Did your system getting better the more money you spent or more experience you gained?

Reading your posts, you seems to have done your job of informing yourself well...

Anyway we are all different...

Myself i am like you passionnate...I want a good sound too but i take another road...Budget was tight then no other choice than learning much about mechanical, electrical and acoustical embeddings controls with no cost, then homemade...

My passion for few years was acoustics experiments... I am done with it now and my first passion is music with a good sound at last... I listen music all day reading or not... 😁

I dont doubt your dedication... And your experience will be useful for those who want to go where you aim for... Not one of those people will take me seriously anyway....My own goal is already reached and now i know enough to do it again for the third time in any conditions and at any price... For me now it was minimal acoustical satisfaction threshold at peanuts cost... Give me 20,000 bucks i know how to reach near the maximum threshold with that....

I trust you after reading your posts then i had no reservation about your seriousness... Simply we take divergent road...I am happy with what i learned... And we spoke for  different crowds or different needs...

@asctim , @mahgister   Exactly. This is one of the personal attributes you need to understand about yourself and the folks that are posting. What is your goal / personality / values? I am a fanatic, if I can find a way to get a small amount closer to the absolute sound (what that sounds like is also personal value. I get tremendous pleasure out of it. If I can put in another hundred hours or another $10K… then it is absolutely worth it to do both. I am happy to do without a new car or fancy 🧻. Kind of the definition of an audiophile… frequently considered a disease, as opposed to a passionate pursuit or interest where rational boundaries exist.   Not surprisingly, I am like this about anything I pursue. Photography, bicycling, wine. I think most folks have an approach to all their pursuits and it is typically similar across the board. My motto has been “do or do not” for far longer than Yoda has been around.

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@maghister don’t get me wrong.  Improving sound with less money is the key.  But the overall enjoyment at what you can afford is the ultimate goal. 

Confusing acoustics concepts and experiment with room acoustic by most people here made for them impossible to understand what i means by:

"Minimally acoustical satisfying threshold"...

They then goes on a rant about the "ultimate goal" or "absolute sound" ...Meaning very costlier and always pricier design in a race ...😁

All people,most of them dont have this budget, which goal anyway as it is presented is non sensical because it is presented beside acoustics centered on the gear price tag and design mainly ...

Why this is so?

Because conflating and confusing Acoustics with an (s) with room acoustic, they see no other solution to improve their system than costlier one...

They cannot imagine what electrical and mechanical and acoustical controls at low cost can do ...

i had the "overall enjoyment" of what i have at peanuts cost thanks to basic knowledge ...

My system is not a stopgap though...

Minor upgrades + the three embeddings controls, was enough to gave me "minimally satisfying acoustical threshold...

Where timbre is relatively natutral...

where dynamics is relatively satisfying...

Where soundstage are way over  the two  speakers plane on all side sencompassing my listener position and almost being 270 degree  in some recording not less all the time in all recording ...And my soundfield is  from headphone out of my head...

Where imaging is pin pointed enough for me to hear each musician in his own sphere of sound...

I call this a "minimal threshold" for acoustic satisfaction ...

 

Is it possible to upgrade near the maximal satisfying acousticl threshold from the near listening field and from my small acoustical corner with my TOP headphones and low cost modified speakers ?

Yes at 15 times my basic Speakers/headphone price which are under 1000 bucks ...

I will need a new dedicated room in top of that 15 times higher price increase... I cannot afford it one in my smaller house anyway...

Why am i not frustrated  and i dont feel in a stpgap position then ?

Because between the minimal and maximal acoustical satisfying threshold , there is a difference of degree not of "nature" as suggested erroneously by gear marketing...

A timbre experience is natural relatively less natural or more natural or not at all ...

When you use acoustics and other embeddings controls you learn how to do it relatively good with what you can afford...

With no basic knowledge many high cost system sound unnatural even compared to my low cost one ...

Then i refuse to spoke to people here separating system in low-Fi mid fi and high fi as most did...

I distinguish  minimally acoustically satisfying one and maximally acoustically satisfying one ... There is two thresholds to reach not so much  three separate  kind of gear... Read me right i know perfectly well that low fi exist and mid fi and high fi gear too ... But these ranking is completely misleading for any serious acoustics purpose...My system is low-fi with speakers and mid-fi with headphone by the way ...The two are satisfying ...

 

@maghister don’t get me wrong. Improving sound with less money is the key. But the overall enjoyment at what you can afford is the ultimate goal.

In a word, adressing someone the question : How cost you system ? or is it a low-fi one or mif-fi one or high end one make way less sense than most people think in audio threads...

The right question is how do we optimize or improved what we already own...😎

Judging other with price tags level classification is childish...

Is your timbre right, dynamics acceptable ? imaging pin point ? Soundstaging immersive ? These questions are meaningful...

We afford what we budget for...For sure...

But the resulting general acoustic result come from the optimization knowledge more than often most misleading upgrading purchase near the level were we already are...We mistakenly conflate often the solution for a problem with an upgrade...Sometimes it is sometimes not so much...And even when it is necessary to upgrade ,without optimization, it is not enough at all ...Then another upgrade will be deceptive replacing optimization process by a new piece of gear dont work well or dont work completely ... ...

Acoustics is not limited to room acoustic ...Speakers is also an acoustical designed object ...How do we improve a low cost one ? How do we optimize a high cost one ?

The goal is optimization process which are necessary for any system at any price anyway , the goal is not the deceptive race to "absolute sound" and if it is your goal, begin to buy your dedicated at least 100,000 bucks room for the 100,000 bucks speakers ... If you are not ready to do so, forget "absolute sound" unlike marketers who are inducing people to throw their money in an illusive race, and think about acoustics, electrical and mechanical embeddings controls instead , homemade or not ...This will serves all with what they already have at any price...

I apologize for my written "word" which = one page almost...😁😊

 

If you want to understand WHY acoustics( which is not only mere room acoustic) matter more than price tags listen to this :