The High End for Under a Grand?



I love the way Doug Schneider (an experienced hard bitten high end reviewer) seems genuinely shocked about the high sound quality of a system coming in for under $1000.

https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/opinion/1213-a-feature-rich-fully-modern-hi-fi-system-you-c...

Here’s a quick taster of Doug article or you can simply use the link above to read it in its entirety.

"In the last few years I’ve reviewed some very expensive hi-fi gear (all prices in USD): Constellation Audio’s Revelation Taurus Mono amps ($40,000/pair) and Revelation Pictor preamplifier with optional DC filter ($23,000); EMM Labs’ DA2 Reference digital-to-analog converter ($25,000); Muraudio’s SP1 speakers ($14,700/pair) -- and, still to come EMM Labs’ Pre preamplifier ($25,000) and MTRX2 monoblock ($85,000/pair).

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In short, no audiophile of average income is going to spend $25,000 on a preamp -- but they’re happy to be entertained by reading a review of that preamp. More likely, they’ll be looking for something that costs a lot less -- something for way under $10,000, and perhaps under $2000 or even $1000. It’s reviews of affordable products like these that get read much more often than reviews of most expensive items, as is seen in our statistics. And the average music lover would rather go even lower -- say, an entire system for less than $1000. This is what “normal” folks can actually afford and are willing to spend on hi-fi gear.

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But you might be wondering if it’s even possible, in this era of accelerating price increases for high-end audio, to assemble a good hi-fi system for under a grand.

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I was able to assemble a surprisingly complete, feature-rich, expandable, shockingly good-sounding hi-fi rig with a total US retail price of only $926.95. Its sound is good enough that I think many people would enjoy it -- not only plain ol’ music lovers who just want something that sounds great, but budget-conscious audiophiles as well"


My only concern with this system would be that it’s not full bandwith. As Doug says, it only goes down to about 50Hz.

For me it goes without saying that its almost crying out for better loudspeakers but this article certainly does make me question the relationship between high priced and high end audio.

For music lovers it’s just got to be a great thing to know that high end (near state of the art) sound is well within the reach of almost anyone!

cd318
I have a fairly low-priced system I'm running that consists of a pair of Elac Debut B-6's I got for $180 on an Amazon Prime open box sale.I have it hooked up to an older Denon AVR I bought back in the day Circuit City was in business. It was a $500 dollar receiver I got open box for $250. I still have my first Sony Blu-Ray player I bought in about 2006 or 7 for $280 and I play my CD's on it and it never, ever skips. I have all this hooked up yo a Vizio 39 inch 1080 flatscreen and ran thru a smart blu-ray refurbished sony so I can stream netflix, amazon prime and you tube off the net. All in all, it sounds pretty good for what I have in it.
Used NHT SB2s $160
New ONKYO c7030 CD player $155
Creek 4140s2. $600
Total $915

High end? Probably  not. But it sure beats a Magnavox. I believe it gives me 85% of what a bookshelf Spendor/ Neat,/ PCM/ Monitor Audio + Exposure/ Outlaw/ Naim system would offer for a guy who doesn't make more than low to mid 5 digits a year.
This is a debate on the law of diminishing returns. Of course the threshold is different from one person to the next, based on their perception and system functionality requirements.

In the last year, I embarked on a similar quest: to assemble a system (I despise the term “rig”) that hits the above sweet spot for my needs. In my case this was to play only vinyl, in a small-ish room over loudspeakers.

I ended up spending about $2000 on vintage electronics (a Technics SL-1700mk2 that I restored myself, Audio-Technica VM540ML cartridge and bi-amped setup with NAD 3225PE handling the low end and NAD 3020i handling the mid/highs), but my speakers are a late model Energy Reference Connoisseur model. 

For me, to reach that sought-after point of diminishing returns, I had to double the $1000 threshold. That said, it comes down to being in the right place at the right time for vintage gear. 
Just goes to show what you can do with a little patience and ingenuity.

My " second system" thread has lots of similar low cost systems that are all sounding very good.

It can be approached for sure.

Actual true HEA ( Whatever the heck that is as debated fiercely on another thread), well maybe not in the not yet agreed definition of the word...lol
I tried for the best sound I could get in the smallest package and ended up with Silverline Minuet Supremes, PSAudio Sprout 100, and a teeny REL sub — the T7. Cables were whatever I had in my stash box, Kimber PBJ and the like. My source is my Oppo 205 or USB from my laptop. Both do Roon and Tidal. The Sprout does Bluetooth, analog and optical in, and MM vinyl as well. This is not a sub-$1000 system but it’s tiny and sounds amazingly good for a mini-system! If you buy used and hook up a cheaper disk spinner or none at all, this would be a sub-$2000 system.