$50k - $80k Budget…Opinions please.

Unfortunately I myself have been in that same situation before. Anyone can speak of a great stereo manufacturer but regardless what anyone recommends including myself LISTEN TO YOUR EARS.  Those are the biggest critic 

I wasn't satisfied until I went high efficiency plus SETs.

With that kind of a budget, I will visit as many dealers as I can and demo as many systems as I can. My 1 cent 😉.

Toddcowles,

Your budget should give you a phenomenal system, congratulations!

I’d start with speakers, and I’d look at Joseph Audio, Fyne Audio, TAD, Tannoy

Start with the room.  This defines what speakers you can fit and work with.  How big is it?  How is current damping?  Can you treat it, etc...  Once that is defined I suggest selecting a speaker as your choice will be a function of the room

I'm not going to suggest what to buy as you've had lots of those. Room acoustics has been mentioned and rightly so. I agree with the above, to start with the room but not with what follows.

The room needs to be considered as a separate issue and not according to your choice of speaker. This is akin to telling a musician friend to please bring his violin to play and not his double bass because your room is too small. Huh?  It is paramount that you get your room acoustically tamed before you audition anything because you may select a component based on what it sounds like in an untreated room only to find when you add another component that you are now unhappy with both.

Treating a room can be handed over to the pro's who will endeavour to get the decay time down to a certain time, usually about 300 to 400ms. This will include absorbers, diffusers and bass traps. All this in the interest of achieving a smooth in-room frequency response. Without treatment the long decay of sound will smear and confuse the detail resulting in a congested sound.

Further smoothing can be obtained by using multiple subs. These subs can be considered as tuning devices and make, along with the room treatment, a really huge difference. I can not overstate what this brings to the party!  Needs to be heard, and you certainly have the funds to do it 😎

Now ponder this:  Take a properly treated room with multi-subs, check out 'audiokinesis' for info on his SWARM, and you have all the bass performance you need. Now a number of speaker manufacturers have a model or two below their flagship speaker that cuts cost by using fewer bass drivers, but mids and tops are identical to the megabuck flagship. This path will not only save you money but will, I say again will, outperform the flagship model simply because the subs are smoothing the bass which two fullrange speakers, hampered by their position in the room can not do.

Your speaker choice does not need to be a function of the room. The acoustic treatment will take that out of the equation to the point where you no longer have your room intruding but get to hear the acoustics of the venue. 

I did not intend to recommend any component but in this looong post the speaker brand Volti came to mind.

Begin with acoustically treating the room and where you want speakers, long wall, short wall. Find the seating - chairs, sofa, loveseat, and determine where you're going to place equipment, then have at least one, maybe two 20A circuits installed. . Buy a pair of Sonos speakers or even Amazon Echo Studios. For less than $500 you'll have something to listen to and minimize any rush to buy anything major until you have all the pieces figured out. Now, start shopping for gear. 

Speakers: Acapella Atlas (Horn mid, 3xbass, PlasmaTweeters, used35K);

matched strong Amp: Symphonic Line RG7 MK5 Reference Edition (used12K);

Source server/streamer/network player/24TB music files/digital volume control: Antipodes K50 (used9K);

DAC Tube based, including RC analog volume control / external PSU3: Nagra Tube DAC (used19K);

Silver cables all around (6K used);

Rack and bases (2K used);

Room treatment Basotect (2-3K used)

really well positioned speakers in the room (free);

above is my audio Nirvana.

can be extended by a tube preamp / phono stage and TT at any time if you need.

Good luck🤞

Greetings from Germany 🇩🇪 

@toddcowles lots of envy of your stated budget in the comments as usual, ignore that and spend what you want. The best advice as a few wise souls have mentioned comes from your original post - Harbeth and Pass is what you had and liked, the safest bet is to stick with that combo. Extrapolating from that combo’s sonic profile, if you want vinyl playback get a Linn LP12 TT and Lampizator phonostage, and if you want digital playback get an Aurender server and Lampizator DAC.

A left-field choice for something with fewer boxes would be to get the new Gryphon 333 integrated with DAC and phonostage options and their new EOS speakers. All you’d need is the TT and the Aurender and a loom of Gryphon cables and you’d have a balls-to-the-wall system for about $80K.

