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Cost break down of hifi system

Hello, just curious on what you guys recommend for the cost breakdown of a hifi system ? I have heard a lot about 15%-20% for cables and roughly 30% on speakers. Right now I am in the middle of building my new system. I currently have pass labs xp-12 demo model and an x250.8 NIB from Reno Hifi. I got a hell of a deal at $13500 for both. I also got a very light demo pair of Dynaudio contour 60i for 25% off. Based off what I have given, could you guys give me a breakdown on what I should spend on source and cables ? I was leaning at the Cardas cyngus cables. For dacs I was looking at the all in one lumin t3 or an aurender n200 with the chord qutest dac. I am also debating which audioquest niagra to get, the 1200 or 3000 ? Seems the me the 1200 does everything.  I’m open to suggestions so please tell me if I am off track. I wanna get it right the first time. 

shtr74sims
ronboco
754 posts
 

@shtr74sims 

Did you mean you are actually constructing your room right now or just prepping an existing room? If you are building a new room from scratch like I did I HIGHLY recommend consulting an acoustician first ! If your room is smaller like mine a professional can design it so it can punch way above its weight. Im so glad I went this route. Jeff at hdacoustics is excellent and very reasonable for the design cost. You won’t be sorry. Good luck ! 
 

After the room I would do speakers then components then cables etc 

kota1
2,706 posts
 

@ronboco , Jeff used to be with Auralex and those products are not only amazing but a great value. I have the diffusors made from bamboo around my room, wonderful. Your listening room looks great, is that rockwool under those panels? Do you use any diffusors? Thanks

ronboco
754 posts
 

@kota1 

Thank you. I do have Rockwool in the ceiling joists and all walls. The ceiling also has 2 layers of 1/4 inch pegboard and 2inch rigid fiberglass. The walls behind the speakers just have 1/4 inch pegboard on the studs. The other three walls have pegboard and one layer of 2 inch rigid. My room would be considered heavily damped with few reflections so no diffusers. I’m mostly hearing the direct sound from the speakers. Jeff said no additional panels would be necessary and he was correct. I’m very happy with the performance overall. 

kota1
2,706 posts
 

@ronboco thank you for the reply,

+1 for you and your designer/installer!!

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mike_in_nc
1,127 posts
 

@hilde45 -- You are not the first person I consider sensible who has found that changing cables was an improvement.

Since now my (balanced) interconnects are 7 m long and the speaker cables 50 cm, it is too expensive to try many different ICs, and the few times I’ve swapped speaker cables, it has not made a noticeable difference.

In the past, I tried other (fancy) cables, and though they sounded different, it wasn’t always clear that the difference was an improvement.

Being retired now, I have to be prudent. It’s a blessing that I haven’t heard significant returns from what might be a significant cash sink.

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