If I was in your situation I'd take a year off and demo/listen/research at dealer(s) letting them know what your plans are. AND, during this 1 year invest that $100000 in a GIC. If it's locked away, your forced to take a year and really figure out where you want to spend. The interest alone would pay for a trip to an Audio show of your choice or room treatments. Plus, you already have a kick ass system to listen to in your new room. Once the new room is treated you may find that is the improvement you've been looking for.
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
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Your equipment is already very good but I would definitely upgrade to separates, preamp and amp, my suggestion would be the Simaudio 861 amp and the 850p preamp, also you could upgrade all the wiring to the NeoTech rectangular OCC wire which is far superior to anything OFC and even better than the round OCC, other than that everything else you can keep. |
Your equipment is already very good but I would definitely upgrade to separates, preamp and amp, my suggestion would be the Simaudio 861 amp and the 850p preamp, also you could upgrade all the wiring to the NeoTech rectangular OCC wire which is far superior to anything OFC and even better than the round OCC, other than that everything else you can keep. |
OP, a great problem to have! As others have mentioned, I'd start with a dedicated room...pay attention to room dimensions, Greek golden method will get you in the ballpark. A badly designed room can ruin any great equipment purchases. Pull at least a couple of dedicated lines for the room, at least one for signal components, and one for power amplification. Use audiophile receptacles (Furutech GTX-D(G or R...gold or rhodium) or Oyaide R1. I'd recommend that you NOT run an amp through the conditioner, IMO it should be plugged directly into the receptacles. There is some great information here to use. The best use for $1,500 to $2,000 you can make. Reach out to Mike Major or John Dykstra at GIK Acoustics for room treatment ideas. They can help all of the way from design ideas to product choice, to placement, etc. Make sure that proper speaker placement is taken into consideration first and foremost, then equipment placement. Choose what pieces you already own will work in the new environment, and which ones will need to be replaced. You're getting great recommendations: maybe the turntable, power conditioner, and speakers are good enough already? Have fun! |
Find the house with the right room first and get the electrical done right. Set up your existing gear and hire an expert to treat and design the room. Now look at incremental improvements on a system that is already quite good. But in the meantime, upgrade the speaker cables yesterday. After quite a few trials, Acoustic Zen delivered the goods for me, but there are lots of choices. I like the idea of OCC, it makes some sense. And definitely don’t write off streaming, it’s awesome. |
Wise post! Especially if we add the fact that we must learn about system embeddings before spending as much money anyway ... And in the actual context of insane and toxic geopolitics climate this money will be best used for other means ... Add the BACCH filters to your actual system and go with the advice of jacobsdad2000..
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I highly recommend getting rid of the cumbersome CDs when streaming is much easier and with good cables linear power supply and Highly recommended T+A 200 dac - preamp - just read the reviews ,that is my next dac I will be buying soon. At $7200 retail betters other digital at 2x+ its price just investigate QObuz as your library of millions of titles , and buy a Innuos streamer with Solid state hard drive , No you are not too old I showed 2 guys in our audio club both over 75 , and they are now controlling their music collection from a Tablet like a iPad or droid it is so much easier and sounds superior buy a large amount vs the digital setup you currently have , I speak by experience ,I am 65 owned a Audio store for a decade and system synergies have been my forte , your sources is just as important as your speakers for that is where all your music starts if lacking in any way ,it cannot be improved upon down stream . |
Mike congratulations on your new venture. Sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun. Although I don't know what your sound preferences are I won't try to suggest what components or speakers you should get especially not knowing what your new room will be like however seeing how you already own a Lyra Kleos let me suggest instead of up grading to a Lyra Lambda version as mentioned by Atomic you really should consider adding a Bobs Devices Sky 30 step up transformer between your cartridge and phono stage. You will get more of everything you like about the Kleos already plus added dynamics, soundstage and a quieter background due to being able to reduce the gain on your phone stage which I found increases the instrument separation and micro detail and timbre. Definitely worth considering for a mere $1200 or so. The Sky 30 version was recommended to me by Bob himself to be set on the 30 setting. It also has the option of setting it to 15. Another improvement I found with the Lyra was to set up the cartridge with a Mint LP protractor and a USB microscope. It takes some work to get it perfectly aligned on the Mint but the results are worth it. Lyra's benefit from the tiniest adjustments to get them perfect. I also use a fozgometer and test record to get the azimuth perfect. That results in great channel balance, soundstage and center imaging. Good luck on your new venture and remember to have fun with it! |
