member system photos???

So Newbee, where are your system pics? ;)
Arthur

Aball, I was wondering when some one would ask. I lack a digital camera. I'm still a film addict. Go figure, I'm still a tube addict as well. Besides who ever pays any attention to the advise of a newbee anyway. :-)

Short of building a room from scratch, designed for an audio system, you have to be pretty lucky to get a room of the right size and dimensions to start with; I have had dedicated listening rooms in several of my houses- the best actually involved the least tweaking-- it was in an old brownstone with high ceilings, real plaster and lathe walls and wide plank, very sturdy floors. At that time, I had Crosby Quads running, and they didn't energize the room the way the horn speakers I currently use, do.
My current room, while 'dedicated,' is itself a compromise- oddly shaped walls and eaves in the ceilings- it is a room at the top of an old house- and I have had to add bass traps, corner traps, a diffuser along one wall and all of it has made a difference, but the room is still not ideal.
As to equipment fixation, I think you are probably right- otherwise, most of the postings here would be about music, not about whether the X unit is better than the Y unit. I admit to being an equipment junkie- but, whatever the budget, there is no question that 'tweaking,' 'positioning,' cable 'dressing' and all the other major and minor things that go into setting up and 'adjusting' the system are the key to getting the most out of this stuff. I enjoy that part as well...

Drubin,

RE:

Let's update that and say it's now $259K. What amazes me is, how can you even build a home for that amount I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area, where housing prices are in the stratosphere, but even if I scraped my lot and put up a new 2500 sf home, it would cost in the neighborhood of $600K to build. Are construction costs so much less in other parts of the country?

Yes, at least in Texas. There are areas North of Dallas where you can buy a new home approx. 2100 SF for $110,000.00. They are not made as well as custom homes but at least it's "your own" place.

My home is in close and (yes) gone up a lot. Still, there are homes in my neighborhood that are nice that can be bought for $240,000.00. They need work but solid homes in a nice middle class neighborhood. Mine has had a lot of work but since we bought so long ago, the investment has been outstripped by inflation over time.

There are some very expensive parts of Dallas, the neighborhood West of me about 10-15 minutes is called Highland Park and is where many wealthy people live, including the people that own Frito-Lay. Homes there begin about 1.7 million and go up to any number you can name.

So basically Dallas is a place where everyone can live at any price. I think SF. California and New York City rank among the most expensive places to live other than Hawaii. I have many friends in CA and my wife and I thought about moving there many, many years ago. Can't say I am sorry I stayed here, my heart is in Texas. I am third generation, my wife is from here and of course our son was born here. I have good friends and no regrets, that's all that's important about any town USA :^).

Good point. Given the long proven benefits of soffit mounting for speakers and the prevalence of this format at the professional high end, it is astonishing to see audiophiles, spend huge $$$ on all nature of tweaks, whilst ignoring a fundamental issue with speaker physics (that bass radiates in all directions causing deep null cancellations as they bounce off the nearby rear wall). I suspect manufacturers and industry reviewers have a vested interest in ignoring this fundamental issue, as they prefer users to upgrade equipment rather than invest in the listening room.