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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
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,911 posts
 

Fantastic bass w EQ i refer to wins lots of awards and recommendations from a wide swath …since 1977… starting below $20 k… It’s really not that difficult….

scottwheel
184 posts
 

There are numerous approaches to bass management none of which are perfect. Personally I favor trapping over all others. Although I am very interested in the Trinnov Waveforming technology for bass management 50 Hz and lower. I’m betting on a combination of Wide band absorptive traps focused diaphragmatic traps, active bass traps and the Trinnov system to be the best solution. The goal is an even impulse response uniformly bellow 150 milliseconds with flat frequency response using minimal EQ. 
 

But no bass management is going to be a problem. 

mdalton's avatar
mdalton
461 posts
 

@skyscraper 

Happy to help,  Btw, the friend I mentioned is about the same age as you, and is doing something very similar.  He’s landed on the following choices:  Moon 861 amp ($22k), Moon 891 pre ($25k), and Wilson Sasha V ($50k). He’s a digital-only guy, and a big part of the appeal of the Moon pre is the quality of its streamer.  There’s probably a different Moon combo that would be more appropriate for you given your indifference to streaming; Ember also has some other SS brands that could be interesting (e.g., Atoll, Hegel, etc.), not to mention turntables (AMG, Clearaudio, Rega. and I think Feickert as well).

skyscraper OP
829 posts
 

mdalton, I'm looking forward to checking out your friends store next time I'm down that way. 

lancelock- thanks for the offer to check out your system. That would be fun if I drive up to the DC area to check out some new equipment. 

mrdecibel
3,063 posts
 

As a retired audio consultant, and have spent lots of people’s money, I am with the statement by ronres which is, only you can know what " sound ", what " characteristics " of recorded music, you are looking for. Plus, especially with that much money, the room size, speaker / listening seat location, and the acoustical design of the listening room / area, can make or break the expenditure. This is, imo, all premature. Get the room 1st ( house ). I mean no offense. Enjoy the journey....My best, MrD.

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