Of course you haven't shared your entire financial situation with us and maybe there is a lot more we don't know. But your home is a capital investment. I fund my audio purchase out of my monthly operation and maintenance budget. If I moved capital around and found an extra $100k, it would remain in my capital balance sheet and get invested. You have a very nice system. It would be very easy to buy $100k of equipment, especially if you go on the advice of stereophile or an internet forum, and have a worse sounding system. Jerry |
I would start with a proper integrated. $15,800 with no DAC for a Mola Mola Kula. It’s the best I heard and not just for the money! I would spend about 2k more on a kubala sosna elation power cable. $4000 more on kubala sosna temptation speaker cables and interconnect. Your Shunyata can’t handle this amp and you best plug it into the wall. Sonus Faber Amati will be 36 grand and give you more bass than your Magico and destroy them in dynamics and look better. To beat the sonus faber we need 60k to 75k for Vivid Audio Giya G2 series 2 (mine speakers) or Wilson Audio Alexia-V for 70k! So you will love these things! If I had a bigger room I would have went with the Sonus Faber myself. Dac easy full stop Lampizator Baltic 4 is perfect for $6800 you will not beat that unless you’re spending over 25 to 50k on a DAC like a Horizon or Poseidon. The Mola Mola Tambaqui is too analytical and you need big money for a DCS Vilvaldi Apex. The this Lampizator beats a DCS Rossini level btw to give you context.
Assuming 7% taxes we have 15k left for vinyl. This is easy your cartridge will be an Hana Umami Red for 3950… you won’t beat it unless you spend over 10-20k and it will barely be beat! It’s my favorite cartridge. Turntable I would get a Rega planar 10 for $6345. You won’t beat that beast unless you spend over 25-100k. It also has the cables built in!!! So you save on an interconnect. Get a kubala sosna temptation rca set from parasound to Mola Mola Kula for $1500 ish. (The phono in the Mola Mola is not as good as the parasound and 4k module. we are at 99k ish after taxes for the extra grand buy 3 GR Research b24 power cables for the phono, DAC and streamer. They are about 380 a pop and you need to spend huge money to beat them. We are at 100k your system will destroy things 3-4x more.
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Good luck on your journey. I would enjoy the process - you earned it. I'm fortunate enough to have a dealer I trust to work with and it allows me the opportunity for home auditions and even occasional opportunities at demos. There's a few upgrades I was pessimistic about - cables and racks.
Good luck! |
It is impossible to build a high -end system for the average dude , as i was and as i am myself , in few months with ONLY and MERELY money, even a big amount of money ... Why ? First, the fun is in the learning curve which go slowly up ... The fun is not buying BEFORE knowing what to do ... It is a recipe for deception and frustration and the reason why many audiophiles enter in this hobby , upgrading without end each year or many times a year ... I know because i do it , at low cost in my case BEFORE knowing what to do because i would have learn it ... Second, what the learning curve is made of then ? Nope it is not the user manual of the gear pieces you will buy ... Not even the EQ manual ... 😊 It will be first discovering and reading about compatibility and potential synergy between gear , this is the relatively short studying purchasing parts before buying ; it takes few months of studying or listening on store if you can ... But knowing nothing and going to listen in store is dangerous for premature buying ... Studying statistically with notes reviews and articles about audio BEFORE going listening is better ...Takes few months studying and dreaming ... Dreaming is fun... Then after buying a minimally synergetical system , the real hard study and experiments begin : read about the working controls of the mechanical (vibration-resonance) , electrical ( noise floor levels controls of the gear-room-house) and especially acoustical working dimensions of any system ( by acoustical i dont means only room acoustics but acoustics concepts in articles and books , you will not discovered this in most audio magazine trust me save acoustics panels publicities ) .. Then you will discover that the fun part of this hobby save for music listening is not the thrill to try a new component which is short lived most of the times , but instead