It is impossible to build a high -end system for the average dude , as i was and as i am myself , in few months with ONLY and MERELY money, even a big amount of money ...
Why ?
First, the fun is in the learning curve which go slowly up ...
The fun is not buying BEFORE knowing what to do ... It is a recipe for deception and frustration and the reason why many audiophiles enter in this hobby , upgrading without end each year or many times a year ... I know because i do it , at low cost in my case BEFORE knowing what to do because i would have learn it ...
Second, what the learning curve is made of then ?
Nope it is not the user manual of the gear pieces you will buy ... Not even the EQ manual ... 😊
It will be first discovering and reading about compatibility and potential synergy between gear , this is the relatively short studying purchasing parts before buying ; it takes few months of studying or listening on store if you can ... But knowing nothing and going to listen in store is dangerous for premature buying ... Studying statistically with notes reviews and articles about audio BEFORE going listening is better ...Takes few months studying and dreaming ... Dreaming is fun...
Then after buying a minimally synergetical system , the real hard study and experiments begin : read about the working controls of the mechanical (vibration-resonance) , electrical ( noise floor levels controls of the gear-room-house) and especially acoustical working dimensions of any system ( by acoustical i dont means only room acoustics but acoustics concepts in articles and books , you will not discovered this in most audio magazine trust me save acoustics panels publicities ) ..
Then you will discover that the fun part of this hobby save for music listening is not the thrill to try a new component which is short lived most of the times , but instead the learned ability to integrate it really well in your system-room-house-ears...
Everybody will advise you about a piece of gear ... My advise is buy nothing study before ... Enjoy what you already have and practice possible low cost improvement on it and try to improve your room with what you have FIRST ... Try vibrations-resonance controls of your speakers ... Read about that dont buy spikes and dont call it job done ...it is not job done ...read about not only isolation but coupling-decoupling methods ..
I can assure you that for any system at any price there is no comparison between any system right out of the box and the same system well embedded in the mechanical working and workable field of the desk-room-system , well embedded in the electrical noise floor of the system-room-house , well embedded in the acoustical field between speakers-room-ears/brain ...
But doing that without studies and experiments is impossible ...😊
The false promise of many reviewers is buy this perfect product, plug it and you will need anything else ... Marketing necessary lies for the obligation to sell ...Or enthusiastic advice from audiophiles about a piece of gear, good or not, but a piece who dont know yet to integrate in your world anyway, because you did not any studies BEFORE ...
Psycho-acoustics rule the gear design and results, never the reverse ...
Audio hobby is not about price tags but about acoustics ( not only mere room acoustic by the way ) and DSP as the BACCH filters and mechanical control of the room ...
And the impact of vibrations-resonance uncontrolled, of a too high noisde floor and of a bad acoustic room is staggering ... Unimaginable BEFORE the comparison with the reverse : a well done triple embeddings set of controls ...
Good luck ... And my best wishes ...
P.S. to be frank i did all the above because i did not have the money neither any other choices ... Studying and experimenting was my only solution at low cost to create a real audiophile experience with the right components for sure ... The amount of time and hard work was very high for me ... I could say that with 100,000 bucks i would had go to the easy deceptive solution you contemplate : buying ...
The truth is disturbing , but i put it for you ...
But you can buy a 100,000 bucks system not so good , not well embedded, and call it perfect instead of taking the time to study and experiment and understand ... ... Many do it ... 😊
They will call any other systems under 100,000 as mine , trash .... Dont imitate them ...But for sure ignorance is bliss...
I forgot to say that there exist a shortest road now i was not knowing existed at the times ... Read about the BACCH filters by Dr.Edgar Choueiri ... It will shorten the learning task ...And buy these filters dac for your actual system to begin with nothing else and study it ......All stereo system are flawed because of crosstalk uncontrolled effect on the ears/brain , learn why ...It will help you a lot better than buying a 25,000 bucks amplifier illusion of high end or help you better than any piece of costly gear advices ... ...😁😊
