Help me spend $100,000 on a new system


I’ve recently been considering moving and downsizing my home. While exploring how much I might sell my house and land for, I was shocked that I might have an excess of $100,000 after selling and buying a smaller new home with less acreage. I’m 71 years old and can’t take it with me, so I’m trying to figure out how to spend that potential resource.

One possibility would be to purchase a new stereo system with all that cash. I would like to demo a system costing that much to see what sound quality you could get for a stupendous amount like that. But I don’t have any idea what brand/model components to look at. Perhaps you could suggest components you might consider if you were setting up a system at that price point. Also how would you budget the total amount per component including wiring.

I am not interested in adding streaming or anything else I might not already have to the system. I would be open to buying separates to replace any single component such as the integrated amplifier. Maybe a separate DAC, phono stage, preamp etc. Please tell me what you would do.

Following are the components I already have to upgrade. My system consists of Magico A3 speakers, a Luxman 507uX MK2 integrated amp, a Marantz Ruby KI CD/SACD player, A VPI Classic 2 turntable with a Fatboy tonearm and a Lyra Kleos cartridge. Wiring consists of Audioquest Rocket 88 speaker cables, and VPI house brand wires that connect to the tonearm. I forget the brands of the other wires and cables, but they are of similar quality to the above.

I also have a Shunyata Hydra Denali 4000 power conditioner with a Venom power cord (I think) that I will continue to use without upgrading.

I would welcome any of your suggestions and utilize them next time I go up to Washington DC to visit dealer showrooms for demos. Thank you much.

It does sound weird to consider spending that much on a system costing over three times what I paid for my first home, so I hope I’m not sounding uppity here.

Mike

 

 

skyscraper

Showing 4 responses by kennyc

@skyscraper

The obvious component update would be your speakers. What’s your room size? - want to make sure you choose the right size speaker.

When choosing my first high-end system, After deep research, I demoed to the best speakers I could find at dealers and audio shows. Speakers that consistently resonated with me were Magicos and YG. I’ve demoed the Magico A3 but it was much lighter sounding likely due to smaller drivers. Perhaps if you like Magico then move up their product line. The S3 got a recent update so when I heard them they sounded better than the S5, sounded more like their M level speakers.

For electronics, the Audionet Humboldt is my budget choice whose sonics competes with the very best.

@skyscraper 

Guess I’ll touch on cables as researching that can be very daunting.  
For interconnects, I choose Siltech Classic mostly from this review here where the reviewer seem surprised at how good they sounded and that they were extremely transparent.  However, subsequent Hijiri reviews especially on Agon here seem like their “million” line is a great choice and somewhat affordable.  

Not to mention when I carried my heavy Luxman amp and Magico A3’s up a flight of stairs to my listening room a couple years ago it was a near death experience.

@skyscraper 

With spinal generation my heavy lifting days are over. I’m now fighting to keep mobile so me and my wife can travel upon her retirement. Arrange for others to do the heavy lifting.

The Joseph Audio Pearl Graphene sounds great - a good choice to demo as I heard them on several occasions. At the time, they were above my price point. Last year at AXPONA I narrowed my search to the Magico A5 or the Rockport Atria. In show conditions (poor hotel room conditions often make speakers sound way below their potential) the A5 sounded clearer on the top while the Atria sounded whole but recessed. After the show, I spoke with my dealer and mentioned I loved the sound of the demo Vimberg Mino D, but it was out of my price range as the “D” was the diamond tweeter upgrade at $10k+. I love high notes (violin, bells)so my dealer negotiated the price down while I “conveniently” increased my budget so now I own them. If possible, maybe check out Vimberg as well - very positive reviews, it’s the Toyota while their sister/parent company Tidal speakers are like Lexus. Like Magico, it’s a Herculean effort to eliminate cabinet resonances

@skyscraper 

I optimized my analog chain - VPI Avenger, VDH Grail SB (a used sonic bargain), Kuzma 4point (great price/performace, many rave reviews), Schroeder CB-L, and a few top carts.  But trying to get digital to a high level seemed financially daunting.

The top DACs like from MSB, Lampizator, Wadax, Aries Carat, were way out of my price range. The musical Playback Designs Dream DAC was my someday target, but was bummed at their subsequent price increase.  But then read the review of the Linn Klimax DSM/2 with the Organik DAC upgrade here so I purchased it for $12.5k - feels like I got a fantastic sonic bargain sonically competing with top DACs.