I mention this combo because I heard those EOS speakers with my Diablo 300 and its DAC fed by an Aurender with a loom of Gryphon cables, and the sonic fireworks had drool coming out of my mouth. Particularly noteworthy tracks were AC/DC’s "It’s A Long Way to the Top if You Wanna Rock ’n Roll" and Leonard Cohen’s "The Night of Santiago". The combo makes poor recordings listenable and good recordings great.

If you have a good Gryphon dealer in your area you’d be able to demo the whole system as any good Gryphon dealer will also carry either Aurender or Lumin, and most likely Linn or something similar.

@95dyna It is good to see your timeline 'over the past few years', that is a good advisory. It would be good to hear of, how much foot work you put in, prior to committing to a device to be purchased.

It is also good to see your List of Interface Umbilical's. How the devices are interconnected is a critical consideration. My experiences are set in stone, this area is an evolving and ongoing trial, there is always room to extract a little more that is in line with a end users unique preferences for a sonics presentation. I have heard good things about Wireworld and will be trying out a Cable and loaning it out for further assessment in the not too distant future.

The OP will be well advised if they take up on the suggestion that a parallel experience worthwhile of encountering is to learn how changing the Umbilical Interfaces can effect the overall sonic of the system being built and that a Budget to be solely dedicated to this is best proportioned in as an early in the ventures considerations.

Footwork and Experiences $???? - Devices $?? ??? - Interface Umbilical's (Interconnects + Power) $???'s - ????'s - Supporting Structures $???'s - ????'s 

It is not too difficult to spend into the $100's and even into the $1000's creating Electrical and Mechanical Interfaces.

@ghdprentice The experience is a passion, I come to learn this many years past. I also found I was quite happy to participate in this passion with likeminded individuals, which resulted in myself developing a social side to the hobby. I am today with a numerous amounts of home visits behind me and vice - versa. I have supported many events put on for enthusiasts only (demo's being non commercial) and I am a member of a Local HiFi Group, where I met two of the founders at a forum event 200 miles away from my home, it is this group that is my most enjoyed part of HiFi over recent years, there is humour, food and there have been really good meetings put on with a opportunity to encounter selection of New Devices being made available regularly as Home Demo' Loans from a member, who is a proprietor of a HiFi Company, then there is the New Acquisitions made by Group Members and then the trickle of DIY Builds. The Group has a resident Two Generation Valve Collector, who has inherited collections from within the family, (this individual kindly loans selections of Pairs and Quad Matched Valves for Tube Rolling Experiences), who would not want to be present at a day when this is occurring. Nearly all valves in my devices today are selected as a result of this kind offer, other Group members share the same outcome as my own in relation to chosen Valves.  

Just went through the same exercise over the past few years and ended up with Focal Sopra2's each  paired with with REL S812's using baseline blue high level cable, Esoteric F-05 integrated, Esoteric K03xd, VPI Signature 21 w/ Fatboy arm, Soundsmith Paua MkII, Bob's Devices Sky 20 SUT fronting the F-05 on board phono stage, Bryston BHA-1 headphone amp, Grado PS2000e cans and a mixture of Wireworld, Nordost Shunyata and Kardas cables. Also a Miles fan, jazz/classical. Current MSRP on the above around $83K.

@pindac 

Yes, definitely. Carefully chosen requires footwork, listening skills, reading, exposure to different systems, etc. I think each of us with many decades of experience have chosen slightly different paths to be able to evaluate equipment and systems. So, for me, I have listened to different systems for 50 years, read virtually every copy of The Absolute Sound and Stereophile over that time. Through thousands of hours discovered my own values (modified greatly with the knowledge I gained over that time) and am able to judge sound quality of equipment and the synergy they are likely to bring. 
 

This is a pursuit of passion where the time spent is enjoyable and in the long run incredibly satisfying. The great thing is, at the end of each learning / investment cycle one has a testament to what you have achieved.

@jjss49 ignore what?

do you have reading issues?

there was not one actionable piece of advice from me in this post. I made observations, that were pretty freaking objective.

I am sorry about your unhappiness that you have to take out on other people.

op

listen to @ghdprentice ​​​​@verdantaudio 

ignore @grislybutter 

good luck, have fun, focus on speakers and how they work in your room

Lots of good guidance here. The hardest part may be where to begin, so it’s good that you know the kind of sound you prefer—organic, neutral.  I would describe my own preference the same way. If I were you, I’d start there with speaker lines that are described that way in reviews. Then it becomes a matter of what will work in your room—sonically, practically, and visually.  As many previous posters have described.

You’re giving yourself some time to do this, and that’s really great. Enjoy!

