-After a lifetime of working to build a two-channel system
that I truly love, the ‘whys’ vary only a bit. Pretty much every single
monetary audio decision was based on ‘What difference can I hear and is it worth
the dollars?’ That goes for every single audio item; I’ve no need for high end audio
jewelry if I can’t hear it (and I’ve home-tested a dozen pre-amps I could ‘hear’
before buying one).
-The item has to perform or the money always goes to another piece
in the audio chain that offers better value. That does not excuse my occasional
poor decision, the intent remained the same. Everything below is my opinion
only. So, preface all statements with ‘IMHO’.
-Speakers are the single most important component. Find (and
it can take years) the sound you truly enjoy and then buy the size of speaker
that mfr. makes that best fits your music room. I am a huge advocate of buying
used for value; in the high end speaker market folks take care of their stuff
(I could never have bought mine otherwise).
Long-term speaker listenability: Does the sound make me want to turn the
volume up or down? And: How long can I
sit and enjoy the speakers? It needs to be hours and hours. I have had amp/speaker
combos that were hot-to-trot for fifteen minutes, and then, ouch. And a warm,
non-detailed speaker stinks; it’s boring. I want resolution and imaging, treble
clarity/sweetness, full timbre and body with bass.
-After speakers (and close) is acoustical room management. For
me, in a beautiful living/listening room, (cuss all you want) that is the
DSPeaker Anti-Mode 2.0 (yes, better ones, but $). It very effectively fixes bass
nodes in the room, and makes the speaker sound much better afterwards. With DSP
disengaged, even with my very best speaker positioning in the listening room,
the openness and clarity get muddied up a bit by excessive bass nodes both in
the room and some by speaker design, ugh.
-After those two items, I’d want quality amplification and
source componentry but would always spend to realize the most audible bang for
your dollar. I’d say good power amplification/pre-amplifier (or good
integrated) then CD and/or digital front end. Some might advocate spending $9k
upfront and $3k on loudspeakers. On an A/B pure blind test I’d say I can
sonically blow that system away every time, and with going $4k on up front gear
and $8k on speakers. My two cents, like I said. It’s all tons of fun.
-My stuff: Oppo
BDP-105 (CDs and small memory/library), Rega Planar 3, Denon cassette, Denon
tuner, W4S STI-1000 integrated, with DSPeaker in tape loop, Raidho D2, SVS
SB-3000(1) and SVS SB-2000(2). For me, it’s the closest so far…
