In 1985,I bought my first hi-fi stereo system at a trustworthy high end local dealer. I was pretty much a novice at the time. I told the dealer my budget was $3000 and he brought me in at $2800 as follows:20% on speakers (Spica TC-50s w/custom stands);7% on Receiver(Rotel 2 x 50wpc);16% on source (Rotel CD player and a used Meridian DAC); 7% on used subwoofer system (10" passive woofer in seperate enclosure and 350w bass amp); 3.5% on speaker cables (a pr. of used MITs)and a whopping 57% on interconnects ($100 on analogs and $1400 on a Goldmund coax digital running between the CD player and the DAC). The dealer did a blind demo for me of the system with and w/o the Goldmund. There was a large improvemnt w/ the Goldmund. I have never again had a cable make such a big improvement.
In 1997 I went back to the same dealer for a new system with a $20,000 budget. This time I spent 50% on speakers (Wilson Audio Cubs w/ custom Sound Anchor stands); 37% on Sonic Frontiers tube preamp and matching 2 x 105wpc tube amp; 7.5% on source (top of the line Sony SACD/CD/DVD player); 10% on Sunfire True Subwoofer; 2% on surge protector/line conditioner and 5% on spkr cables (Audience AU/24), interconnects (Transparent and Wireworld)and XLO balanced cables between the pre and the amp.
In 1997 I went back to the same dealer for a new system with a $20,000 budget. This time I spent 50% on speakers (Wilson Audio Cubs w/ custom Sound Anchor stands); 37% on Sonic Frontiers tube preamp and matching 2 x 105wpc tube amp; 7.5% on source (top of the line Sony SACD/CD/DVD player); 10% on Sunfire True Subwoofer; 2% on surge protector/line conditioner and 5% on spkr cables (Audience AU/24), interconnects (Transparent and Wireworld)and XLO balanced cables between the pre and the amp.