Are there other people like me ? Amazed by their low cost system :)

😉

I am married too ...My wife is not audiophile as i am but more a musician which alas! i am not ( the reason appear to me late in life i perceived more sound as a story and by forms dynamic with my eyes than as sound isolated tones, music is more movies moving forms than sound as tones for me in a way , it is why acoustics interested me so much )...

She was persuaded i was completely mad in a madhouse when she observed my acoustic room slow construction and changed his mind listening to it at the end...

Anyway we are often in love with wiser woman who think we must be "mad" but may be anyway useful husband ... 😉 I married her after writing his philosophy examination the night before giving it and i am still very proud of the maximum grade she received finally after one hour questioning for plagiary which was disproved because i briefed her before the oral examination and she had a good memory and are very bright soul ... 😊 We are together since that 50 years ago ... She was never interested in philosophy by the way but by linguistic. she studies two languages right now ...

By the way audiophile experience is not about perfect sound at all cost, it is about the best sound ratio for money invested with the help of basic knowledge ...

Anything else is ignorance mixed with deep pocket and consumerism marketing ..

If i had budget for sure i will add more higher cost gear but i will do it in the samw way i do it with less costly gear, acoustics and psychoacoustics, and others embeddings controls dont change ... And it will be for sure maximal acoustic satisfaction but anybody can be in ectasy with minimal acoustic satisfaction...

Why ?

Because minimal and maximal satisfaction resulted from a BALANCE between acoustic factors... But with more high end gear designed pieces some limitations disapear and the balance is renewed on a higher acoustic level ...

The key concept is balance...

In the two cases the goal is the same : retrieving the original various acoustics recorded trade off from any albums perceived as it was in our system/room ...

i had it but i dont doubt that mikelavigne system do it better... And i know why it is such... It is why i know exactly what pieces of my system to upgrade first if i want how to embed it and with the right pieces of gear...

As stated by mikelavigne wise audio experience : audiophilia is more about a  state of mind than about price tags...

@mahgister Thank you, I actually enjoy the challenges and doing more with less$$$$ is quite gratifying. I also have a wife that would kill me if I spent even $120k on my systems. Personally we enjoy doing charitable work, traveling, will have more disposable income once our last two graduates university, one in May!,

So then, with less than $6K invested (using a 22 year old Yamaha RX-Z9 receiver, in "Pure Direct" mode, purchased new with over 30K hours on it now), plus countless hours of speaker development/tweaking (in the room they are used in), and an Oppo95 SACD...,

When people who do listen to systems say it sounds better than some six figure systems they’ve heard, we’ve met the goal?

I’ve never heard a system that throws a soundstage so big and precise, and I’ve heard Magicos, Focal, etc. and I have JBL L200/300s, L112s, One-Off Altec Big Red Supers (furniture-grade, 15.5 cu ft ext vol, custom made, tri-amped), Chartwell LS3/5As), and anyone in Orange County, CA is welcome to come by and hear it for themselves.

Then read me with no projected suspicions about my thread intention ...Dont use innuendos.

Relax. 

Most people outside these "high-end" parts would not consider my stuff low cost. For example, I just got a nice deal on a pair of mint Sonus Faber’s from someone locally (compared to other popular options you might read as touted here), but even then still more than most people would ever shell out for a pair of speakers. It’s really not hard at all to get top notch sound for modest cost these days, even with a very modest budget and very high audiophile-level type expectations going in. It just requires doing your homework and a lot of patience perhaps.

If headphones are sufficient to meet one’s needs, you really have it made! Do the homework and find that ~$150 for ear monitors and dongle + an existing Smartphone or tablet with streaming can get you sound that is reference standard by any objective measure quite easily. That would be the absolute lowest cost setup I could identify that is capable of providing reference quality sound. Disclaimer: reference quality may not be to everyone’s liking. That is more a matter of personal preference. In that case, it’s even easier, you just buy whatever sounds good to you and that’s all that matters.

You are right... i sometimes (often) overeacted ... 😊😁

But i think you know me perhaps better than me  ... 😊

Then read me with no projected suspicions about my thread intention ...Dont use innuendos.

Relax.