@ghdprentice I am in agreement with you about the 'careful choices' needing to be considered. There is an additional requirement which is footwork. The options for  a selection of devices, especially ones that are capable of showing each component at its best does not just appear, they are usually found.

My system is a end product of what I will call a pre-forum era, much footwork has been put in and the result being, I have met with likeminded individuals and formed long term communications and friendships. I have been fortunate to have made discoveries that are far beyond my expectations.

As part of my social activities around my Audio Enthusiasm, I have demonstrated my system at weekend event I have been a visitor to on quite a few occassions.w , This event has been known to have up to 500 Visitors in attendance to experience a range of enthusiasts systems.

On the weekend of my Demo' I had a filled room that was not emptying, some attendees returned and stayed for most of the day. Some were quite frequent visitors and regularly requesting tracks to be played.

A Father and Son came to me at the end of the day and had deliberately made this time as a return visit, they informed me they owned a HiFi Company and have been producing TT's that retail at £50K and upwards, they also informed me the system I was demonstrating was on par with much of what they have heard from their own Clientele, where systems can easily accumulate a £200K retail value.

I was asked to play a Vinyl Track they had in their possession, one they knew very well, I was given a pat on the back as big thank you.

If I done my Math, I would be less that £40K all in, even with much of the system having been Commissioned to be Bespoke Designed and Built by time served very adept EE's and Engineers.

$50K as a budget, or up to $80k, is serious spending. Cautiousness is ones best friend, as there will be some real efforts made to encourage an individual to spend a large proportion if not all in a particular quarter.

I know a 'from the home' HiFi Dealer, based about 15 Miles from my home. Iwas once in their company when going through a rough trading patch and considering an alternative means for a income.

There was a suggestion of maybe a backer could be found to invest. I made an inquiry about how the sales would assure a backer of a safe return on their money. I was shown an Mono Block Valve Amp' retailing at £45K, that was arriving at the Vendors home with a purchase price and Import costs of approx' £22K.

I was shown a TT bought in at £15K and retailing at £40K, there were also lesser cost items with a similar ascension to a retail value.

I was shown a range of Horn Speakers, with the TOTR Model costing approx' £12K and retailing at £36K 

My assessment was Three Big Ticket Item sales in a Year and was their any need to leave the home to seek an alternative income. 

Was I tempted to make a offer to invest, no way, the relationship would have been doomed, I have no interest in requesting a Customer supplies me with that level of Profit. 

 A very good friend of many years, developed a relationship with a well known UK HiFi Company's Proprietor. This is another Business that is a success as it isa Cottage Type Industry with very little overhead and very healthy Mark Ups to produce the retail price.

It was a short time of this new relationship, before my friend became assimilated into the ideas of Super Profit. I received a contact asking for my revealing the suppliers of a PC Triple C Wire I am a advocate of and suggest as a wire to be tried out in Cables.

I was offered a free PC Triple C Cable for my support, when it was made known the Cable was to be offered for $2K, I informed my friend we need a break from each other, as I am insulted to be expected to be, and am certainly not the individual who is to open the gate to such extortion of fellow audio enthusiasts. 

When I crunched the figures for the Cable intended to be produced, I was not too far off £120 for a Pair with a RCA Phono @ 1 Metre in Length.

Again I say it, cautiousness is ones friend, when being investigative and choosing where to spend.       

Agree wholeheartedly with the recommendation to devote up to 5K of your ample budget to travel, auditioning systems with established synergy. Audio Connection in Verona NJ would be high on my personal list listening to Vandersteen Quattro CT and Kento CT paired with Ayre electronics. With your budget, would also audition Wilson and Sonus Faber. On the back end, make sure to spend money on room treatments —as 50% of what you hear is the room.  

Mr. Prentice wrote, "I found that carefully chosen component at each level sounds better than the last… so a $80K system will sound very significantly better than a $40K system and not nearly as good as a $160K."

I bolded the contentious part. Perhaps you should read more carefully before you post, especially if you are being highly critical.

ghdprentice,

I did read your post and you said and I quote $160,000 system will always some better than an $80,000 system that was your own words and I responded saying no that's not the case all the time just depends what equipment you're using what wiring you're using what speaker you're using I've heard $80,000 systems at some better than $200,000 systems so you were wrong as usual.

ghdprentice,

I actually did read your post that's why I made the comment

ghdprentice,

I actually didn't read your post that's why I made the comment.

