Your ship just came in! time to buy new gear..?

I'll bite, but I can't bring any special expertise to the table. I'd basically just upgrade with the brands in my current but 15 year old system which sounds great to me.

What I'd get:

Aerial Acoustics 20t speakers
Marl Levinson No. 53 monoblocks
Audio Research Ref 10 pre amp

That's more than $56k so I'd have to buy used in order to afford commensurate cables and interconnects.

Of course the government gets about half of that, so if I had to scale down:

Aerial Acoustics 7T speakers
Levinson No. 534
AR LS-28 pre-amp

And I'd still have to buy used.

So sorry to hear about your aunt and uncle, that was terrible.

56k would be put towards student loans, sadly......

     $56K?

Merrill Audio Element 118 GaN mono blocks  $36,000/pr.


Magnepan 20.7 speakers                                $14,450/pr.
                                  Grand Total  with tax =   $53,981.50

    Per the well known and time honored tradition of rewarding hippos that consume relatives that have you included in their wills, I'd convert all left over cash into steaks as a thank you for having my aunt and uncle over to their home for a meal.
Tim

@n801
its tuff!

... and pursuing a maximum of 2 different things ensures it will be.


@godbles
in this instance, even the Govt. is gonna let you aleviate your grief and wait a bit longer for their money.


@tooblue
Thanks but the Hippos do not seem to be experiencing any negative side effects from ordering off the menu.


@noble100
I like the way you think!

thanks for keeping it to just two items as well.


I thought this thread as a slam dunk 'pick em' deal, until I got to thinking a bit deeper into it.

suddenly you can do something you were unable to do previously. perhaps ever!

maybe, never again!

act and think outside the box for a change?

shoot for that one thing you likely can't ever afford?

try to stretch the dollars on the preowned mkt and nab a couple upscale items?

but which ones?

then I thought it the perfect time to build a dedicated room for listening and or home entertainment.

then came 'bucket list' stuff.

bare in mind then too, what if there is no substantial system in place already? or 'everything' is dated in your rig?

it gets harder to choose.

ad in how quickly tech is advancing in just about every aspect of high end audio and deciding how and where to drop that wad gets still tougher.

blow it all on one IYO great item and you are then chained to it and if bought new, you get to eat the big chunk of depreciation later when you decide to sell it.

if maximizing value and using the used mkt, then which pairs line up in your sights?
Source and amps?

Amps and Speakers?

just speakers?

speakers and source?
etc, etc, etc.

the Hippos had a much easier choice.