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$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
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
Instead of the speaker first approach, or the amp first approach, I suggest the combo (speaker/amp) first approach.
Go out and listen to as many combinations as possible. Take your time.
Maybe even allot $5K of your $35K on travel expenses.

Finding the right combination of amp/speaker interface will make the effort worthwhile.

It's a shame that you are already limiting your choices of amp by looking at more difficult to drive speakers. There are many high efficiency speakers that sound very good, and I would definitely not go the low efficient route until I had heard some high efficiency speakers with quality SET amps.

Listen to some Daedalus , DeVore, Tannoy, Klipsch, Tekton, Coincident, etc., with a quality flea powered tube amp.

You just may find that a pair of DeVore O/96's with a Shindo Cortese 300B amp MAY suit your tastes much better than your 89 dB - 4 ohm speaker combined with a push-pull KT88, or SS amp.

Of course you may also find that a  pair of Maggies with 200 wpc SS amp is what sounds best to you as well.

The point is that no one can tell you what will sound best to you, or how to spend your money.
I certainly wouldn't throw around $35K without doing my due diligence though.

Happy Hunting,
John
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
7,932 posts
 
I think that the OP is just asking the question hypothetically for the sake of conversation.
inna
7,296 posts
 
Gryphons are very powerful and stable. There are many demos and interviews with the designer, Flemming Rasmussen, on youtube. He sounds very serious to me. Ypsilon is an elite Greek firm, highly sophisticated sound. Their least expensive offering is a $25k integrated amp.
You might want to consider another company - Vitus, like Gryphon it's based in Denmark. Swiss always want double price for being Swiss.

inna
7,296 posts
 
Of course, speaker/amp unit first is great approach. Problem is that most of us cannot get everything at once, sometimes it's too expensive and at other times you just can't find it quickly enough. Sound preferences also wildly vary. In a perfect world I would have two very different set-ups for different music, rooms and mood.
We can dream. How about Lamm/Kharma/Purist cables, Ypsilon/Lansche/HB cables and all Gryphon systems ? That's three, I know.
randy-11
1,913 posts
 
my dream is a living room with built-in Sound Labs or maybe some giant Quad

you could not see the 5 or 7 speakers but they are there in the walls
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