Latest Absolute Sound

Does anybody sit in front of their relatively inexpensive but carefully assembled rig in an "active listening" session and think, "Damn, this sounds SO FRIGGIN' GREAT?" I agree with a comment in a recent mag that said something like "nobody really knows what an original recording sounds like as even the engineers heard it through monitors that can't ever be actually neutral." When I (rarely) sit in some high end audio "salon" listening to Magicos hooked directly to an offshore tax shelter, I often think…hmmm…my stuff sounds better…and, interestingly, it actually does.

Wolf, in the audioverse people spend large sums of money for very small differences in sound quality.  From my perspective $5k buys a good system and $20k gets you into serious sound quality.  People spending multiples of that amount can readily get better sonic performance, but it's a very small increase.  From what I can tell these people are perfectly happy spending the money for those results.  Magazines (and audiophiles mimicking the mags) resort to hyperbolic language to describe the small changes.  So yes, relatively inexpensive systems can sound "SO FRIGGIN' GREAT", but it is also possible to sound slightly more FRIGGIN' GREAT if you want to spend the money.

It's also possible to spend large sums of money and get a poor performing system, but let's assume most audiophiles have a decent sense for good quality sound and know what they are doing.

Here's my system:
Vandersteen 5A loudspeakers
Luxman 509U integrated, 120 wpc
Luxman D06 CD/SACD player
TT, but rarely ever used these days/weeks/months/years.

I often sit in front and think "Damn, this sounds so friggin' great".

But, of course, my set-up has tone controls that I use to adjust many older recordings, so they sound friggin' great to me.  Without them, the good discs sound fg, but the poor ones do not.

Wolf,

i thought I was the only one that didn't think Magicos sounded that great. I have heard them at shows and audiophile meetings. They have never done a thing for me. If all you do is read TAS and never listen to them you would think they are the greatest thing since sliced pie. 

Yes it is audio porn.  some of it is expensive audio porn, some of it is cheap audio porn.  Just like HGTV is house porn. Most of the megabuck systems I've heard at shows put me right to sleep.  W some exceptions.  Right now what I am listening to, I paid about $7k for,  Admittedly used, but still, that won't get you in the Magico/YG/Constellation/FIM/Soul door.  Lately, I've been thinking, boy does this sound f'n great a lot (tip of the hat to Grannyring for the amp he sold me).