Best system for opera lover at $30,000

IMHO the Levinson electronics will leave them disappointed. If your friends love opera they would enjoy a trip to the Met in NYC or to San Francisco to hear a live performance or two. With their ears freshened up they could then visit the high end dealers in either city and listen to the stuff suggested above. If they come to the Bay Area I would be happy to show them around. I spent this morning listening to some operas on both vinyl and CD. The majority of the modern recordings of the opera repertoire are on EMI or Decca. Therefore, your listening experience is gated by the preexisting recordings (pace DVD or LD). Each company has a house sound which is very different from each other. Some of the digital remasters are awful. MANY are worse than the vinyl. But, often the vinyl pressings are terrible and the digital remasters good. Keeping your turntable/arm/cartridge/vinyl tweeked is a lot more hassle than replacing tubes. So they should bring their favorite recordings because for opera lovers the performance is usually paramount. Re Feldman45 comments on Sonus Fabers and the lack of importance low bass in opera. NOT if you like Strauss and Wagner. I checked the scores this morning and many of the important themes have fundamentals in the last octave Eflat (38.8 Hz) to G(489). I played the recordings and the Decca CD remasters clearly have these notes. They are on most of the vinyl too. If I was a “Perfect Wagnerite” and dropped $30K but couldn’t get goose bumps off the Wotan Spear motif I’d be REALLY ticked. I choked a pair of Amati Homage’s at my dealer on the Prelude to Act III of Siegfried (Decca, Solti). You should have seen the look on his face when we played the same passage on the Revel’s and Dunlavy’s. If I wanted to listen to Marriage of Figaro in an apartment, Sonus Faber would be fine but way too expensive. I'd get a pair of InnerSound electrostats and a used tube amp. The Flower Song (Dessay on EMI DDD) would leave you speechless and you would have a lot of cash left over. I would stongly recommend at least a tube preamp to help prevent listening fatigue. A tube poweramp would be good too since your friends will want to enjoy 3-6 hour of music and not just contemplate the psychoacoustics of glare. I like ARC and Melos but others swear by CJ. The size of the room and their preferences in opera will most strongly influence their speaker choices. Bottom line, without more info on your friends’ opera listening habits, the SPECIFIC recommendations from all of the lunatics on this thread (including myself) are not actionable. However, the issues discussed by all are real. Remind your friends that $30K (invested at a reasonable rate of return) is about 2 LIVE opera performances a month for five years, for a couple with the best seats in the house.

Gentlemen, how many live operas have you attended? How many recorded operas have you listened to recently?

At 30K total there will be significant trade offs, particularly in what you might compromise. I think it would be very easy to leave your friend disappointed. Several very important considerations. First, how much experience with live opera do they have? If it is a lot, where do they sit in the opera house? My wife and I have heard about 150 live operas all over the world and about 800 live symphonic performances. This is not a trival matter and will greatly influence their preferences in the balance of the system. Operas are long, 3-6 hours so listener fatigue is a big consideration. Do they like Wagner and Strauss which means the ability to have good detail played loud with lots of bass or are they bel canto fans where the delicacy of the vocal line is paramount. DVD fans (a whole different discussion) or vintage recording fans (vinyl required) Additionally, since this is for a couple, don't underestimate the likely psychoacoustic differences between the male and female. I have been upgrading my system and recently listened to most speakers in the 10-25k range. Along with my wife were two other women who listen with us regularly and have heard a lot of live opera and symphonic music. Their preferences and perceptions and descriptions, of Dunlavy,Theil, Vandersteen, Martin Logan, Revel,B&W, Sonus Faber, Wilson, etc did not often match mine or the standard reviews but they were consistant to each other. Spectral amps received a thumbs down, tubes a thumbs up.(BTW we bought the Dulavy SC-V which the three of them ranked first, it was my close second choice. Finally, room treatment is of paramount importance to sort out the compexity of a large scale opera. A little goes a long way but alot still improves things. In addition to a dedicated room with passive treatments, I use a Sigtech which is astonishing on Wagner, Mahler, Bruckner and Strauss. I hope this helps. Your friends are going to have to listen to some equipment to settle on their preferred trade offs.

You don't need to spend $30k to enjoy recorded opera. But it would be easy to spend $30k and be disappointed. Being able to lose yourself in your favorite performance of a five hour Wagnerian opera on a reasonably priced system in your home presents challenges that require tradeoffs that are not necessarily the highest priorities for jazz or rock.

to ambience; a couple of interesting things in you post re classical music. If you hear a lot live music your equipment preferences vary by where you sit. Several conductors I have talked to swear that only horn loaded speakers sound real. The one time I was near the podium during a recording sound check I could understand why.I personally prefer front of the first balcony. Any instrumentalist can drive you nuts when setting up a system since they usually want it voiced to what they hear whichisn't anyone elses perspective. Finally your experience with your wife parallels my experience with my wife and female friends. My wife who has degrees in physical anthropology has several fairly convincing foornotes on significant enough psychoacoustic differences between male and female to be an issue in assembling a high end system. I'll have to try the Atma's. BTW what does your wife think of analog?

Fielden, thanks for the correction. This is a good example of the the quality of the advice I got from the dealer. I was quite specific about my music listening needs and the only Sonus Faber he said I should consider was the Amati. If I was cynical perhaps price had something to do with it. I'll have to check out the Extrema. BTW with sound treatment and using the Sigtech DSP, my measured in room response for my Dunlavy V's is down 2db at 20 with a sub sonic cut at 16 which is only of practical use if you own about a hundred organ recordings (which I do)