$25k vs $200k


Can any of you audiophools relate? For the longest time, (maybe 10 years), I wouldn't go to a high end audio store (living in NY, this was, at first, very hard to resist) to listen to, what I knew, would be better sounding systems. I feared that after listening to a superior system, I wouldn't be able to go back and enjoy my humble audio, after a tympanic tango with some, true, audio greatness. Well, quite the contrary, since I found out, (this is what you do on a rain delay Yankee game, with boring basketball on the Olympic station, and not a book to read in the house) that listening to systems much costlier, and better (for the most part) have given me a deeper appreciation for my system, especially related to cost vs sound quality. This was, perhaps, most reinforced, with my last go 'round at Sound by Singer. Any audiophools out there have similar experiences? peace, warren
128x128warrenh
Velo, I believe it was Burmeister amplification. Serious $$. I will say this: They sounded excellent, but for $17k? I guess I expected more. ( I don't have a lot of experience listening to ULTRA expensive speakers) Although I have a sub woofer, my Caravelles (in my set up, of course) without the sub, had prodigious bass, not to mention mids and highs, that went tete a tete with the Altos. ($5.5k with stands vs $17k) I didn't give (couldn't) the Altos the time they deserved to really get down, like I did with the Micros, so my impressions may be based on the limited listening experience and particular source material I was listening to. I did feel good, however, about my speaker choice. go figure. peace, warren
no comment on the singer folks but on the base question raised by the title: I have a system at about $25k retail that IMO smoked the local high end shops $90k ref system. Maybe their system produced a bit more detial but for pure listening enjoyment there is no way i'd trade except to sell their system and rebuild mine the same way but with a larger amp using the profits i made.

min: dunlavy athenas, vtl mb185s, vtl 5.5 pre ARC CD-2 strung together with harmonic technology pro9 speaker cables and pro silway II and truth link

there: revel salons, mark levison 33 monoblocks, model 39 cd player and corrosponding pre strung together with transparent reference xl throughout