members and their systems

sokogear,

"Hey @glupson - have you ever been in a 911? I'm 6' and have more leg and head room than in my old 4Runner. Once you get in, it's very comfortable."

Yes, I have. I think every generation in the last 15-20 years although I cannot say which exact models. Only the most recent ones are somewhat manageable. Not comfortable, but at least a person can fit in there. Left knee is still in the way more often than not, toebox is kind of busy, and the metal part above the left window/roof comes very close unless sitting straight in the seat. All of that with the seat in the lowest possible position. I am not sure how one would fit the helmet there without the feeling that the roof is constantly pressing her/him down. I wish I remembered if that one I tried had any kind of sunroof, but I think it did not. Sunroof would explain such a discrepancy in headroom.

Otherwise, nice car to look at. I really like it. For some reason, it grew over the generations, but lost space for a spare tire.

@glupson- I’ve had a 996 (‘99-‘05), 997 (‘06-‘09) and 997.2 (‘10-‘12) and all were roomier than my 4Runner in leg room with sunroof. I haven’t raced, but I trust @jss49 when he talks about his 6’4” friend tracking a 911 with helmet . Also I’ve been to the track and a friend of mine is also 6’4-5” and drives an older one (993 ‘92-‘98 I think)- no problem. Not sure if his car has a sunroof.

Maybe you’re taller than 6’4” or didn’t learn to use the height adjustment. It’s tricky if you don’t have power seats.

Used to come with an inflatable spare I think. Now I just make sure to take my portable tire inflator that plugs into the ash tray on any trips outside 5-10 miles.

sokogear,

The first thing I do when getting into a car, for unknown cars even before entering, is to lower the seat as much as it goes. The last Porsche 911, I even had a salesman with me. It may be that some people are more in love with what they get from the car than being bothered by the feeling that car is patting the top of their head all the time. If that is the case, I envy them. I am visibly more than 6 feet, but not even close to 7. Even more of an issue is that two appropriately-sized feet and three pedals get quite crammed down there.

Spare tire is my pet-peeve. Inflator is fine, unless it gets slashed on the side. Which is what every significant tire problem has been for me. Nails do nothing, it can go for thousand miles. I am really puzzled where the space for spare went. It used to be there when the car was smaller. "The Mystery Of The Missing Space".

Wow - if you are much taller than 6', then I don't blame you for not liking your head touching the roofliner.

I guess for you to be comfortable, you have to get one of those big trucks/SUVs that the players in the NBA get.

Beleive me, Porsche used the space for the spare very efficiently. They don't waste on cc in the 911. The older ones had smaller engines and were air cooled, so no water pump. The new engines are more complicated as well. Ever look inside the rear hood in a water cooled one? The engine is jammed in there.

To answer the original question. I have 3 systems, I think I have spent about 40k over the course of 20 years.

1. I still use my original system. All parts were bought used. Paradigm signature s8, parasound monoblocks + jc2
   
2. My new system is kef ls50 + parasound hint 6 + M&K subwoofer
   
3. My third system that I am working on building is Rotel Michi S5 + P5 which will be paired with Gershman Studio 2.
   

I have been fortunate enough to be able to save 30% of my yearly salary. I have no medical expenses, and our family is just me and my wife. I do own a house, but don’t buy super fancy cars. I do own 2 motorcycles. I am able to save money because we don’t have kids but I do support my parents financially and in any other way I can because they helped me save quite a bit when I was in college and because they are straight up best human beings I know of.
The beauty of audiogear is that even if it’s old it can sound great for many years, so if I have something that sounds great why replace it? I plan to keep my three systems for at least next 10 years unless something fails. I don’t like to replace components just because new one is available. Before my kef ls50 meta I was using the original ones for 6 years until my nephew decided to poke the shiny golden driver 😭