For those of you who had spent over hundred thousand dollars for your sound system.


Do you think, in retrospect, that you could have gotten better sound quality out of your sound system with much less money spend. Do you have any regrets for spending huge amount of $$$? If you can start all over again, what would be different this time around? Let’s talk about electronics only and not room improvement for now. I know they go together, but the subject becomes very broad - assume your room is near perfect for sound reproduction.

P.S. Mike Levine, please don't shy away from the subject.  

128x128tannoy56

Its a psychological effect.  People will not feel good on a $300 pre amp or $2000 amplifier.  Let alone a $5000 pair of speakers.  If people hv the money, $100k means nothing to them.  I've enjoyed my system and enjoy the hobby.  I always have the conscious of the law of diminishing returns.  A $100k system will sound better than a $10k system and we probably could alll agree: but will it sound 10x better? Probably not.  

Everything is relative.  $100k to some folks is a significant amount of money and $100k to other folks is less than they pay in taxes, give to charity, etc.

I have been into my system since I was 14 - and did I ever regret a purchase?  Kinda, once I bought a NAD integrated rated at 85 watts per channel and it didn't sound good to me.  It simply wasn't creating a good sound stage.  I took it back to the dealer and bought the 150 watt integrated and that solved the problem.

Over the years, I've upgraded my system and I've enjoyed the process.  And I've enjoyed the process with friends too.

I always thought that's true for others too.

I'd happily wager I've spent less on my current 'system' than many of you have dropped on just one item, be it speakers (likely one of the pair), a pre, or even your DAC.....

...and I'm just as pleased with it as you are with yours.

Just shows to go ya' that some will never be satisfied, with the car, the house, the job, the spouse, the kids, your life.

Personally, on the latter, my age is overcoming my reach on too many levels.
This mostly pisses me off, but one hasn't many options as with components for one's system.  I bruise if you look at me hard, my skin is thinning to the point of minor contact peels a layer or 2, blood thinners make me leak like I've been stabbed, and 'thin-skinned' applies to my general attitude towards most human activities...

The bulk of my meds keep me alive and functioning enough to be predominately a good-natured pest with the approach of a diplomat....mostly....

Enjoy what you have where you are is my best to offer.
Beyond that...I think obsession is something I can do very well without, and am doing so.

You could say I'm crazy; but at minimum I'm not the 'K guy' subject to ridicule or deletions,  And I'll thank y'all for that....👍

Your likely audio nightmare, J ;)

I have spent nearly $300K in purchases and subsequent sales of electronics and speakers over the 40-years that I've been heavily into listening.  I evolved from very inefficient to rather inefficient to efficient to soon very efficient speakers over that time and of course the respective HiFi equipment especially amplifiers that go with that evolution.  As for regrets, the only ones I have over the past 40-years are in those pieces of equipment that I purchased by reviews and had not auditioned, which thankfully were not many !  Many of my purchases were new (all speakers) and most electronics so re-sale brought me ~1/2+ the original cost.  Thankfully, on my evolution to more-efficient speakers, my last 3 amplifier purchases will work great with my soon final set of very-efficient speakers.  Most recently, I've incrementally upgraded my exclusively digital front-end to components that have made my digital music enjoyment on equal or surpassing my past vinyl days.  So unless things in the digital realm change notably for the better (I would assume they would !), I will be finished with spending for both electronics and speakers.  One thing that I've seen in this thread and I completely agree with is investment in room acoustic treatments !  They can certainly make your musical experience better appreciated and tend to be the lowest-cost upgrades for improvement that an audiophile can make...  Here's to your intelligent investments !  Happy Listening !