the learned ability to integrate it really well in your system-room-house-ears... Everybody will advise you about a piece of gear ... My advise is buy nothing study before ... Enjoy what you already have and practice possible low cost improvement on it and try to improve your room with what you have FIRST ... Try vibrations-resonance controls of your speakers ... Read about that dont buy spikes and dont call it job done ...it is not job done ...read about not only isolation but coupling-decoupling methods .. I can assure you that for any system at any price there is no comparison between any system right out of the box and the same system well embedded in the mechanical working and workable field of the desk-room-system , well embedded in the electrical noise floor of the system-room-house , well embedded in the acoustical field between speakers-room-ears/brain ... But doing that without studies and experiments is impossible ...😊 The false promise of many reviewers is buy this perfect product, plug it and you will need anything else ... Marketing necessary lies for the obligation to sell ...Or enthusiastic advice from audiophiles about a piece of gear, good or not, but a piece who dont know yet to integrate in your world anyway, because you did not any studies BEFORE ... Psycho-acoustics rule the gear design and results, never the reverse ... Audio hobby is not about price tags but about acoustics ( not only mere room acoustic by the way ) and DSP as the BACCH filters and mechanical control of the room ... And the impact of vibrations-resonance uncontrolled, of a too high noisde floor and of a bad acoustic room is staggering ... Unimaginable BEFORE the comparison with the reverse : a well done triple embeddings set of controls ... Good luck ... And my best wishes ...
P.S. to be frank i did all the above because i did not have the money neither any other choices ... Studying and experimenting was my only solution at low cost to create a real audiophile experience with the right components for sure ... The amount of time and hard work was very high for me ... I could say that with 100,000 bucks i would had go to the easy deceptive solution you contemplate : buying ... The truth is disturbing , but i put it for you ... But you can buy a 100,000 bucks system not so good , not well embedded, and call it perfect instead of taking the time to study and experiment and understand ... ... Many do it ... 😊 They will call any other systems under 100,000 as mine , trash .... Dont imitate them ...But for sure ignorance is bliss... I forgot to say that there exist a shortest road now i was not knowing existed at the times ... Read about the BACCH filters by Dr.Edgar Choueiri ... It will shorten the learning task ...And buy these filters dac for your actual system to begin with nothing else and study it ......All stereo system are flawed because of crosstalk uncontrolled effect on the ears/brain , learn why ...It will help you a lot better than buying a 25,000 bucks amplifier illusion of high end or help you better than any piece of costly gear advices ... ...😁😊
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Lol personally I would look at top shelf used equipment. 100k will get you some of the best in the used market. Personally a set of canary grand reference monoblocks 8 300b tubes in each one plus there top dog 4 box preamplifier. Likely keep your speakers and get a top of the range front end for at least one source that is your favorite. The last is go way up the food Chain for wire.
You are right you cannot take it with you and if you get some enjoyment out of it in your later years that is just wonderful. The kids and grand kids can make there own money.
Regards |
Nothing at all uppity about your question and if you spend a lot of time with your system, not a bad way to invest your gain. I take your point that you don't want to get into streaming, etc. so will try to give you some thoughts that are responsive to the question you asked. if you like the magico sound the first thing I would consider is going up a rung in terms of quality while staying with Magico. Maybe consider investing in the S5, which I have heard and consider to be outstanding. That way, you are not taking a plunge into the unknown, you are getting a speaker that will be similar to what you have except more and better. I've recently had a similar experience with Sonos Faber. I had the Serafinos and first considered just moving up to Amati in the same line. This did produce a solid gain, but when I auditioned the next level up into the reference line, the improvement in sound quality was exponential and for me was the best allocation of my upgrade budget. that would still leave you with a good chunk of change to experiment with other upgrades, but I think you might find the biggest gain by focusing on the speakers first. after that, I would consider a high-end DAC. I have a DCS, which I like very much, but most everyone will probably endorse whatever brand they have. I think there are lots of good choices, and if you have a chance to visit some dealers, you can give yourself some options. |
