Are you Guys Rich or What!?


I have an old system, nothing special, Adcom, Vandersteens etc and I recently set foot for the first time in a "high end" shop, hoping to get to the next level of audio nirvana. When I saw some of the prices for monoblock amplifiers, cables, the latest speakers etc, I practically fell off my chair when I realized that I could blow $50-100K pretty easily on this stuff. I am not rich. Do you big budget system guys all work on Wall Street or something or do you eat macaroni and cheese most nights to put a few bucks away for CDs and your next upgrade?
thomashalliburton5534
Ramstl...talk about upgrading the system! Just think what 100K worth of micro-dots would do for your system...vast improvment on the accutity of your hearing I bet. As a matter of fact I remember one night in my freinds appartment, hearing a $20 ghetto blaster make sounds(music)that my 5K system to this day has not been able to match! We were so excited about what was coming out of that blaster that it had me and 2 other freinds jumping up and down on the couch and doing cartwheels from the pure pleasure of the cassette tape that was playing. If I remember correctly we were laughing so hard we started crying. I guess it has a lot to do with your frame of mind! Hmmmm...that's kinda of interesting...imagine that, your frame of mind, affecting what your hearing and whether it sounds good or not? Doesn't sound too far outside the laws of phychology. I wonder if we all suffer from that a bit. I wonder if this could be related to up-graditis, that thing inside that tells us no matter how much we get or spend we still are not satisfied and thirst for more.
hey, sometimes some of us are actually trying to improve the sound of our systems, not yust spend money - my current speakers retailed for $3800 (tax/delivery not included), the ones i'm now wanting to buy retail for $2265, delivered.
That Male Hunting instinct is at it's best when it's in the search of good deals on used high end gear (IMHO). I don't know about the rest, but I know that half the fun for us is researching, comparing, talking to people, getting good deals, trying something new - maybe loving it - maybe selling it the next day ----- The most commonly used phrase around here is "when we get _____, then we're done! " HA
david, i'm considering the newform research nhb645's or r645's.

angela's point about "hunting instinct" is well-taken - i paid <30% of retail for my current speakers, & i'll have to pay full-boat for the newforms - it'll totally ruin my 3:1 retail-price/paid-price ratio for my system! ;~) but, hopefully, it will exponentially improve the sound of the system, compared to the sound of *cost-no-object* systems... :>)

regards, doug