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Does your system sound better than most demo's?

I just got back from a music show tonight and must say that even though I have heard some systems that sound way better than mine, mine sounds way better than many that I hear at shows or in show rooms, and it actually makes me pretty happy.

I heard a new wadia integrated unit (intuition) tonight that retails for somewhere around $8,000 for a class d amp, pre amp(?) and dac all jn one very sexy looking piece, playing through a pair of $20,000 sonus faber's and my system (8,000 total ?) absolutly sounds better. Makes me really appreciate my set up.

On the other hand, the sonus faber amanti's with $34,000 wotth of moon pre, amp, dac did sound fabulous and so did the b&w nautilus with all classe gear (4 of there new 250 watt class d amps), but still, I wonder, and believe that I, could compile a system that would crush either of those rigs had I a $50,000-$100,000 budget like what those cost.

I think part of the fun of this hobby is using knowledge to make up for your lack of funds. It's like showing up to the race track with a stripped out supercharged M3 and spanking all the rich guys in there Ferrari's and Lamborghinis.

I want to go to a show where they are focused solely on sound and not how pretty and shiny the gear is; sure I like it to look good, but more important is the way it sounds because when it comes down to it, when the fun begins, the lights are off and my eyes are closed.
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mezmo
516 posts
 
Funny, had just that same conversation with a friend leaving the NYC audio show last weekend. We're both running relatively rarified – and very different – gear, but both adjourned to the bar thinking that there really wasn’t anything we’d heard that we would trade for what we had.

I have always found that surprising. I’ve been to three large shows in NYC, and have never really heard anything that blew me away, including any of the $1/2 million+ room-bruising monsters. Last weekend, thought there was really only one setup that came even close, and it was not the one I would have expected (although it did leave me with an abiding infatuation with Raidho speakers). Never did put my finger on why, but the why of it all has come to concern me a whole lot less. All in all – biased or no – just about the best reaction I could hope for. Hope it keeps up.
robsker
132 posts
 
Perhaps the reality is just this.... there is essentially NO correlation between cost of a stereo system and the performance of the system... at least after a certain level.

I have heard (at shows) $100-200,000 systems (dozens of them)that, on average, do not sound any better than did the average of the 25K systems (again dozens of them). And some 10-15K systems equaled or bested some 200K systems. There are limits to this... but generally, after a 20K system or so... there is no correlation between cost and sound. Cost is, at that point, not correlated any longer to performance... or at best a 2-3% (subjective) improvement doubles the cost. A typical 25K system is 97% of the way of a 50K system and 94% of the way to a 100K system... something like that. And that is on the average... so much variation occurs that again... no correlation.
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drubin
3,275 posts
 
A couple of comments and observations.

I have always thought that show exhibitors would do better to present modest systems. If a room is showing very pricey gear with unobtainium cables and lots of room treatments and isolation tweaks and whatnot, it had better sound damn good. And as many of you have remarked, it usually doesn't. So what impression does that leave the show-goer with regarding those brands? But if you are getting good sound out of a modest system, you've got my attention.

In the best case, you might get 60% - 70% of audiophiles to agree that a system sounds really good. So it's understandable that some people might be thrilled while you are puzzled.

I think my system sounds good most of the time. I've rarely heard good sound at any dealership. I've heard disappointing sound in some audiophiles' dedicated, custom-built rooms. I've listened to many systems whose owners were proud of the sound but which left me cold. Just as I'm sure that many people find my system unremarkable.

I'm not sure what the takeaway is from all of this, but it's always useful to remember that what we like in audio is very subjective and personal. Different strokes indeed.
rrog
1,958 posts
 
"Does your system sound better than most demos?

Are you kidding? There are people here that think their system sounds better than live unamplified acoustic music.
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b_limo OP
2,288 posts
 
Lol Rrog, that's probably true, but I guess you might be of the camp that all demo's sound better than your bose wave radio and that cables and power cords are all the same ;-)
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