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What does 90% of the Absolute Best Sound Cost?

Like many things, I have come to believe that the cost of incremental improvements in audio come at exponentially increasing costs - e.g., big improvement from $5K to $10K, less so from $10 to $15K, etc. All of us have our limits regarding what we can/will spend to achieve our best possible/practical audio experience. So, a couple of questions that I am sure are at least somewhat subjective.

A. What does it cost, in terms of components, interconnects, and direct furnishings (e.g., racks, isolation pads, surface room treatments, etc.) to achieve 90% of the absolute best sound possible?

B. What % does $50,000 get you?

FWIW, my setup is at about $21,000 actual cost ($32,000 original retail) and I am really happy with it right now. All of my incremental spend for the next couple of years is going to be working the room itself. Looking forward to your perspectives!

128x128mattsca
ckr1969
105 posts
 

$50-$125k get really nice sound, $250K+ you are in another hemisphere

grislybutter
3,367 posts
 

@immatthewj 

 I cannot even begin to imagine how good those must sound.

Imagine that they sound about 12% better than 25K speakers

immatthewj
2,261 posts
 

Imagine that they sound about 12% better than 25K speakers

To be honest, @grislybutter , I cannot even imagine what a 25k speaker must sound like.  And I'll beat you to the punch, a 12.5k speaker is still beyond my comprehension.  I try to make my bucket list realistic, so a 12.5k speaker may be on it, but by the time that can ever happen, inflation will make that just another ordinary run of the mill average speaker.

grislybutter
3,367 posts
 

@immatthewj i have seen 20K speakers at the dealer, never heard them. The most expensive ones I have probably heard was 12K. And that's 10x the price of the speaker I have. So again, don't take me seriously :)

kerrybh
183 posts
 

Interesting thought experiment, but as the widely divergent answers show, an impossible question to answer because the premise is flawed.
The starting place would be defining exactly what constitutes the “ absolute best sound possible.“  if it’s even possible to define that, it would likely be different for everyone. And if you could create that mythical standard, most of us on this group are probably over 60 and wouldn’t have ears to be able to discern whether it had been met or not anyway. It’s interesting to think about, however, and maybe leads to a better question which is whether you have achieved something you find really enjoyable for the money you are willing to spend.
 

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