Best system for opera lover at $30,000

Gee whiz man, $30,000 ?? After the speakers and say 10 feet of NBS Monitor 1 speaker cable, the money is all gone. Isn't the general rule for audio purchase half the cost of the new mortgage or twice the cost of the family car - whichever is less. I thought I heard that somewhere.

Try to find used Avant Garde Trios, Wavelenght Electronics, Aesthetix phono, Graham arm on any of these (Basis or VPI TNT), Koetsu (model your choice), and if you must have digital a CD-50. This would be a very musical system. The Opera musical weight, staging and voices would be wonderful, but nothing will sound as good as being there in person at the SF War Memorial Opera House. A more sane system (under $15K) might be finding, used Audio Note speakers and an Audio Note integrated and going with the rest. Peter Q(?), Audio Note president, is a big opera fan and voices his audio systems with that in mind. He does have a very serious vinyl opera collection and he knows and loves opera. I don't care for him (can be 1st class jerk), but AN system can sound very good for opera. Put $ savings towards a trip to Italy to see Opera at its best.

Fusilli, Forget Opera, cut this link before you go crazy!!!

My wife is a principal string player in the Minnesota Opera Orchestra . The first system of mine that actually kept her sitting and listening was a Metronome CD/DAC, an AtmaSphere MP1 pre, Atma MA-2's, and SoundLab A3's with Analysis Plus Silver cabling throughout. All gear was purchased very reasonably used on Audiogon in the last six months from several of our fine members. No offense to anyone (I hope), but she wouldn't stay in the same room with any of my solid state gear. We lasted about 45 seconds in a local Mark Levinson showroom. (Hey, don't ping on me, I kinda liked it...) She doesn't care one TINY bit about the look, price or specs of the gear. Not AT ALL. If it doesn't sound close to like it does in the pit, she won't stay on the couch. She'll be up making tea or watering the plants. So Metronome/Atma/SoundLab it is from the string players house. We've spent these poor folks $30k about 50 times.

The sound in the pit is vastly different from the sound the audience gets, or the sound of most recordings. It's good that you let your wife approve your system though, at least if she's going to be listening to it as much as you are. It's only fair.