Help me spend $100,000 on a new system

I love how nobody actually answered the question and became realtors instead or told him to buy some crap tube Cary midfi or said his current set is great when it isn’t because he is not happy! So in my next post I will answer the question!

 

Fun post. Rockport speakers with a Gryphon Diablo 300 

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  ... ...😁😊

 

Good luck on your journey.

I would enjoy the process - you earned it.  I'm fortunate enough to have a dealer I trust to work with and it allows me the opportunity for home auditions and even occasional opportunities at demos.

There's a few upgrades I was pessimistic about - cables and racks.

• Power cables - I upgraded one cable from Venom to Alpha V2...holy crap.
• Racks - HRS isolation rack was equivalent to a turntable upgrade

Good luck!

I would start with a proper integrated. $15,800 with no DAC for a Mola Mola Kula. It’s the best I heard and not just for the money!  I would spend about 2k more on a kubala sosna elation power cable. $4000 more on kubala sosna temptation speaker cables and interconnect. Your Shunyata can’t handle this amp and you best plug it into the wall.

Sonus Faber Amati will be 36 grand and give you more bass than your Magico and destroy them in dynamics and look better. To beat the sonus faber we need 60k to 75k for Vivid Audio Giya G2 series 2 (mine speakers) or Wilson Audio Alexia-V for 70k! So you will love these things!  If I had a bigger room I would have went with the Sonus Faber myself.

Dac easy full stop Lampizator Baltic 4 is perfect for $6800 you will not beat that unless you’re spending over 25 to 50k on a DAC like a Horizon or Poseidon. The Mola Mola Tambaqui is too analytical and you need big money for a DCS Vilvaldi Apex. The this Lampizator beats a DCS Rossini level btw to give you context. 

Streamer Auralic Ares G2.2 for 6099. It’s a beast in a box! Use wired even though it is still good on WiFi and the lighting app is the best. You will not beat this unless you step up to an Aurender N20 and spend double. For the Lampizator don’t use a usb cable use a Shunyata Sigma V2 AES cable for 2610 for 1.5m. The usb board is really not as good as this unless you do crazy high frequency dsd! The AES is superior until you go to the big money streamers 25-30k range then they are more optimized for usb to overcome the marmite usb board Lampizator uses! (Also the more expensive Lampizator Posiden and Horizon have better usb boards but you don’t need to go there if you buy this cable.

Assuming 7% taxes we have 15k left for vinyl. This is easy your cartridge will be an Hana Umami Red for 3950… you won’t beat it unless you spend over 10-20k and it will barely be beat! It’s my favorite cartridge. 
Phono stage is also easy Parasound JC3+ phono. $2200 don’t laugh for this system it will be perfect. It beats phono’s I heard for quadruple the price. 

Turntable I would get a Rega planar 10 for $6345. You won’t beat that beast unless you spend over 25-100k. It also has the cables built in!!! So you save on an interconnect. Get a kubala sosna temptation rca set from parasound to Mola Mola Kula for $1500 ish. (The phono in the Mola Mola is not as good as the parasound and 4k module.

we are at 99k ish after taxes for the extra grand buy 3 GR Research b24 power cables for the phono, DAC and streamer. They are about 380 a pop and you need to spend huge money to beat them. We are at 100k your system will destroy things 3-4x more.