Exactly right! I'm totally happy with what I hear, and know it would cost silly money to duplicate the sound of. I don't even go into audio shops anymore.
"Diminishing Returns"
I have a relatively simple system in my smaller room. My system is made up of older gear. My system consists of: a phenomenal pair of Revel Salon 2 speakers, Hegel H590 integrated amp, Ayre Acoustics QX-5 Twenty Streaming DAC, Roon Nucleus Plus music server, Audioquest Niagara 3000 conditioner, Audioquest & ATC power cables, JPS Labs speakers cables, Audioquest XLR interconnects, Shunyata Research ethernet cables, and an assortment of tweeks throughout my system. I get to hear all kinds of great sounding gear in all price ranges at my local dealers and also at the audio shows I attend every year. It’s nothing for todays manufactures to ask 30K, 40K, 100K for a pair of stand mount, bookshelf speakers. There’s such a wonderful, beautiful sea of great gears out there for audiophiles to choose from. However, the sound quality of my relatively simple audio system is so incredibly compelling and so incredibly satisfying and provides me with such a high level of musical bliss in my room, I just don’t have a desire to spend more. I’m sure there’s others out there who feel the same about their speakers/system.
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I love my system and cannot see changes now. I worked my way into older used (highly reduced) Raidho D2 small floor standers (with two R.E.L. subs) and for my room, I cannot imagine anything I'd be willing to spend more money for. I run digital (and older analog sources) into DSP and Odyssey Kismet monoblocks to the D2 speakers. The move to 'unheard' Odyssey (from a decent-sounding W4S STI-1000 integrated) was dumb luck but highly satisfying, based on a lot of reading. I'd probably never gamble again on unheard equipment so it solves the 'looking' problem unless you're made of money. Stores don't let you demo like they used to so I'm not sure what good they can be at higher levels of purchases. Crapshoot.
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I have an Ayre qx 5 twenty and and Ax5 twenty amp. Done for life with this core set up, as good as anything I've owned over the years (a lot) or heard at shows and suits my sonic preferences best. Just added a new streamer and may diddle around with speakers in the future, but the dac/amp setup is staying. Updrade-itus over. It is possible to be happy with your system, took awhile to get there though and lots of green. |
In your case being myself an ex dealer your dac streamer for sure could use a big upgrade a innuos server,streamer with LPS , your router 100%should have a good LPS the junk wall wart Thst come with modem - router combo are normally 12 v 4 amp Linear Tube Audio make a exceptional one .buy on Audiogon $50 off $700 none better under $1200 comes too with a great Dc cable to the router. Linear tube audio , also a quality Ethernet hub ,both need at least a pangea sig or better power cord ,and you wants great dac ,which i am buying soon the T+A 200 dac,-preamp at $7200 retail beats dacs 2x+ it’s price. then your system will be substantially better sounding ,that’s a Guarantee !! |
@kennymacc - today you are totally satisfied. Tomorrow maybe not. Opinions can change. Situations change. |
@kennymacc So cool, the way you were able to articulate all that. Another way to describe the effect is, Sonic Bliss. Dude, you have put together a very nice system, there. You definitely titled your thread accurately. Because it sounds like you’re getting one hell of a nice return on your investment. It sounds like you’re getting a very big bang for your buck. What’s really a trip, to me, is how you can get such truly phenominal results, these days, with a very well designed integrated receiver and a pair of great speakers. One review I read, said that a Lyngdorf TDAI will or rather can replace somewhere in the neighborhood of nine or ten thousand dollars worth of equipment, and achiveesresults that are just as good or in some cases better results. Happy listening! |
The Law of diminishing returns is alive and well in the audio world. I don’t get spending multi thousand dollars for network streaming or DACs or turntable or worse, cables !... when for my ears, sub $1K equipment is ’good enogh’ For those that are chasing the holy grail, more power to them.. It’s not for me.. I enjoy what I have and prefer to save the incremental $ for retirement or other pursuits that frankly, have a much more positive financial ROI. |
Personally, I am pretty happy with my present system and actually am honing down on the number of amplifiers I have, settling on potentially three that I enjoy a little more than the others for a few reasons. I recently tried a set of rather expensive interconnects and speaker cables (for me at least !) that had a generous 60-day return policy. While these cables did have some slight but noticeable improvements in the micro-detail and sound stage, they weren't enough in my opinion to keep them over my present cables as they were over 3X the price. And that was after over 700-hours of painstaking break-in. I think getting to that "law of diminishing returns" point, this will be a moving target for each of us audiophiles based on discretionary income and our perception of the value difference between what we presently have and the new one. Also in play is the actual value of the old one recouping some of the $$$ for the difference. And we can't throw out the "emotional" part of the equation either ! Now... Would I have enjoyed the auditioned cables more than my present cables ? Yes. However I'd much rather save my $$$ for another potential tweak or upgrade than this one. In fact, I've just completed auditioning and purchasing another set of interconnects/speaker cables competitively priced also with a generous return policy to the previous ones as they did a number of things noticeably better. Many of us are pretty satisfied with our systems, however as time and funds avail, I know I am always interested in tweaks to improve the music experience. Just not in spending a lot to get there ! |