High End System Building. How important is the matching, cabling and room? Thoughts ?

@benanders,

@mahgister,

@gregm,

All good advice and argument. To bolster my above comments regardless of the insistence of the OP to the contrary I firmly stand behind the premise that a lower budget system in a properly treated room and with the addition of a couple of subwoofers, still well under the @calvinj budget, will indeed hear a more realistic rendition of the event. Consider that the nasty peaks, which I avoided mentioning earlier are now smoothed and that these peaks previously at 15 to 20dB above the average is what causes the impression of 'slow bass' or 'boom' or 'one note bass'

Now with peaks tamed and nulls filled in the room's acoustic signature is removed and you are left with being transported to the venue 😎

Acoustics with an (s) which is not only mere room acoustic but psychoacoustics too is almost everything in audio, it is PRIMARY ; cables and gear are SECONDARY in relation with the MINIMAL acoustical satisfying experience threshold ...

The MAXIMUM experience imply and ask for acoustics knowledge with dedicated room with a cost exceeding high end gear most of the times and are impossible to reach by most here ...

We then must learn how to embed and control any working system electrically in the grid of the house and of the room and we must learn how to embed the mechanical vibrations/resonance field in the system/house/room and most importantly we must learn how to embed and control the system/speakers in the acoustic field of the room and the listener position and learn how to control their relation ...

Speaking about the importance of a dac choices or about cable choices or amplifier choices is not "even wrong" for sure and it is SECONDARY matter ....What is the PRIMARY matter and goal is learning how to embed any system at any price ...

Anything else may be promoting a race toward consumerism and ignorance ...

Obsession about sound is not science nor experience...

Concepts matter more here than money...

When your system is MINIMALLY good, you are so amazed by music, so astounded by sound qualities , you forgot audio race and you immerse yourself in music...My system value is 1,000 bucks at most by the way...

You can think i am deluded if you want to justify your expanses... 😁

 The difference is less between the low-fi,mid-fi and high-end gear systems as such  and more  between minimally acoustically  satisfying and maximally satisfying system and this is determined more by acoustical and mechanical and electrical embeddings controls than by gear  price tags...

And i never said that i could not benefit from costlier component for those who dont understand my point and want to react negatively... Any gear piece can be upgraded and improved... This is a common place fact not an argument against my point ...

@lemonhaze look challenging my integrity openly saying that it somehow factors into my opinion is comical. But anyway I do this as part of the hobby. I don’t mention my infigo stuff unless it’s applicable to the conversation. Has nothing to do with my opinion.  Do I think well designed gear with great parts and technology sound better yes. But only if it has the proper synergy and it’s built on sound technology.  Yes. I’m at a point where I’m experienced and I tend to gravitate to the more costly gear. Not because of price but because of performance and the tech and build quality that comes along with it. 

@lemonhaze you can still have a great sound without spending the money I have spent on my system.  If you maximize synergy and you have a great room you can have a great sound depending on how well the things you do buy work together and yes if you have a great room you can really do some good things sound wise. 

You are seriously missing the mark if you think electronics can be designed to mitigate the damage room acoustics do to the sound. How can the designer know what size or shape room the amp will be used in?

Of course in an untreated room a collection of expensive gear will sound better than a budget system but I do have a treated room and 2 subs using Omnimic to optimise placement. The waterfall plot shows a smooth flat response and decaying within the RT60 recommended for the enclosed volume of my listening space.

If you have not heard a room treated properly as described then you are missing out. Measurement shows I need a little more bass trapping and that a third sub would further smooth out my already great result.

Looking at photo of your small room I can state with confidence that you will have huge peaks and dips which is not conducive to good sound. I mentioned above that nulls rob you of music, whatcha gonna do about that? Do not think that this can be corrected with EQ, pushing more power into a null achieves nothing, it will just cancel with the same power.

Have you measured your room? and if not, why not?