Is there a ceiling limit on what you are willing to pay for an audio component?

I Want to pay 15,000 bucks max...

Even if i had a billion in my bank account..

Why ?

Because i know what i am doing and why i do it...

I know exactly which components will give me the best optimal S.Q. /low price ratio in the world right now for the least of money...

If you dont know where you must go and why, you then throw money at high price tag because with ignorance of basic acoustic concept and no experience and experiments with it, you dont know what to do first, save throwing money at costly components which had enough good reviews and are the costlier one...

I did not and will not do that... All my components will be chosen for specific acoustic reason first...not for esthetic or brand name but for their probable acoustic delivery in relation with the headphone or the speakers/room chosen...

But i am now with headphone ... I will pick the two other components for optimizing the specific headphone i own... I will not replace my 100 bucks headphone for any other at any price...Or perhaps i will upgrade with the orpheus Sennheise at 55,000 bucks to make people envious...But it is way over my 15,000 bucks dreamed and top of the world system... i am not even sure that the Orpheus will be better on ALL acoustic factors... At this price i will not upgrade to experience  an improvement on most acoustic factor except one or two... 😊

@mahgister

 

Ok. You are completely calibrated for your income level. You completely understand the sound quality / price levels and understand the optimal point. Now, say, your income level and savings quadruples.

So, do you seriously mean to say you don’t change your buying behavior? No. BS. Absolutely not. You can pontificate as much as you want, give as much to charity as you want… but you are going to realize that the X sounds better and will only cost you .1% more of your income.

Sorry. But your income is one of the two key determinates of the sq/value equation. If you really love sound quality and your income goi]es up, so does your carefully calculated equation of sq/price. This is the way humans work.

I Want to pay 15,000 bucks max...

Even if i had a billion in my bank account..

I would only pay a hundred bucks for a designer handbag. Even if I had a billion dollars in my bank account. Why? Because handbags are not my thing. Maybe audio is not YOUR thing? Honest question.

@ghdprentice :

You are completely calibrated for your income level.

Yup. Spot on. Whoever claims otherwise is BSing others, or even worse, themselves 

 

 

 

Some years back I recall Jewelry Stores pushing the line that you should spend three months salary on a wedding ring for your wife.  Well, I suggest that a stereo system should cost one year’s salary- if you really want to call yourself an audiophile…

(Of course I would never spend that much.  That’s nuts.)

That is certainly not a good idea.  Most of us have to get a mortgage for a home that is 2.5 times our salaries.  And then spend decades paying that.

It is mostly a hobby for well off old men and devoted struggling young men.  Always has been.  Prices for high end gear from the 1950s to now has always been in the unaffordable range for most.

As for me I’m hopeless.  I got the bug in college and found ways to satisfy my lust for audio as best I could.  I lived in Europe for 2.5 years with a Sony receiver and some B&W speakers that I bought in a shop in Stuttgart.  The Hifi was packed away back home.  I was in shear bliss when I got back to the US and got my hifi up and running again.  Absence did make the heart grow fonder.  

You miss my point

First : there exist better audio system than mine...

Second : i know exactly how to upgrade and why ... I know even the cost...

Because i understand my experience listenings experiments what is A SOUNDFIELD :

(a) imaging differentiation

(b) a VARIABLE not a fixed soundstaging dimensions according to each recording

(c) an holographic volume (3-d) associated with each sound source with a balance ration with the factor of listwener envelopment ASW/LV

Observe that in my experience the soundfield had three aspects not two as in ALL audio reviews... Observe that if i could know that, it is because i can MODIFY at will the relation between "sound sources" and the" listener envelopment" ( which are precise acoustic concept )  IN MY DEDICATED ROOM...

Now with headphone i know which  headphone could give me this soundfield and how i will learn  to improve it with the headphone i picked and i did it after 6 months  for my COMPLETE SATISFACTION...Not only a subjective satisfaction but a satisfaction based on acoustic precise factors... : timbre, dynamic, transients, immersiveness, Bass and highs frequencies range  and ESPECIALLY the three soundfield dimensions above...

Three: Then i dont need to upgrade over this ceiling of  15,000 bucks because the two component i picked for the upgrade would be the best dac in the world created by a physicist Dr. Choueri, who revolutionized  "virtual room acoustic"... it is not a dac  who do as most dac do  on the market at all... But i cannot use two pages to explain to you what is the BACCH filters look on the internet to see what i talk about ...

The amplifier i will pick to upgrade my Sansui alpha which was already  top in the wolrd amplifier in 1990  with  a high S. Q. /low price ratio , is also a  NEW design created by a physicist, David Berning, who revolutionize tube amplification TOTALLY... His tube amplifier had nothing to do WITH ANY OTHER tube amplification in any brand ... It is a patented technology : ZOTL tech.  Read about him to understand...

My headphone are already top of the world in 1978 created by a physicist too, Dr, Gorike..­ The only successful hybrid headphone  technology on the market since 45 years... With an acoustic control of the shell with  a passive tuned grid of Helmholtz  resonators ( a unique soundfield )   and now with modifications and optimization , after 6 months of listening experiments with them, i made 6 major modifications, they  are today also top of the world at least in S.Q. /price ratio...Good luck to buy better at any price....

Then with these 3 components i will be in heaven....At 15,000 bucks... I am already in Heaven at 600 bucks and dont even need to upgrade with 15,000 bucks... But if i had the money i will do it because this will not be a marginal upgrade ... Especially because of the Dr. Choueri Dac..

It is always possible to buy an Orpheus Sennheiser system for example  , and who knows ! it may be an  upgrade a bit over my three components at 55,000 of cost...This i dont know but i doubt it a lot... because the Orpheus without Dr. Choueri 10, 000 bucks dac will not compete with my upgraded system...

But i am not a fool, i dont need any upgrade now;  i am already in heaven with a 600 bucks system and i smile because ignorant put speakers of 100,000 bucks in a living room instead of putting 25, 000 bucks one in a dedicated acoustic room... Most people had not the time ( i am retired) to learn basic acoustic for 2 years with listening experiments each day without  rest... I did it...

Sorry but i believe my ears and acoustic experiments... Nothing else...

Price tag are for passive consumers not for acoustician, even nor  for experienced amateur like me... i could be fooled 13 years ago and i was... No more after many years of acoustic experience...

I hope i was clear...

In a word my hobby was acoustic of small room and listening music... My hobby never was collecting gear upgrades... And it will never be even as billionaire..

The best audio system in the world yes is my goal  for the ratio S.Q./low price ratio ( 15,000 bucks is enough with my knowledge)

Fools, look for the best in the world at any price without even knowing what is a soundfield and how to create or modify it... I am no more one... I learned and studied a bit... 😊

 

 

Ok. You are completely calibrated for your income level. You completely understand the sound quality / price levels and understand the optimal point. Now, say, your income level and savings quadruples.

So, do you seriously mean to say you don’t change your buying behavior? No. BS. Absolutely not. You can pontificate as much as you want, give as much to charity as you want… but you are going to realize that the X sounds better and will only cost you .1% more of your income.

Sorry. But your income is one of the two key determinates of the sq/value equation. If you really love sound quality and your income goi]es up, so does your carefully calculated equation of sq/price. This is the way humans work.