How cheap can you go and still be happy with the sound?


I would think many guys on this forum are spoilt by the gear they have and never listen anymore on cheap rigs.

I was listening recently on my younger daughter’s PC audio rig and got reminded again of how good it sounds. There is a fairly high level of clarity, detail, tonal balance and great bass in this rig.

 

- Yamaha HS8 powered monitors: $700 to $800

- Yamaha WXC-50 MusicCast streamer+dac+preamp: $450, often found on A4L for around $300

- Audioquest Powerquest PQ3 (was around $200 or so)

 

IMO, this would qualify as a high quality (sonically) charity price hifi rig for any younger or older person w.r.t small room nearfield or midfield listening.

 

What is the cheapest rig that has brought you happiness these days?

 

deep_333

Schiit audio and elac speakers and low price cabling of Audioquest Kimber audio envy cables  for less than 3 k you will get a good system.

The title of my virtual system page was once : How to reach Audiophile satisfaction for 1,000 bucks"...

 

How :  mechanical and electrical controls of the system embeddings working dimensions especially acoustics with devices of my own at peanuts costs...

Knowledge beat  upgrade when you reach the minimal synergy threshold of your working system...Experiments then put your system at his utmost surprising level of optimal working...

I tried to upgrade  topping the entire cost of my actual system and i fail...

It will cost me a step from 1,000 bucks to 10,000 to really upgrade my speakers system and with very well chosen component which for sure i will be in the obligation to modify...

For my headphone system  the AKG 340 is so good(i wrote 35 pages of review),after my 6 optimizations, the only possible assured upgrade was the costlier Immanis around 10,000 bucks...

But i change my mind why ?

Because it seems to had very moderate bass impact.

my AKG 340 is in so well balanced state , that timbre tone is as speakers, the soundstage if required by the recording is out of my head and the deep bass of the big organ in a church , i hear it with my toes and stomach by bones resonance...

Why buying the Immanis or anything else ?

My K340 is not perfect, some headphone can beat him on some acoustic factor but not in the balance ratio of all these numerous acoustics factors...

I hope you will listen and have fun studying how to make acoustics experiments learning basic...

I proved to myself that we dont need money for a very good system but knowledge which is in acoustics books...

i wish you all a very Merry, happy,healthy, wonderful Christmas with your family...

 

 

I hope I never get to a place in this hobby where I can't enjoy a system because I know that a different group of components might sound better. That would be just as bad as not being able to enjoy a good meal at a cheap restaurant because I might have had a better meal somewhere else.

@chenry   +1