So what's the best system out there? Everything is relative and subjective....
The truth is - no particular speaker and kit of assorted components and accessories, regardless of cost, works best for everyone, in every environment, with every genre of music and preference of listening, so the debate of what's the best of anything becomes a bit moot.
A mammoth sized pr. or assembly of $100K or $200K speakers and racks of mega $$$ power, capable of reproducing a life-sized performance of a philharmonic orchestra in a audio room the size of a small concert hall, except for bragging rights, would be pretty useless to someone who primarily enjoys light jazz and small venue acoustic music and has only to fill a 12'x12'x8' audio room. Like wise, a small pair of two way book shelf speakers wouldn't quite do the trick for the person who had a large space to load and couldn't settle for anything other than a life sized concert performance. Then there's everything in-between
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Since we all have our own story of where we are, where we've been and where we hope to be in the next few years, in our audio journeys, it would be interesting to share some stories of what works to rock, sooth, or move our individual audio fervors,
Just a bit about me and my audio journey: Even though I played guitar and vocals in a small time local rock band in late 60s through early 70s and had a decent audio system in my auto (8 track) my first real interest in home audio wasn't until the late 70s. My first home system was a pair of BIC Ventura speakers, a H.H. Scott receiver and a Pioneer T.T. From there, in amplification, moved up to a H.K. integrated and then PSE Studio IV Power Amp with a Audible Illusions Modulus II Pre Amp (still have and will never get rid of the the AI Pre Amp) a couple of Brystons, a Krell and my old stand by, never fail me ADCOM. Over the years I've had and enjoyed Vandersteen, 2c and 2ci, Quad ESL63s, early model Magnapans, B&W, 802 Matrix Sig, Gershman, Focals, PSB, Stratus Gold I, ADS. speakers, my favorite being the Quads, They served me very well for 20 years, and were still making beautiful music when I had to sell because of a down size in living space do to work opportunities. I was in the process of getting a set of Apogee, Duetta II Sigs. (still at the top of my favorites list) before the down size.
I am now about three years, somewhat comfortably, retired, with no desire to go back to work for any large or small corp. nor do I have any desire to launch another business venture. I'm quite comfortable back in a larger home with, once more, a moderately large (14'Wx28'Dx10'H, open to one side to an additional 10'Wx14'D dinning area) audio room. Since I have no plan to further up size my living space, or the size of my audio room, I'm building my system around that.
My personal preference of speakers (while not everyone else's cup of tea) is, has been for many years and will continue to be electrostats, ribbons and now some interest in open baffle. I now am much enjoying a set of Maggie 1.7s driven by a Rogue Cronus Mag.II, augmented with a powered sub below 60hz.l and spinning discs with my faithful stand-by Denon CDP while deciding to send my CA Audio CDP back in for repairs or just upgrade to another player (with hundreds of CDs and Vinyls, I have no interest in getting much into streaming) Occasionally I listen to one of my favorite vinyls.
I most enjoy good vocals, light pop, jazz, folk and Celtic with real acoustic instruments - horns, strings and percussions - listened to at moderate, non ear shattering, head splitting levels, but loud enough to appreciate the fullness, texture, timber and stage of the performance. Since listening to concert level 90db - 110db is not high on my wagon wheel of performance needs, I can concentrate my efforts on a system that is detailed yet full and musical at volumes somewhere south of 80db. So far am quite pleased with the results.
Near future upgrades - a better new or used CD player and replace phono cartridge. More distant upgrades - a move up to the larger 3.7i Maggie or medium sized Sound Lab 545, but that would create a need for more power, so would have to think on that a bit - not sure the trade on that would be worth the cost. As is, after putting a good deal of attention to set up, room treatments and a few tweaks (even with the old Denon CDP) I'm pretty happy with the the sound I have.
How do some of the rest of you plan and build your systems, are you getting where you want to be and most of all, are you taking time to enjoy the music?.....Jim
