Does hearing the best in high end audio make your opinions more valid?

I am using the Resonessence Mirus Pro Dac in the video as my source playing a dsd album of an sd card. The brother of the owner of Resonessence created the ess sabre chip. This allows them to implement the use of this chip better than the others.  I chose the Gato speakers because of the scan speak drivers as well as the ring radiator tweeter. The company Gato did a great job of getting a lot of air and space in the tweeter. The driver set up allows for a very big and open midrange. A company like Gato was really trying to prove itself with the technology used in the speaker. I chose the speaker because of that and I didn’t want to get what others already had. I love my music to be dynamic and resolving based on the type of jazz I listen to. I like to her instrument players really go for it in THIER playing. The rel sub adds great bass foundation. 

If you are asking for a "reference point" for music listening, I would suggest a few small classical concerts--quartets?--at the local college and so forth.  If you like jazz or modern rock, etc., go to a few smaller venues and listen. No way they will be "recording" perfect, but you get the sense of the live music performance experience however good or bad that it is. Then, go to your dealer and listen to what he or she thinks are the "best" (most accurate?) systems and remember, YOUR ROOM IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENT of the listening experience.  If you learn a few things about how a system CAN sound at the dealer's and then try to compare that to what you heard live--hard to do since musical memory is fleeting--you can then swap out various components in your home system to get the sound "YOU LIKE." 

Start with speakers and then go to the various other items.  I would not worry so much about speaker feet or turntable magic cones or solid platinum wires or all the other stuff that makes up a system yet.  Get a sound you can be happy with IN YOUR ROOM and then change it bit by bit as you listen to more live music and more recorded music and get what YOU like. 

When I play my instrument through my Sunn amp VS my Fender amp, I am trying for a specific "sound" associated with that specific amp that may or may not be what YOU like, right??  But, it is the sound I WANT for that part of a song.  Is it "accurate" or "right?"  It is for that song in that studio, but you may hate it when played back on your system.  Same with the quartets you hear live.  They are trying to reproduce the writer's sound he heard in his head as best they can.  Would the composer approve?  Who knows, but if YOU like it, that's is good enough for me.

My Dac is great. It has 6 filters. I compared it to ps audio direct stream and Manhattan and brooklyn dacs and it kicks butts.  Resonessence really gets digital right. The speakers are a gem. I compared them till the studio 2 from revel and liked them better. I also compared them to the smaller Wilson’s. The listz from Vienna acoustics and the bowers and Wilkins D3 and I like the Gato out of Denmark better. I also have saw numerous speakers at shows and when I come home the Gato still keeps me smiling.  I put together a nice one of a kind set up. Ths gets it done for me. 

treblebob,

"It’s hard to fake being able to afford those things, and some shops use this to avoid spending time to explain their qualities."

It happens even if you can afford it. That approach is puzzling, to say the least. I was not allowed to enter the listening room in one place, even after I had clearly stated that I am interested in auditioning something and deciding about purchase that day. No, look at it through the window on the door.


However, I once entered Lyric HiFi in New York City and went through their rooms, from the "cheapest" towards more expensive. It was clear that I just walked in to look only. I even mentioned it to the salesman. As I was about to leave, he said I should check the last room, which I somehow did not notice, with the best stuff they had. He led me there and played music for me and seemed genuinely interested in informing me what he had there and what he had was the top of the game, I think. It was great and, in line with this thread’s topic, it gave me some reference point I still remember.