........Ummmmm I would talk to your tax account first if you haven't already as there maybe somebody looking to take a certain percentage of that sale ......Mr Tax !
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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Thank you for your suggestion immatthewj. Is the Cary brand still available new? I forgot to mention I’m going to purchase new, not used equipment. grisleybutter, , sorry if the title sounded obnoxious to you. I was thinking it was a fun fantasy to spend that much money on a system, and maybe some of the folks here are familiar with that kind of expensive equipment, so could suggest some specific items to demo. It honestly was not my fault real estate prices have gone up so much over the past thirty years affording me that kind of cash to make this kind of purchase a real possibility. I honestly almost fell over when I was told what I could get for my home. Patrick, thank you for all your suggestions. I’ll look each of them up. I’ve so many records and CD’s, I really don’t desire to incorporate another medium like streaming into the mix. I will do some more studying on building a listening room as you suggested on your second post. testpilot, travel is another consideration I’m considering along with getting some oil paintings or some other things like an old Mercedes from the fifties. I thoughtr this would be a good place to explore the audio option. newbee, as you suggest, I will get a house with a suitable listening room with the bulk of the cash I get for selling my current home. At this point I’d just like to find out how much better a $100.000 system might sound than my current set up to determine if that is worth pursuing. By the way what upgrades to the current system would you suggest? maxwave, good suggestions. I built my own home so have the skill to make any size room needed for a listening room. I was thinking about that earlier when starting this thread, but didn’t mention it here to keep this post more focused. Going to Axpona or a similar show is an excellent idea. Hadn’t thought of that. Thanks. Mike
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GREAT point. Don't forget the use some (more than a little) of the money on building or treating your new listening room acoustically. Just as important as hardware upgrades.
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How can you really do this now, you don’t even have a room and much of what determines what you use will depend on the room and it’s characteristics? I’d recommend that you use that $100K, if necessary, to get a house with a room you can dedicate to an audio system. BTW, you have pretty good stuff now and I’d bet with a little effort you could get a pretty high class sound with minimum upgrades of equipment. |
Yours is an enviable situation! 👍 Do you like your Magicos? The speakers are such a key component, and if you like the Magico sound—I heard the A5 at a show, paired with a fine Constellation integrated amp (and Aurender streamer), and the sound was marvelous. So maybe consider upgrading your Magicos? And the integrated you have, or go to separates? Mono amps would allow you short speaker cables (less $$) if the amps are placed by the speakers, but it means more boxes. If you do, I think you can do MUCH better with new speaker cables, like the AQ Mythical creatures series. Your system now is better than the Rocket 88s...a weak link maybe. Don’t rule out streaming ... it is amazing. I listen via Tidal using ROON (which I love dearly), using a Small Green Computers Roon server (all my CDs are ripped and stored on it too) and Sonore microRendu streamer. Trust me—streaming will blow your mind when you see how much music you will discover or re-discover via streaming and Roon. Aurender makes streamers that have a very good operating app too. I think you can do many upgrades and even have money left over! Have fun! |
Sounds like you are already listening to some pretty kick-ass stuff. Stuff, anyway, that would kick my stuff’s ass. I always thought that if I had a lot of disposeable cash to play with I’d want to get into some of Cary’s SET stuff. Back in the early ’90s I got a guy I worked with interested in tube gear and I turned him on to my dealer in Filthadelphia. The friend I worked with had bumped into the station from a station in California that had been closed and he had a lot of money (all things being relative) to play with, and, among other things, the dealer set him up with Metaphor speakers and a pair of Cary 805s. The system the dealer sold him cost around 20k, so I do not know what the appreciation on that over 30 years would be. (20k on "a stereo" was enough to blow everybody’s mind at work, however.) I always felt the dealer undersold him on the preamp and digital front end. Anyhow, the Cary 805s have long been on my wish list, or even better, a pair of Cary 211 FEs. I suppose for digital I would go Esoteric, and any analogue front end I bought would be better than what I have now, wch is none at all. But sadly, my wish list is all based on a fantasy I have never heard but only read about, so you can take all of that above with a grain of salt.
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