This last week I listened to a pretty expensive system… no room acoustics and it sounded so bright and painful…. 70k amps… Zu Defs… ultimate DAC…it was unbearable. High frequencies bouncing all over the place created this washy painful sound. Ear fatigue city… giant screen tv in the center causing more HF reflections. It was in a living space. Total disaster of sound. Sad because those speakers are amazing. The other sad part is people send this person gear to review… depressing… this person has no business reviewing judging the listening environment.
2 weeks before that I heard a 4-5million dollar system (probobly more but that’s a rough estimate) in Malibu (legendary guy) horn loaded plasma units… custom Audio Note Monos… pure silver wires (I looked up the speaker cables and they retailed for 100,000$ lol
this system blew my mind…. It was AMAZing. Not to mention the room was treated. I was getting goose bumps. I brought a few records I use for reference. My god I never heard them sound so 3d and emotional.
So long story short some of the audiophile spending Uber cash on a system doesn’t mean the system will sound good… especially if they don’t consider the room. I live in a three bedroom stand-alone in East Hollywood. 56 bass traps in my mastering room. 24ft length, 11ft wide, 9ft high. 1 diffuser. Treated front room for casual listening. Like 10 GIk traps.. more loose. My set up (mastering room) sounds light years better than the more expensive system at the 1st place I mentioned. No where near the other second place mentioned… ALOT can be gained from doing measurements and acoustics. Audiophiles who don’t consider acoustics are clueless… long story short just because someone spent a ton of money on a system doesn’t mean it sounds good… but an expensive system sure has the power to melt minds…
hey. If anyone is in the Los Angeles area I’d love to hear your system!! I’ve had fun this summer listening to a lot of systems.