Revelation

I have to admit that I have never understood these type of comments. In my experience I can't remember a single time when a truly "modest"system has outperformed a much more expensive one, as long as the more expensive one consisted of components that were well matched and complimentary to each other, and set up properly in an appropriate room. There has been numerable occassions when people, audiophile and not, have been impressed by the sound of my home system, when I would tell them that for more money much better results could be achieved. They were Doubtful but I have persuaded many of them to accompany me to my favourite dealer where they were astounded by how much better the ultra high end systems in the store sounded in comparison to mine. Yes the prices were extreme but the performance increase was of a magnitude way beyond 5 or 10%. I'm not saying that there are no expensive components that are duds, because there certainly are some, but all things being equal and as long as there is adherence to the conditions specified earlier ,it has been my overwhelming experience that the more you spend the better the sound, with of course a very few exceptions. I have met people who have claimed that there modest system outperforms systems that are much more expensive that they heard at a dealers. I then got the opportunity to hear, along with some other people ,this persons not so modest system and frankly couldn't understand what they were talking about. While the system sounded fine ,when I and the other people, including the owner of the a fore mentioned system, visited the store and heard the specific system in question, that his supposedly outperformed, there was no doubt in anyone's mind, except for the owner of the modest system, that the in store system sounded considerably better in all areas. Of course contrary to the rest of us, the owner of the modest system still claims that his system is better.

For the most part I agree with Rcrerar. I've heard systems at dealers though that bummed me out on a set of speakers that were really better than they demoed them. But yeah I think the more you spend usually the better the sound, all things being equal.

One of the problems I have found, in my own experience, is that some audiophiles do not look to try to maximize their existing components performance. For example, looking for better ways to isolate their turntable vs. spending 10k more to buy an existing turntable that has a built in isolation and suspension in the design. There is no doubt the law of diminishing returns is alive and well in HIFI. Not to mention ridiculous snake oil claims such as 10k interconnects and 20k speaker wire. Just throwing this out there but maybe the reason the dealers mega system sounds so much better is simply because they treated the room properly. How would the modest system perform in the same room? You cant really measure that… This is just my experience yours may differ

Human nature Tvad,making the most of what you have and trying to turn envy into something positive perhaps.Definately agree the mega-systems are my first choice also.I didnt come here not to reach the top if money is available.That being said the last 10% is almost ridiculously priced.