Help me spend $100,000 on a new system


I’ve recently been considering moving and downsizing my home. While exploring how much I might sell my house and land for, I was shocked that I might have an excess of $100,000 after selling and buying a smaller new home with less acreage. I’m 71 years old and can’t take it with me, so I’m trying to figure out how to spend that potential resource.

One possibility would be to purchase a new stereo system with all that cash. I would like to demo a system costing that much to see what sound quality you could get for a stupendous amount like that. But I don’t have any idea what brand/model components to look at. Perhaps you could suggest components you might consider if you were setting up a system at that price point. Also how would you budget the total amount per component including wiring.

I am not interested in adding streaming or anything else I might not already have to the system. I would be open to buying separates to replace any single component such as the integrated amplifier. Maybe a separate DAC, phono stage, preamp etc. Please tell me what you would do.

Following are the components I already have to upgrade. My system consists of Magico A3 speakers, a Luxman 507uX MK2 integrated amp, a Marantz Ruby KI CD/SACD player, A VPI Classic 2 turntable with a Fatboy tonearm and a Lyra Kleos cartridge. Wiring consists of Audioquest Rocket 88 speaker cables, and VPI house brand wires that connect to the tonearm. I forget the brands of the other wires and cables, but they are of similar quality to the above.

I also have a Shunyata Hydra Denali 4000 power conditioner with a Venom power cord (I think) that I will continue to use without upgrading.

I would welcome any of your suggestions and utilize them next time I go up to Washington DC to visit dealer showrooms for demos. Thank you much.

It does sound weird to consider spending that much on a system costing over three times what I paid for my first home, so I hope I’m not sounding uppity here.

Mike

 

 

skyscraper

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.
 

 

 

 

 

 

If you like the A-3’s,  check out the A-5’ with some better speaker cables. 

+1 Maxwave   See what you have to work with once you're in your new home then put your new system together. And most of all have FUN doing it!  😊👍