How cheap can you go and still be happy with the sound?

The title of my virtual system page was once : How to reach Audiophile satisfaction for 1,000 bucks"...

How :  mechanical and electrical controls of the system embeddings working dimensions especially acoustics with devices of my own at peanuts costs...

Knowledge beat  upgrade when you reach the minimal synergy threshold of your working system...Experiments then put your system at his utmost surprising level of optimal working...

I tried to upgrade  topping the entire cost of my actual system and i fail...

It will cost me a step from 1,000 bucks to 10,000 to really upgrade my speakers system and with very well chosen component which for sure i will be in the obligation to modify...

For my headphone system  the AKG 340 is so good(i wrote 35 pages of review),after my 6 optimizations, the only possible assured upgrade was the costlier Immanis around 10,000 bucks...

But i change my mind why ?

Because it seems to had very moderate bass impact.

my AKG 340 is in so well balanced state , that timbre tone is as speakers, the soundstage if required by the recording is out of my head and the deep bass of the big organ in a church , i hear it with my toes and stomach by bones resonance...

Why buying the Immanis or anything else ?

My K340 is not perfect, some headphone can beat him on some acoustic factor but not in the balance ratio of all these numerous acoustics factors...

I hope you will listen and have fun studying how to make acoustics experiments learning basic...

I proved to myself that we dont need money for a very good system but knowledge which is in acoustics books...

i wish you all a very Merry, happy,healthy, wonderful Christmas with your family...

I hope I never get to a place in this hobby where I can't enjoy a system because I know that a different group of components might sound better. That would be just as bad as not being able to enjoy a good meal at a cheap restaurant because I might have had a better meal somewhere else.

@chenry   +1

@waytoomuchstuff I had to laugh at your wrench tossing story...way too close to the reality of most of us who work on cars because we have to rather than doing it for fun. There was a time when I actually enjoyed turning the wrenches and found joy in it, but the cars that gave me that joy were much easier to modify or repair than the beasts most of us drive today. My musicality requirements for a system to listen to while working on the car are relatively low...but when the resources allow, a 2.1 system that plays louder than the air compressor is a welcome addition to the workspace.

I have come to realize that music can be enjoyed on almost anything from a portable radio to a pair of EV Patricians or whatever.... but getting to true perfection is as unreachable a goal as going faster than the speed of light...and the closer we get takes more and more money for the next increment of improvement.

Sometimes I find myself listening to a recording that if I close my eyes I can almost suspend my disbelief in the illusion of it being live. In those rare moments it feels miraculous that such a thing can happen and I cherish each one of them. I had one such occurrence the other evening when watching a clip on Youtube about how Steinway pianos are built. In the video, there were numerous snippets of audio of one of their pianos being played in an acoustically favorable environment by world renown musicians and there were bits and pieces of those snippets that suspended my disbelief momentarily. I was truly shocked that I could get that level of quality out of a youtube clip but it was right there in the room with me. Certainly not all recordings today are made with the care that audiophiles would appreciate, but this one was and when I think back to what it was like in the bad old days listening to records with the pops and clicks and rather poor standards that applied to their manufacture, I think we really are in something of a golden age now. Speakers are better than ever, the electronics certainly are very good in general, and some of the source material is way better than we ever had on vinyl. That's not to say all vinyl pressings were of low quality, because that is just not true, but many of them were not nearly as good as they could have been. That I am north of 70 and my hearing is not what it once was has not diminished in the slightest my appreciation for good recordings or good music. Playing an instrument helps keep your appreciation of well recorded music fine tuned as well as your appreciation for those who also play ( and much better than I do ). 

Music meaning is no more, no less, in the sound, that our thought content is in our gesture speech act. They intersect without being identical as twins conjointed for life.

I value my very good system speakers or headphone but it has nothing to do for or with my taste in music.

But because it is better to convey the same spoken message in a good clearer and more beautiful way with a clear throat, i want a very good audio/room system.