This thread is absolute madness. From a financial point of view you should not be "saving up" for a system, at least not in the traditional sence, I will expand upon that in a bit. This is a hobby, a complely unnecessary indulgence. You should be able to pay for your entire system without taking on debt or dipping into retirement savings that are intended to maintain your current status of living. If you are past retirement age, and still in a position to spend 50-80k on your hobby without materially impacting your future, then go right ahead. But OP has made a few comments that has me doubting their financial position.
If you want to get an idea of a responsible budget, you can use the 1% rule which allows for spending 1% per year of your total net worth on luxury items. Luxury items can mean anything from travel, goods, services etc. Pretty much anything that you don’t really need to purchase. So to have a budget of 50-80k on Hifi I would expect your total net worth should be in the 5-8m range (potentially lower when you account for resale value). Net worth is total assets - total liabilites. If you are ultimatly responsible for a portion of family debts beyond your immediate household, you should factor those in along with your liabilities.
Given the 1% rule allows provides an annual spending limit you can save up for a system buy buying it over time and keeping within that annual amount. But dont forget to add in other luxury costs like travel, and expenses from other members of your household. I’m assuming HiFi isnt your only indulgence. Now here’s where things get interesting. Unlike travel or service expenses, you can use a modifier for audio gear since there is resale value on these items which is typically 30-50% from new, or much higher when buying used. Example- lets say you buy a used Gryphon Diablo 300 for 10k. You should be able to comfortably sell that for 8k a few years from now making its total cost 2k, maybe a bit higher due to shipping etc but you get the idea. Take 1% of your total net worth, figure out what your other luxury expenditures are, and what’s left over is what you can spend per year on your this system and adjust back up to account for the resale value of the items. If you find yourself short on budget either scale things back and/or look into the used marketplace.
