$35K to spend, how will you build a system?


Never in any stereo system arrangement have I or anyone I know, ever initially proportioned out the money for the whole enchilada. We just bought this or that. We began somewhere and finished it all later on. Somehow.

Or, the proposition ‘finished’ became a moving target and the trek wandered about here and there, as the effort continued past the intentioned budget. Some steps were sideways, some allowed for definite improvements. Some moves took us a step backwards or merely into a different perspective.

All of the moves provided one benefit everytime, experience.

Experiences are what is being asked for in this topic.

Then one day, suddenly, buckets of duckets land in your yard and you want serious sounds? .

Here’s the question…

If you had it to do all over again, what do you put into a home audio system if you have $35,000.00 to spend?

Regardless the format, tubes, Solid state, mega watts or flea powered doesn’t matter. Its your rig and your money.

The destination is a rig with copius amounts of Acquired Illusionary Reality (AIR) in short, an involving alluringmost respectable, , “man I really hate to turn this thing off”, stereo system.

Because invariably someone will ask, so For the truly anal, the room is not in a mansion, has no dedicated power lnies, and is of moderate size 14 to 17ft wide, 18 to 23ft. long, 8.5ft. ceilings. Acoustically untreated. Closed off, or opened onto other areas, you make that call.

How do you feel you’ll spread the dough around immediately?

Address all four areas? Maybe attend to only amps and speakers, then later look towards other parts of the affair?

Example 1:
Find someone who already has a stellar sounding system, rent a room, and buy the new entry level Tesla..

Example 2
Buy new amp and speakers along with better than average cabling and isolation, just on a smaller scale.

Example 3
Spend it all in thirds, source, power, and speakers obtaining the best value possible, new or as re-sold because everything matters.

Example 4
By new SOTA speakers that you can find with the whole wad! Steal everything else.

What is your approach with $35K burning a hole in your pocket to acquire great sound? Can it even be done in 2017 with such a budget?

blindjim
Buy used or demo to make your dollar stretch farther. I would start with speakers. I would spend 10-15K on speakers. 
I assume spending $35k without further upgrades except cartridge and tubes for the next, say, ten years. That's tough and may not be enough even if you get almost everything used.
Roughly, $10k for the new table/arm/cartridge, $10k for the used speakers and $15k for the used electronics and cables. But when buying used one may get pleasant and unpleasant surprises in terms of prices, so those $25k might be spread somewhat differently.
Also, when setting the budget I always think that it might go 20%-25% up, and that could make a major difference. I would not save $2000 on tubes or $1000 on cartridge at this level. In your example I would probably be working within $30k-$40k range.

I agree with ricred1 too ... always start with the speakers that are appropriate to the room size and fit your music taste.  

Then find the matching power amp.   The rest gets easier after that.

Cables would be 2nd to last.  

Room treatment / racks / isolation tweaks et al are more like icing on the cakes, and thus I tend to leave them the last.