Well it's definitely a continuation of a young man's dream of building the ultimate audio system, somewhere down the line. He got the money, and said "I'm doin' it!". Good for him. Hope it's everything he imagined it would be, and more...including the cables on the floor, ha-ha!
No really, "the ultimate system" certainly means something different to each person. If it were my money, I'm thinking I could achieve the same or better results with the similar "equipment only" all out system approach for about $4.5 million less! Oh, and It must get real hot in that room with all that equip, regardless of the size. Unless he's got a real silent HVAC system, he'll hear that drowning out his dynamic range on the bottom end, trying to keep things cool in the room. But for $6 million, I hope he's got that part figured out.
If I were doing a high end tube system, with esoteric speakers and components, layin all about the room - ala, bachelor pad style" - I'd be looking for higher efficiency speakers, perhaps active, and going with lower watt high end tubes. The woofers would be handled with strong solid state. And, such as the case in this system, looks like he's got a small listening area, designed for 1-4 people at best. With that arrangement, I'm thinking I could get away with some Avant-gardes Duo's all around, get likely stronger dynamics, eliminate the acoustic reflections around the room, and let the sub towers be handled by the solid state offerings.
As for the projector, I guess if you have a massive screen, you go his route. But, if you can move it closer in, such as for a small group, you can get away with 1080p and an anamorphic lens, and get the same effect as he get's - since he must be up scaling 1080p anyway on that 4k light canon for a projector he's using at $250k.
I'd go smaller setup for 4 seats max, save on all the parts, and get the same or better effect I think. But, to fill a large space like his, I guess that's what he ended up with, obviously. If my room were that big, I'd be filling it in with more setting, custom decor, hiding the gear and isolating it out of the room, and going active probably.
I'm sure there's a million roads he could have gone down. I just can't help but thinking how I would have managed the $6 million differently...came up with a clean nice decor look, and made it more, well, livable! It's a bit messy and cluttered up for being a civilized adult worth millions, I'm thikin. I'd a figured a cleaner looking system, for sure. Cool though
