How competitive are you with your system?

‘Studio grade’ eh Carlos?  Well I’ve produced and mixed multi million selling LPs and having worked at amongst others Abbey Road their playback system couldn’t hold a candle to mine. I once had to install decent loudspeaker cable in the evaluation system of an A&R man at EMI. He couldn’t believe the improvement. 

mihorn

... I think lossy media isn't that bad ...

I understand! Many people agree with you and I have no issue with that at all. As I've mentioned, there are some listeners who actually prefer lossy audio and I have no issue with that either. 

What's puzzling is that some who are enjoying lossy audio simply can't accommodate that others find it lacking. Preference being what it is there's really no need for anyone to justify his preference - it's purely subjective and there is no right or wrong, even when the preference is for something of provably inferior quality.

When I go to dealers looking to buy new gear, I bought the previous gear for purposes of impressing future dealers I talk to.  

I don’t buy it to impress people coming into my home, because rarely do you bring people into your home who understand audio systems like you do or have appreciation for good quality and if it does happen I don’t wanna dwell on talking about the system.

Aside from impressing dealers I speak to about what I own, I do it for purposes of feeling comfortable with what I’m listening to knowing that i’ll probably buy something nicer and spend more money in hopes that it’ll be a better product. Not interested in reselling because that’s a pain in the ass so I just keep it and create another listening room.

Also I’m highly critical of what I do, and if I’m listening to something that could be better it needs to change otherwise it’ll continue to annoy the hell out of me.  Presently I’m comfortable with everything I have with the exception of speakers which are really quite good but I think I might be able to do better.  And if this did happen I’ll probably get rid of the current speakers simply because I’m running out of space and they are  a pain in the ass to move if I ever relocate and I’m running out of space to keep all the boxes.

I don’t view audio stuff as competitive because that’s sports. I don’t like to buy a really nice car for purposes of being showy when I drive down the street. I’d like to own a Porsche or a Ferrari but I’d be annoyed with all the views I get when I drove down the street and I have to talk about it every time I get out of my car and someone walks over to complement me. So I’ll buy an Audi or something else that’s not as flashy.

@cleeds You have taken. Y comments to the extreme. everyone knows that YouTube is a lossy media, but the sound conveys enough information to discern the quality of playback systems.

@toddalin You are spot on on your description of how audio recordings embedded in videos can be used to assess the sound quality of audio systems recorded from the listening position. You get it when most don’t. You understand exactly how to use the audio recordings as a tool.

By the way the $350K is just for the dCS Varese digital playback stack, that guy has sunk well over a million $USD into his room and stereo equipment.