I listened again today to a pair of the latest WPs, and I must say they do sound great. I've listened to the Sophias at the same shop, and I like them as well.
The last several posts brought up the issue of cost, especially as related to other system components. Now I would be the first to argue that you should spend your money on speakers, where the electrical signal is transduced back to an acoustic signal. And you could always add higher quality components as you can afford them.
But the distinction between the ability to pay for something and afford it seems lost. In my mind, afford relates to the other areas in your life. Will the purchase of expensive speakers have little or no impact on other financial planning, particularly planning for retirement? I read these posts about having incredibly expensive systems and I wonder if you're all very wealthy. I certainly could pay $12K or even $25K for a pair of speakers, but I doubt that I can afford to do so. In retrospect I probably couldn't afford the Ferraris I bought either. I sure did enjoy them, but not nearly as much as I'm enjoying retirement, and getting my kicks with a Porsche Boxster S.
db
The last several posts brought up the issue of cost, especially as related to other system components. Now I would be the first to argue that you should spend your money on speakers, where the electrical signal is transduced back to an acoustic signal. And you could always add higher quality components as you can afford them.
But the distinction between the ability to pay for something and afford it seems lost. In my mind, afford relates to the other areas in your life. Will the purchase of expensive speakers have little or no impact on other financial planning, particularly planning for retirement? I read these posts about having incredibly expensive systems and I wonder if you're all very wealthy. I certainly could pay $12K or even $25K for a pair of speakers, but I doubt that I can afford to do so. In retrospect I probably couldn't afford the Ferraris I bought either. I sure did enjoy them, but not nearly as much as I'm enjoying retirement, and getting my kicks with a Porsche Boxster S.
db