I’d suggest spending some time in the Chicago area (or similar large market). With a little planning you could knock out some great auditioning in a couple days to see what you like. I’ve been able to listen to some great combos there such as Raidho & Absolare, Sonus Faber Stradivari & Boulder, Borresen & Aavik, Dali Kore & McIntosh, and Rockport/Estelon & Vitus Audio. |
@skyscraper , At age 71 and with associated age related overall hearing degradation, you are not going to do a whole lot better sonically with a 100k than what you already have (Magico, Luxman, VPI, etc). Pack/take all your current audio equipment with you to your downsized house, continue to enjoy it and give 50k to your kid or grandkid (might help him buy a house!). Use the remaining 50k to remodel/acoustically treat/create a great acoustic space for placing equipment in the new house. This would be a much better upgrade sonically than buying the same thing in different chassis/packaging/etc and different wires (over and over...hoping for some sonic miracle). |
I'd hope you've taken into account (no pun intended) capital gains tax, but I suspect you may have already.....if that's 100K$ afterwards, lucky you.. ;) Yes, consider the new space before you leap Treat that beforehand with your existing, consider, and then go shopping. Enviable position to be in. and sounds like you've got the rest of the 'bucket list' in progress or covered, so's best to enjoy the luxury of having already exemplary gear in hand that could enjoy some 'tweaks' b prior to making 'enhancements' on a larger scale.... By all means, focus on the new space first and foremost. Then go nutz. *L* ;
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My own journey has been leading me inexorably down a “less is more” path, so higher efficiency speakers with fewer drivers and simpler crossovers, which of course opens up the possibility of lower-powered tube amplification. I find that this approach connects me to the music more effectively. I liken it to going to the Big Apple Circus instead of Barnum & Bailey. There’s an immediacy and intimacy to a small circus that is completely lost in a three-ring extravaganza. So if you had come up to the Capital Audio Fest outside DC 3 weeks ago, at that budget I would have directed you to the Highwater Sound room, where they were running Cessaro Wagner II horns ($65k) with a TW-Acustics turntable, phono pre, pre and amps; no digital. Beautiful sounding room. |
Sorry, @hilde45 , that was just airline industry talk and I didn't mean anything by it. That's just what we always called it (like LaGaurdia was "LaGarbage", and so on) and it just got to where it was second nature without even thinking about it. The dealer I was referring to was a guy from David Lewis Audio, btw. |
I think you're already looking good there. I would honestly not go through the headache of rebuilding a system from ground up. A lot of heart ache and stress can result, not worth it at age 71. If anything, I would decide which part of the system is in need of an upgrade. Maybe you need a better turn table or cart. Maybe you would benefit from going to the Magico S3 mk 3? If you're really into digital and streaming, maybe get a better dac. I would suggest small improvements rather than large sweeping changes.
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laoman, will do. Thanks. mapman, spending money just because I can may not be the wisest way to go, but letting it sit in a bank account might be even less wise. At this point I’m just exploring options for best utilizing that possibly available cash to best enjoy the remaining years I’ve got left. And among other things I do love a good sound system, so I’m considering that possibility as a luxury I unexpectedly may be able to afford. Andrew, I’ll look those components up. Thank you. knock1, things might look a bit differently to you when you hit your seventies. If you’ve potentially got the money to spare, why not spend it on the things that give you the most enjoyment for the time you’ve got left to enjoy them. ghdprentice, sorry, no streaming, gaming, or cell phones for that matter. I’m guessing if I spend $100,000 on equipment none of my current components would be up to snuff. I really need to listen to higher end equipment to see how much better it would sound compared to my current set up to see if it's worth pursuing. I will look into the brand equipment you mentioned. Thanks. Initm, appreciate your suggestions and will look into them. audioman58. if I decide to go this upgrade route I will contact you. Thanks for offering your assistance. tomic601, nice to hear from you. What exactly would be a transducer? Your a bit over my head there even after I googled that term. What monoblocks might you recommend. I hate to admit it but your statement about " having monoblocks and speakers with 11 bands of EQ below 120hz" was lost on me too. Could you explain what you mean to me, a lay person on these matters. Thanks. Upgrading to a better Lyra Kleos makes perfect sense. And yes the Fatboy tonarm does have that upgrade you mentioned, I was thinking a better turntable could be in order however in a $100.000 system. bigtwin, I’ll check out that video you suggested. Thanks all, Mike P.S.: I’ll reply to the three posts that came in while I was typing the above replies tomorrow, as it’s getting kind of late here. . |