So very true @ghdprentice I am listening to a small SPL Audio system that just sounds amazing and it came in under $10K. I am not saying it is a giant killer but it is an amazing brand and has come cutting edge technology under the hood.  

@magnuman … “sorry to tell you that you don't know what you're talking about just because the system costs $160,000 doesn't mean it's going to sound better than an $80,000 system ”

Sorry you did not read my post. I did not say you can randomly pick components at a price point and have them out perform components at another price point. You must carefully choose them an make sure they are synergistic and compatible. Did you just fall off the turnip truck? You are clearly trying to act superior… try to be helpful and humble instead. 

I second the room as first priority. After that Rockport speakers and Boulder amps! Good luck and have fun! 

With that size of budget it will be easy to be tempted by quantity, range of sources.

IME you should first ruthlessly analyses your priorities re sources. I am a big fan of FM radio. I have a Magnum Dynalab 109 tuner with upgraded Phillips 6922 Nos valves and a sizeable roof mounted FM aerial, But, I have the joys of BBC Radio 3 FM broadcasting. Without that I am not sure I could justify it. So depends on whether you have access to good quality FM broadcasts

Similar considerations apply to AV amps/home theatre,digtal and analogue sources.

Once you have determined your priorities only then should you start trying to decide which manufactures products best suit your tastes and the only way to do that is to listen to as many of them as possible preferably in home settings. The next hurdle is finding the right synergy between different brands.

Explore the used market. Even on the best brands depreciation from new is hefty and with due diligence you can make big savings on well cared for used gear.

I like my Vitus 030 integrated amplifier, YG Acoustics speakers apart from the PeaK series and my J Sikora turntable/tonearm and Goldnote PH1000 phono stage and PSU.. Can recommend them all wholeheartedly for their balance between musicality, neutrality and transparency, but they represent my personal tastes and others have different tastes.

I hope that is helpful and I wish you well in your search which you should take your time on and avoid rushing to conclusions

.

I have never encouraged anybody, friend or associate,  to spend on HiFi in using great sums of monies, but if an individual is set in the mind and want to indulge themselves, I will assist with suggesting options to consider if prompted.

As a first suggestion, Start receiving demo's of New Model devices of Interest or complete set ups, that will cost in today's money $120 000+.

When the funds materialise the shortlist put together might be able to be found for very close to your budget.  

As an alternative suggestion, an investigation into and receiving demo's of used equipment in the range of similar monies referred to above, could be presenting devices that have had much more substantial retail prices and have a few reviews on them to be found, that might be valuable and worthwhile reading, especially learning how the devices might have worked in conjunction with other devices.

80K being touted as a budget to become available will win one quite a few friends, cautious steps will be needed.

 50-75k is a moderately expensive system

that's not how I see it, but we are all sitting on vastly different bank accounts

if any of you click on his system photos: he has a room.

He also had a zillion shiny boxes, I am not sure how he can start from scratch - mentally

I realize that 50-75k is a moderately expensive system, these days, but it's STILL a huge chunk of money! I'd put 5k aside as a travel budget and go to several dealers (don't forget manufacturers who have in-house systems or who sell direct (PS Audio, Magnapan, etc). Listen and choose based on YOUR preferences and tastes. Remember reliability and brand history!

At that price a dealer should offer home set-up and/or exchanges. Choose 1 source at first, listen and judge, again, by YOUR taste. Keep 10k aside for longer term changes.

If you're not sure your ear is discerning enough, you shouldn't be spending this kind of cash until you are!

Since you mentioned "organic" as your main criterion, you should audition both darTZeel and Gryphon integrated amps (both in $25K range). I heard both through Wilson Sabrinas. Having auditioned both, I went with darTZeel based on what I considered to be the most organic (I listened mostly to acoustic music and vocals). 

Start with the room.  This defines what speakers you can fit and work with.  How big is it?  How is current damping?  Can you treat it, etc...  Once that is defined I suggest selecting a speaker as your choice will be a function of the room and your taste both visually and sonically. 

Once the speakers are selected, you then need to wisely select components to feed those speakers to achieve your perfect sound. 

There is an infinite number of items available and if you just buy expensive stuff without thinking of synergy, you might get lucky or you can end up with a sad system.  I have heard some very sad expensive systems and some modestly priced systems that are jaw dropping.  Key is synergy.  

Going to listening rooms is fun and can give you ideas but more than anything, the speaker needs to fit the room.  

