$35K to spend, how will you build a system?


Never in any stereo system arrangement have I or anyone I know, ever initially proportioned out the money for the whole enchilada. We just bought this or that. We began somewhere and finished it all later on. Somehow.

Or, the proposition ‘finished’ became a moving target and the trek wandered about here and there, as the effort continued past the intentioned budget. Some steps were sideways, some allowed for definite improvements. Some moves took us a step backwards or merely into a different perspective.

All of the moves provided one benefit everytime, experience.

Experiences are what is being asked for in this topic.

Then one day, suddenly, buckets of duckets land in your yard and you want serious sounds? .

Here’s the question…

If you had it to do all over again, what do you put into a home audio system if you have $35,000.00 to spend?

Regardless the format, tubes, Solid state, mega watts or flea powered doesn’t matter. Its your rig and your money.

The destination is a rig with copius amounts of Acquired Illusionary Reality (AIR) in short, an involving alluringmost respectable, , “man I really hate to turn this thing off”, stereo system.

Because invariably someone will ask, so For the truly anal, the room is not in a mansion, has no dedicated power lnies, and is of moderate size 14 to 17ft wide, 18 to 23ft. long, 8.5ft. ceilings. Acoustically untreated. Closed off, or opened onto other areas, you make that call.

How do you feel you’ll spread the dough around immediately?

Address all four areas? Maybe attend to only amps and speakers, then later look towards other parts of the affair?

Example 1:
Find someone who already has a stellar sounding system, rent a room, and buy the new entry level Tesla..

Example 2
Buy new amp and speakers along with better than average cabling and isolation, just on a smaller scale.

Example 3
Spend it all in thirds, source, power, and speakers obtaining the best value possible, new or as re-sold because everything matters.

Example 4
By new SOTA speakers that you can find with the whole wad! Steal everything else.

What is your approach with $35K burning a hole in your pocket to acquire great sound? Can it even be done in 2017 with such a budget?

blindjim

Showing 1 response by parsons

I like the literal exercise.

Here is precisely the system I would build, using used equipment where you could find it (you'd have to, otherwise the new prices would be +$20k) .  I would target a super highly efficient speaker with a ton of dynamic punch that allowed top SET mono amps to shine.  I had to dump my whole analog front-end and album collection to come in just under $35K, which I would do in a heartbeat for this digital front end to hit this budget.

  • Preamp = Atma-Sphere MP-1 3.3  $9000  (used)
  • Amps = Thoress 845 SET monos  $4500  (used)
  • Music Server = Sonore UltraRendu $875
  • dac =  Schiit Yggy $2300 
  • USB Regen = Uptone ISO Regen $325
  • USB cables (2) Rendu to IsoRegen to DAC = 2 Uptone USPCB A>B Adapters $70 
  • Linear Power for Ultrarendu and Iso Regen (2) = 2 Uptone UltraCap™ LPS-1 $800
  • Balanced power conditioner = Equi-Core 300 $799 
  • Speakers = Zu Druid 6 $10000 
  • Interconnects (2 pairs) = Audience SX $1900  (used)
  • Speaker cables = Audience SX $1200  (used)
  • Power cables (4) = 4 Shunyata Black Mambas $2000  (used)
  • iPad $450  (used)
  • Lifetime Roon $499 
Total $34718
Remaining $282 (spend on vibrapods and Tidal monthly fees until gone)

Truth be told, I actually made/would make a couple upgrades from here, but that would have put me over the $35K by a grand or two.  I would have gone upline on the Equi-Core to the 1800 or higher (looking now) and spent more on linear power supplies, maybe.  But I could live with what I listed for sure.  One could argue that I could/should save a few $ on an under-$10k-used set of Zu Definition 4s and get as good/better performance than the yet-to-be-released Zu Druid 6s, but my space is small and I think I could get a better total quality from the new smaller Druid 6s in my space.  

Shoot your arrows at all of it...welcome the feedback.