Mike skyscraperYou are welcome. I wish I would take my own advice or be able to overcome indecision! I would like to do what you are doing. @tomic601 referred to speakers with equalization, and since he (and I) are Vandersteen owners (and he’s the relative expert) maybe he was talking about the Quatro CT, which have built-in powered woofers with their own equalization. Very easy to tune to your room, and easy to drive because the amp only drives the midrange and tweeters. Cheers. |
As a general idea, I would first replace the amp and cables. If you like your speakers enough to keep them for a long time. If not, then you will have to build the whole new system. Not necessarily $100k system, especially if you buy some of the components and cables used. But again, first you have to decide about the speakers in the room they are going to be in. Do you only consider SS amplification or are open to tubes as well ? But I have no idea how Magico perform with tube electronics so it's not a suggestion. |
Only suggestion I would make is on the speakers. I demoed those speakers along with the Yamaha NS5000 and Vivid Kaya 45. The Yamaha and Vivid sounded way more coherent to my ears. I ended up with the NS5000. The Vivid speakers are rather unique and a good way to spend a lot of money if you went up the lineup. If I get a job in the next few weeks, I am going to spend money on 1 more audio item that I do not need. I am looking to get either the PlayBack Designs Dream DAC or the KRELL KSA-i400 amp (need to trade in a CODA #16 amp for the KRELL). The DAC is likely the better choice because my #16 is already great to my ears. Both of these items were in my original audio master plan, but I would be wasting money because what I have now is very good. I expect to waste the money,
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Find the right house with the right room for listening that will make you happy to spend time in first. You have good stuff to start with. See what the gear you have can do there first. Then consider what might be improved if needed. Spending the money on gear too soon just because you can is probably not a wise way to go. |
. I would definitely choose your home… with a great audio area, if you can. I accidentally bought a home with one of the best audio areas imaginable. Very much by accident. It has almost no symmetry… overall a big Z shaped room (s). Underground, so silent.
I am 71 as well. You want streaming… one old fart to another. Anyway, take your current system… and then do what audiophiles do… find your weakest link and upgrade the heck out of it. I would definitely look at upgrading your preamp / amp to tube: Audio Research or VAC, or Conrad Johnson. Real musical stuff. Us old guys finally get it.
As you age, getting up and constantly changing records gets to be a real announce. You can get the same quality sound and not have to get up an futz every twenty minutes. You can see my solution under my user ID. Audio Research / Aurender… three heavenly hours a day and not up and down. I walk in the forest and bicycle for exercise. |
Your post is not uppity in any shape or form…. i suggest permanently ignoring any who react with such petty emotion…. i would color it green. Is it a blessing ? Sure. I wouldn’t at your budget level focus on a sea change… but i would suggest working the two transducers in your system and the room. For $35 K you could have monoblocks and speakers with 11 bands of EQ below 120 hz to work in just about ANY room you choose… Get into a better Lambda Lyra ( keep your Kleos as a backup ), get dual pivot on VPI ( can’t remember IF you pulled trigger on it. )… put some $ in the room….but don’t kill it w over treatment AS so many dedicated rooms do…… Finally have fun, enjoy the journey…. |
@skyscraper My suggestion would be to watch this video and then design a fantastic listening room. It could well be that $10,000 spent here is all you will need to fully enjoy your current system without spending any more. Cheers. |
@skyscraper (aka Mike) yes, Cary is still in business, but now they are Cary direct and not from a dealer. But unfortunately this is not Dennis Had's Cary Audio Design anymore. I honestly do not know about the quality of their products these days, but their customer service is not nearly as good as it was in the old days. But still, if I had a bunch of money to spend, I would be considering their flagship amps. However, you may be looking for a cut or two above those. |
Mike, I I agree with the others- buy a home, then set up a dedicated listening room. Might be best to listen to your current system in your new room in order to know, hear the difference when you audition new equipment (not necessarily new since there’s so much good used equipment and it is a buyers market right now). Cables and interconnects might be best to audition once you decide on speakers and power. Keep us posted. |