@toddcowles ,

How fun, to build a new system and have a good budget!

 I’m not sure where you live, but go to every hifi store in your area and ask every question you can think of.  Also, if you can, try to go to a bigger hifi show and see all the new bells and whistles. One final thing, save out some of the budget for room treatments.

All the best.

Like many threads, so many people coming from so many places. What I got from this thread is that it is best not to judge/advise others on financial matters. The primacy of a good acoustically treated/treatable listening space is a very important consideration. I would add to that, clean power is a thing of design/action and is critical to success, but every installation is unique. Don’t skimp on clean power. Previous posts suggest that it is wise to chose a speaker/amplifier combination that you can audition. There is much to criticize regarding auditioning equipment, but it beats reviews. Lastly, there are posters above that have decades of quality audio gear and lots of practical experience. One in particular has passed through the OPs budget and has compared equipment that I will never be able to afford, but the point is that this person is a valuable resource that has the experience to contrast different levels of system expense. In this case, it is a given that the differences are heard because of the listeners expertise and as mentioned in another post, is not simply because of the level of expenditure. I can’t say that I made all the right choices when building my system, but the best parts of my system resulted from me finding a couple of people that were rock solid with their advice.  Perhaps, having a couple of golden ear advisors that you trust and understand your tastes and room/financial constraints just might be the most important part of the selection process.  Good luck and use your next year listening and comparing.

All, thank you for the advice/opinions.

Yup. Diminishing returns.

Go to some listening rooms at a show or two, or at some decent shops. check out systems at 15k, 20k, 25k, 30k. Maybe a tad higher? But set a limit - no more than half of what you receive. Remember decent $$$$ down for treatment as that should be considered part of your system. See if there’s that much difference between them, but you may find yourself pretty darned happy with one not much more extravagant than what you had.

Invest the rest of your money and enjoy your peace of mind along with the music.

Accuphase Integrated.  I’d look at E5000.  Add Phono card.

Thorens 1601 TT with the avail MC cart.  Semi-Auto.

HiFi Rose DAC/Streamer: Get the 150.

Fyne Audio Speakers.  They have great Floor Standers and Stand Mounts.

Above average power conditioner and cables.

A bit of room treatment.

With that budget, you might be able to build a dedicated listening room.  Depending on many factors, of course (such as the amount of work you do yourself and your existing floor plan). 

Harbeth 40.2 XD

Kubala Sosna Sensation XLR and Speaker Cables

kubala sosna XPander power distribution and a kubala sosna Elation power cable for that and your amp.

Audionet Watt Integrated Amp…It’s much bette than Passlabs.or if you can wait until October the new Gryphon Diablo 333 integrated.

These new level of amps are as good as separates. Audionet will have a better synergy with Harbeth and are made in Germany.

If you want an even better speaker I would get the Sonus Faber Amati G5 and same electronics but they are $34,000.

I would get a Lampizator Baltic 4 DAC to get in some tubes.

Streamer would be new Auralic Ares G3.

For $80k I’d do Magnepan 3.7i with 1k GR-Research crossover upgrade. Bryston 28b cubed monoblocks with Audio Magic Masterpiece fuses. Chord DAVE DAC with silver lvl 2 Farad power upgrade, and Chord Mscaler with dual Shunyata Omega 75 ohm BNC cables. Mutec REF 10SE120 Master Clock with 2 Shunyata Omega word clock cables to Aurender W20SE Network Player, and Jay’s Audio CDT3-MK3 CD transport. Shunyata Everest and Omega power cables to power everything. Cardas Clear Beyond XLR’s and Speaker Cables. SR Master fuses in Word Clock, Streamer, and CD. 80k ultimate system imo.

While most of us have unique opinions, Miles Davis sounds like he is standing in front of me on my system. The room, I place the system in the corner but the walls are broken up with irregularities and lots of absorbing features, curtains, etc, and the back two walls broken up as well. The result is zero secondary reflections, one perfect spot with full 3d definition. 
in this strange room, Project turntable, McIntosh phono preamp, VTL 5.5, VTL S200, custom cables, feeding Totem Acoustic Element Metal speakers with Thunder Sub II as I listen to organ music and like the solid low end.  
My previous system was Quad 63ESL’s, Vandersteen's, driven by Mark Levinson and was fabulous with isolating vocalists.  My current system does the same, and my opinion is the room treatment is so critical to eliminate secondary reflections. 
One disappointment in searching is many high end dealers have crappy listening set ups. I wish the best for you, may your ears be blessed.

