Has anyone made the jump to $uper High end and were disappointed?

From 2005 till 2007 I visited about 70 people with systems between 10.000 euro and over 200.000 euro.

I was amazed that most of these 70 systems sounded rather poor regardless of price. It proved that the way they created these systems by trial and error was not that succesful.

The list of faults they made is so big that it is difficult to create a stunning system. Most of them are in a circle and trail and error will never get them out of this circle.

They change one part for another one and hope it will be the solution. They have no idea that what they do is gambling. And that this is the reason why they are not able to make the step they would like to see.

In the last 2 years I met different new clients with expensive systems all far over 50.000 dollar. I said: I only can help you when we sell everything.

Based on the fact that all their parts could be easily replaced by better ones. Even for the money these systems were sold for. It was easy to create a superior level in sound and stage quality. In most situations I even don’t use all the money of the sold products.

It proofs how much more effective Tru-Fi is over trial and error created audio systems.

The sad fact is that, as our disposable income generally increases as we get older,  the most important transducers - our ears - continue to deteriorate and no amount of money spent on  "high-end" equipment, is going to fix this problem.

I disagree. The real problem for audiophiles is that there are so many problems in playback, especially for digtital, and that many of the problems are either unknown or not well documented. Therefore, the motivated audiophile is forced to try to research what those problems are on line or to undertake the investigation himself. What kind of problems am I referring to? Well, without going too crazy, let’s start with background scattered laser light in CD players. Also, the vibration of the CD transport compartment itself, let alone seismic vibration, which of course is another big issue. These problems are not secret, for crying out loud. Well, some of them are but I will avoid those. What else? OK, the induced magnetic field from large transformers. And the vibration of large transformers, you know, the vibration that is direct coupled to the chassis and all th circuit boards by the four bolts holding down the transformer. And wire directionality, including fuses, power cords, all wire. See, I didn’t mention anything too crazy. 🤪

So, it’s not strictly a trial and error issue. Although that can be part of it. For example, I’ve always said trial and error for speaker placement is the wrong approach. Audio is like a big excavation, trying to retrieve the missing information, the information that is there on the recording but not in the room during playback.

The ineffectiveness of audio is being created by trial and error. And money will never help you. We auditioned different systems of over 500.000 dollar. And mann often it sounded rather poor.

When we audition these kind of systems I always start to look at the people who give these demos. They have often no idea how poor their systems soundd.

The most annoying part for a music addict like me is that they use often shitty music. When I ask them what music the use, they have no idea.

In Munic I met different people who were often only business people. Their real knowledge in both music and audio is limited. They only talk about prices and what we can earn when we sell it.

This will never be my world of doing audio. You only can do this is with full passion and drive. There is no other way to do this the right way.

I spend a few hours each week to listen to new music. For me as a music addict (what I am since I was a child) you love to look for new music.

I can buy music of all different music websites all over the world. Based on the fact that I use IP-Vanish so I can buy music from each single country.

The positive thing is that the level in quality is a lot better than in the past. But.....still the most recordings sound not that good. Even High Res recordings will not solve these limitations. I spend over 200 dollar on new music each single month. A perfectionist only wants the best quality possible.

It cost me a lot of time each week to find it. You can be happy as a child when you find a new artist. Most music I bought I buy from Qobuz.

You have the freedom to listen to music before you buy it. Bought music is about 40% better in quality compared to the same music streamed at the same bit rate.

I also find new artists by using Youtube. When you like a song or artist type in this on youtube. And Youtube will come with many similar kind of music. This way I also found new music what I later bought.

I love a website like Prostudiomaster as wel. Because they often are the only one who have some titles in high res no other one has.