$50k - $80k Budget…Opinions please.


Long story short, I sold my beloved 2-channel to reduce family debt. In about a year-ish, I’ll be in a position to rebuild with a hefty budget. I loved my Harbeth + Pass Labs combo. My REL sub died before I really got to integrate it, so opinions wanted there as well. I fully understand the diminishing margin of returns when moving into some arenas, but that’s ok, opinions are strongly encouraged.

I listen to a lot of Miles Davis/Coltrane, Radiohead, Tool, Pearl Jam, Brent Cobb. I’ve often preferred “organic” or neutral, not sure how technical that is.

toddcowles

Were I do embark on such a quest, the first thing I would do is not take advice from strangers on the interweb. There is a real world out there…

Again, appreciate the comments and the financial wisdom. As I executed upon rebuilding, I found myself in a layer of paralysis analysis. Like many, I don’t have an audio store or an easy way to demo/listen to all the various combos. All of the comments were appreciated.

I opted to start smaller with a sound I’m familiar with. I also became limited in placement and space, as I still have two very rambunctious young children. I moved forward with a Pass Labs X150.8, set of Dynaudio Heritage 40’s and a PS Audio Directstream DAC.

For pre, I’ve ran PL XP 20/22’s and at one point pulled it out of the chain, and went DAC direct to the amps. It sounded better w/o. I know the function of a pre, so it’s not to dispute using one or not, but I didn’t splurge on an expensive pre and believe this, along with a new DAC pursuit, will end up being the adventure/hobby aspect for me. During the interim, I picked up a PL X2.5.

Per cabling, let the fighting begin. I didn’t extend into expensive cabling. I opted to burn in some of the entry level Cardas lines, and move on from there. I do plan on spending time with the Cable Co. library of lenders.

Per streamer, I’m heavily leaning towards the Innuos Pulse, but haven’t pulled the trigger on it yet, I’ll be sleuthing the forum after this post on it.

Per room acoustics, I’m reusing a kit that was scoped by GIK for another room and will repurpose appropriately.

And also, what an absolute year it has been! So happy to be back in the 2ch mix! Thanks for the input and happy to be trolling again with ya’ll!