For those of you who had spent over hundred thousand dollars for your sound system.

I don’t regret a single cent I’ve spent, even if I’ve made some bad bets. Everything was a learning experience, and I wouldn’t feel as confident about my expertise with gear and room setup if I didn’t experiment and make mistakes along the way.

If anything, I wish I generally knew “more” about everything before investing, but I think that sometime takes the fun out of things because I value discovery and curiosity.

If I did it all over again, knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t skimp on the quality of the gear to get the “best bang for the buck” for when I made those types of decisions. I would rather invest in the best equipment possible without considering discounts, costs and other promotions that may have dissuaded me from making the right decisions. 

@ghdprentice I just looked at your virtual system photos and think that if I ever heard it, it would be the first time I would like Sonus Faber in someone’s setup as I typically do not like them. Knowing the sonic signatures of much of your equipment and the placement, I’m sure it sounds excellent.

@tannoy56 I’ve probably cycled through a total of 200-300 components and speakers in total. Yes, much of the gear I did buy used and then resold, sometimes at a profit but at most times breaking even. Going this route, I was able to play with a wide spectrum of speaker and electronics designs, and many investments were usually fairly incremental since I sold my used gear for what I bought and put a little more on top (usually buying something else, then selling the gear I already had to recoup the funds). At one time I had three system setups around different speaker designs - three-way speakers with Legacy Aeris & Wilson Yvette, electrostats with Quad 2805, and high efficiency with Oris 200 horns. Each of those systems had very different electronics that I was constantly tweaking and upgrading, and those speakers were the final ones before I consolidated down to a single system with Borresen (e.g. I owned other electrostats and high-efficiency speakers, a number of 2- or 3-way designs, etc).

I’m also very lucky to have both family and friends that have gone through as much gear as I have, and we have been very generous to swap gear with one another. I empathize for many audiophiles that I have met over the years that do not have a local circle of audiophile friends (though they are largely influential in driving me to invest more). While it’s tough because many audiophiles are very elitist and closed-minded in what they think is “the best”, the best way to experience what audio truly has to offer is by being vulnerable and trusting with others.

@tannoy56 Thank you for your appreciation.

For some fresh perspective, as a new dealer, I am every day meeting more and more customers, many of them who have $100K+ systems. I would classify most of them to be in the middle class or upper middle class income-wise. I don’t know many that are say in the top 1-5%. While it is something I can do, major full system installs for customers don’t come often. I would anticipate that if this is the type of service most often provided to the top 1-5%, but I could be wrong. Most other “blue collar audiophiles” as you mention may invest as heavily as they have, but mostly because they love the journey and their experiences in the hobby and the outcome.