was totally askew, and I did not recognize my guitar anymore. If I was asked to tell which of his guitars he played the recording, I could not have guessed it because it sounded like none of his guitars. And the closest pick would have been a guitar that had a distinctly different tone.
So, while it was evident to all that the HE system in question provided a much higher resolution / detail level, it was also obvious that it completely failed at delivering both the tonality and the perspective / spatial balance, and in general, the EXPERIENCE of the recorded actual guitar.
This experience taught me that High End does not necessarily equals High Fidelity.
Since then, I’ve been investigating what is the difference between "High End" approach and "High Fidelity" which we could call "Reality" or "Real World Audio" (hence my moniker.... LOL.)
The key components necessary to provide High Fidelity AND high detail level: no feedback, efficient loudspeakers, as short signal path as possible. The more we deviate from this path, the easier it gets to get ultra-detail&freq range &SPL but at the price of the tonal balance.
To me, tonal balance is essential, and in my experience is the singular parameter that makes or breaks High End to behave as a show host or the translator of reality.
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