Wanna take it to the next level? Buy MORE speakers!

@deep_333

Sorry to hear of your 2 channel struggles- you want a complete system with high sonics but are severely limited my your budget.

High End Audio is an expensive hobby because to bring sonics significantly above box store offerings, custom/expensive parts (Mundolf, Vishay, transformers, etc) , material advancements, vibration mitigation, custom casework, plus a small niche market drives the cost of doing business way up. This is a hardware based hobby so the latest tech is going to be costly. Trying to accomplish high level sonics by using lower cost alternatives is nearly impossible- no short cuts, although we wish there were.

It’s good that you at least take a break from high-end audio as it was causing you much grief- hobbies are supposed to be enjoyable. Desktop audio might be a budget friendly option - there’s a significant market size. Or maybe you can build your budget through additional income to fund your hobby.

Anyway, glad you landed in a good place.

@kennyc Awww, Lol, .aren’t you the guy with a Salon2 and that blew your mind or something some time ago? Go ahead and raise the bar for everyone first, i.e. put the money where the mouth is. 4 million is what you need to spend to be a niche trendsetter perhaps (worthy of the enlightening speech you gave above). Work 6 jobs if it came down to it and show everyone what you’re made of.

Here, this is waiting for you...no shortcuts indeed.

$4,000,000 Horn System

After that, we could find out if i could beat the snot out of a ’no short-cuts’ rig with whatever i’ve got.

@deep_333 Ha, I wished the Salon2 would have resonated with me- it’s one the least expensive speakers that’s Stereophile rated A. In my search, I listened to the best speakers I could find, then try to replicate at home as close as possible without losing fidelity. My tastes were top of the line Magico (S5mk2, M3) and YG Acoustics (Sonja) but my wallet said differently

Went to AXPONA 2022 to demo final choices: Magico A5 vs Rockport Atria2 both sounded sub-par likely to poor room conditions.
A big thanks to Chris Thornton at Artisan Fidelity- the Vimberg Mino D sounded great but with the Diamond tweeter option I thought it was unaffordable. But after he helped me negotiate the price, I got a great deal- blew my budget if course, but what rocks my boat is high notes like violins and bells.

I’m amused that my Vimberg Mino D speakers are at the entry level of Tidal speakers- likely some trickle down tech. Likewise amused at my Constellation Inspiration electronics, they too are entry level and directly related to trickle down technology and made TAS’s top 50 bargain list.

Still trying to control spending for “sound enhancing” audiophile devices: Ethernet cables/filters/switches, fuses, outlets, demagnetizer, turntable mats, speaker feet, racks….

Also I have the curiosity itch to try the low noise floor of DS Audio optical cartridges requiring purchasing specialized phono preamp, and to try a SUT requiring purchasing a “voltage” phono preamp (I run a “current” phono).

Depending on one’s sonic goals, this hobby can be really challenging to one’s wallet.

@deep_333 , perhaps a desktop headphone/earphones setup might be rewarding. I have a xDuoo TA-30 tube DAC/amp hooked up to my laptop and run Focal Clear MG, Audeze LCD-i3. Hifiman HE-4XX, and Grado SR80. Sounds great and I haven’t tried tube rolling yet. I also have the Astell&Kern SP2000T DAP that I’m planning to try as a SS desktop dac/amp.
There are a lot of affordable options, with financial room to explore. There’s also high-end IEM (inside the ear monitors). This is a very large market with cutting edge sonics.

If you one day decide to go for high-end 2 channel again with a larger budget, it may be helpful to know what’s the “minimum” sonic quality you’d settle for and the price of those speakers and/or electronics. This would give you a set financial target to determine if worth pursuing.

@kennyc  I have some combination of stereo gear that would be considered high end by this forum''s standards perhaps..I would deem it high performance more so than "high end" because "high end" could also mean trash that's just priced high some days.

I could create the presentation of the TAD Reference with my current lower TAD model and a couple of open baffle subs. With BACCH on the front end, it seems to be about as good as stereo gets. The TAD Reference (for as long as it has been around)  is still considered a benchmark for the high end-ish sound in some circles.

But, it all loses to multichannel ime...don't know what to tell ya (Hearing is believing). A redirection of the tweaking fuel/energy for some guys could get them there, perhaps.

I can’t believe it’s not buttah. 

@deep_333 wrote:

I tried the active route with a GR speaker kit and minidsp’s stuff. It is easier with a diy kit, you simply set the passive crosssover aside and interface with the minidsp kit. I didn’t get the best sound there and i almost felt like the minidsp unit was borderline faulty.

Storm Audio (not cheap) lets one go active with any number of speakers on their multichannel processors. When i did have that processor, i wasn’t thinking about the active route too much, i.e., was already invested in passive configurations and ended up selling it.

The same could be leveled against your example of and experience with active configuration here as you did earlier with regard to the "quantity over quality" guys and them not even being audiophiles into their multi-channel music endeavors. Some seem to believe throwing in a MiniDSP over a speaker kit settles the matter on active vs. passive, but that’s a crude outset that only tells you so much and which also depends on one’s abilities to patiently dial in the filter settings.

Instead imagine using your existing, passively configured high quality main speakers that you know well and convert them into outboard active config. by swapping out their passive crossovers with an outboard quality DSP unit and buy extra power amps for each driver section (meaning: each amp channel is then connected directly to its corresponding driver or drivers in parallel for better amp-to-driver interfacing and load independent amp sections) - preferably similar to the one you’re using already so to make your ground of comparison with the passive scenario to really only be about what it means to have the filtration done prior to amplification on signal level actively vs. the one that happens on the output side of the amp passively via the speakers’ built-in crossovers.

Then follows weeks to months of carefully experimenting with filter values aided by measurements (in addition to other audio friends’ ears) and many hours of listening to determine which filter preset will grant the best results. No unknown speaker kit hauled in as guinea pigs (not that they can’t be fine speakers in their own right), no cheap plate amps or base level DSP unit with a so-so implementation of filter settings; only what have and know well already (with added amp channels and a quality DSP), converted into active configuration as carefully and thoroughly as possible to maximize its potential as you would a setup based around passive speakers (in which case the filter values are already set and fixed).

When you’ve been through all that in the context described, then let me know how you feel about outboard configuration and how it compared to its previous, passive iteration. And I know; conversely I’d have to do what’s essentially the same the get a truer bearing on the potential of multi-channel music reproduction as promoted by you.