Your Second System

Great responses - thanks to all who have contributed!

I have grappled with this over time and many scenarios. I am moving soon, so now the scenario is that I will have a living room and bedroom on the main floor, and then a finished downstairs, sometime to include a new theater / listening room, but initially to include a family room.

I want a nice system in the LR. I will likely set up my current VPI / Ayre / Dynaudio system there. Downstairs, I'll initially just put something inexpensive, but once we settle in, I'm sure I'll want music down there as well, and certainly once I build the new room, I'll want it in spades. So, at that point, I could move my current gear down there and put something else upstairs, or build from scratch downstairs, etc.

The first question I hit is - I bought the VPI about 8 months ago and have been buying new vinyl at a fair pace - absolutely love it. So, will I need / want to buy another analog setup so I can listen both upstairs and down? Or, better to save the money? Or upgrade the current setup and have The Best in one place?

Then, speakers. I own the Dynaudio Sapphires. Barring an unforseen circumstance, I will die owning this pair of speakers. They will sound great upstairs, or they would sound great downstairs. I would be happy with another pair, though it seems like one advantage to having two systems should be to have more variety. In addition, 2 times the price of the Sapphires would make for a whole 'nother level of speaker performance, but, again, in one place rather than two.

These are all rhetorical questions, but I really go back and forth in how I answer them. I found all of the responders' perspectives quite interesting and useful.

Kthomas, my advice is to initially devote most of your budget to your dedicated listening room. I suspect you will find that the construction and remodeling costs (including the cost of designing and installing acoustic treatments) when coupled with whatever upgrades you might have in mind for your reference audio system will probably get pretty expensive.

If you want to have a two-channel system in your living room when you move your reference system out, I would suggest that you start with reasonably priced gear and a digital source that can gradually be upgraded to include an analog source. As long as you start your living room system off in the direction you see for that system long-term, you should be happy gradually upgrading it without ever feeling the need to make any wholesale changes. For example, if you decide that you would like for that system to be a small scale system based around tube amplification and efficient speakers, you could start with a pair of reasonably affordable used speakers (DeVores or Zu Druids for argument's sake), some affordable amplification, and a competent digital source all within a roughly $5k budget. You could do an even less expensive system using an NAD BEE series solid-state integrated amp, for example.

Then you could gradually upgrade with higher end components in the same school of design and even add an analog source at some point in the future when the funds are available and the mood strikes. Over time, as you upgrade components in your reference rig, you might find yourself in the habit I have formed - that is, retiring your superceded components to your living room system instead of turning them into cash here on Audiogon...

Just some food for thought.

Good luck with your projects. We look forward to future updates!

Use your best stuff where you will most often hang out and listen to music simply for sake of it. What room do you find yourself gravitating toward mostly?

I am in the process of rebuilding my main rig and use my second rig 24/7 now. But my main reason for two systems is:

One is voiced for less complex music with Jazz, Blues, Pop, Soft Rock, Acoustic in mind-

Consonance Droplet 5.0 CDP as the transport
Rethm Saadhana last version speakers
Red Wine Audio Isabella with NOS non-upsampling DAC
Red Wine Audio Sig.30.2 amplifier
Scott 299B modded (only phono section is used, soon to be replace with battery powered phonostage)
Red Devil DIY turntable with Moarch Up4 arm/Denon103R cart.

Second System is for heavier stuff like Rock. Metal, Rock&Roll, Electronic, Alternative Rock.

AAD 2001 monitors (down to 30Hz)
Consonance Cyber 800 tube mono-blocks 78wpc (modded)
TVC passive preamp
Droplet's analog out (used as a cdp)

Using only one system was kind of plain. Great speakers were used (still are but not for long) but it was missing that magic. I found that sparkle by the compromise in two different systems. (I actually have three and one 5.1 but I do not want to talk about it, I'm already sounding nuts).