Room and system synergy are the main items to work on. If you don’t have a good dedicated room that you can place your speakers say 10’ out into the room if you need to and it’s treated, don’t waste your money. If you have to place your speakers up against the walls and next to furniture because of the WAF, nothing will sound their best. Buy the appropriate speakers that fit your room, then buy the amp(s) that will make your speakers sound their best.

I have gone to dozens of audio shows (ces, rmaf, Tampa, northwest audio to name a few) and there have been probably 100+ rooms with hundreds of thousands of $$$$ of gear that sounded like sh$t mainly because the wrong setup for the room.

But I also think you build a system with the correct synergy with the room and all the system components, the more money you spend will get you better sq, until the difference in sq isn’t worth the much more $$$$ you will be spending to achieve it.

@op Try to hear a pair of Wilson Sabrina X's with some quality amplification and source (CD/Streaming/analogue of your choice) as a starting point.

If organic is your criterion but you need power for the kind of music you listen to, probably a transistor power amp that is at least partly biased into class A.

Budget for room treatment if the room is not already sorted.

Only suggestions as possible starting points because the possibilities are endless.

ghdprentice,

sorry to tell you that you don't know what you're talking about just because the system costs $160,000 doesn't mean it's going to sound better than an $80,000 system depends how good your ear is and how good the equipment is I've heard systems for $80,000 that absolutely blew away systems for $200,000 It's not just about money in fact I heard a million dollar system that I thought sounded bright and edgy it was terrible money doesn't always buy the best sound, and most of the time with the law of diminishing returns people that spend crazy amounts of money are being ripped off anyways but if you got more money than brains that's what you do lol

I've got some recommendations for you but I don't know if your budget can handle it so here goes the amplifier SIM audio north series 861 amplifier it's around $29,000 Canadian so I don't know how much they'll be charging for it in the US or their 860A ll which is also a superb amp and at around 20,000, same audio 850p preamp which is another 30,000 I believe, speakers you should try the monitor audio platinum 300 G3$18,000 US, very three-dimensional open airy spacious and natural sounding, cabling you should use the Neotech Sahara rectangular OCC single crystal wire and the interconnects not cheap but boy is it ever good, will beat anything OFC on the market at any price, for a separate dac I would try the Wyred4sound 10th anniversary dac$4,500 US but it beat up on dacs costing $15,000 and they give you a 30-day trial period if you don't like it send it back and you get all your money back. for transport I really can't give you any advice cuz I haven't really looked at transports in the last few years so I don't know what is good out there.

I agree, how someone spend their money is none of our business. Investment is a never-ending cycle. If someone ask for 80k recommendation, should just give them that or not at all. 

I don't know anything about amps above 20k. But those dan'gostino amps look very nice. 

How someone spends their money is none of our business. Don't know why some people have to get on their soapbox :)

Anyways, I agree with the advice to find a good dealer and look for system synergy, instead of trying to piecemeal a system one component at a time. This is where good dealers are invaluable. Good luck!

Up the budget to $200K, finance it, wait 12 months, then declare bankruptcy.

Your budget is good to get a great sounding system. Given your circumstances I would recommend starting from scratch… forget what you used to like. Use all the experience you gained on sound quality and components and start over.

I would start auditioning systems… locally first, then maybe a couple trips. Go listen to a Wilson system, a Sonus Faber system, Audio research, B&W, Magico, Conrad Johnson, Roland, Boulder… Magnaplanar. Don’t worry about cost. Find what connects to you.

Then start thinking about what to buy… speakers first.. but you have the advantage of getting all synergistic components at one time.

I found that carefully chosen component at each level sounds better than the last… so a $80K system will sound very significantly better than a $40K system and not nearly as good as a $160K.

I recommend buying the best you can and do not spend much on cables and interconnects (I buy DHLabs as really good quality budget wire), wait about six months or a year until all is broken in and you know what your system sounds like and then start working on optimizing your system with wire. You can then really compare speaker cables first, then power cord (amp)… then interconnects and finally interconnects for all your components. At the end of this… two or three years you can have an incredible system carefully customized to your own tastes.

@beach2mtn Have both if those artists on my playlist right now actually, always afraid someones going to look at really close someday and think Im schizophrenic.

I will not have 80K in a year but I can post the same question for 180K. 

you just buy a bunch of super-expensive stuff