How good is good enough?

Last year, I audited a dude’s 600k-ish priced rig. He was playing some of the typical, "safe" crappy audiophile tracks to show off his rig, as one might expect. The minute my playlist intervened, his rig started to sink and reveal that it was lierally another lousy rig filled with audio jewelry fluff (looks good, of course). I have a few different rigs at different price tags but, even one of my rigs that cost 20 times less beats it sonically.

So, if you audit different cost no object or very competently setup rigs and realize that a) your rig can keep up or b) give other rigs the beatdown, you know it is "good enough". On the same note....only knowledge (and some cash, of course) can save you from being robbed constantly, set you free.

If you don’t have a endless wallet, only buy gear made by very very smart dudes. Never buy gear made by dumb dudes. Only smart dude can give you things even at affordable prices that a dumb dude can never achieve at endless cost.

@mahgister , You do know that Choueiri himself has been a big spatial/object based audio/multichannel music connesieur in real life, right? as are many other known names in industry (A Jones, J Stoddard, Levinson, etc). The truth is...he can’t get anywhere near it because of all the patents held by Sony, Yamaha, Dolby, Auro, etc.

He has to make a living as well and so he’s tailoring/marketing something to the 2 channel orthodoxy. You are getting stuck with his marketing lingo, as if it is a miracle like none other. It is fine for what it is (and that’s about it).

@mahgister , it is a gross misunderstanding if you think object based audio degrades timbre?! The only requirement they impose is that the drivers, crossovers, etc are identical (identical speakers are required, same as it is for stereo!) and the same ethos for stereo gets extended w.r.t setup.

A true stereo purist may go for something like the Polk L800 speaker if he were to remain true to his purist orthodoxy, which does cross talk cancellation really well, when set up right...Pretty sure, Polk has a patent there and hence one would be stuck with the quality of drivers, etc Polk can produce (which ain’t all that great). Creative tinkered with it starting in the 90s for PC Audio. This is not some revelation.

Never said Choueiri is a dummy or "downgraded" him... I am from the same engineering discipline as he is, or at least prior to his audio ventures. I have met him in conferences (long before Bacch, before anyone knew who he was). I have read some of his publications, am sure he has read some of mine. He has successfully navigated the patent boobytraps all over the place and brought something to market (commendable). I am not all that a fan of vulture grade MSB he has decided to partner with, however. If you fly down south to the USA, I can give all kinds comparisons to Bacch and whatever else. Theorycrafting (like you’ve done) can often be quite different from observation of its real life execution.

He makes an excellent living as the head of the advanced propulsion department of Princeton University. BACCH is home s passion project. Your mischaracterization of him, his motives and his beliefs are pretty disgusting.

- I was having a conversation with another decent guy on this thread, not you (because i think this whole forum understands by now... what kind of vile/disgusting most of your comments are)

- But, keeping it real, we all know what measly sum a university professor with his PhD and the Ackers distinguished or whatever makes in this country. We would also know how much his PhD students got paid for all the hard work. You wouldn’t know, would you now, DeVry? You could paint houses 3 days a week and beat that paygrade real easy (keepin it real, livin the American dream, Merica!)

- But, if it is a passion charity project and Chouieri’s doing charity, that would be a tad false, lol. Bacch’s pricing structure is pretty obvious. He wouldn’t have partnered with MSB (vultures) as a charity event now, would he? I am happy for the good professor and his PhD students making some cash because its always the dumass (keepin it real) making money in this country. It’s a good change that the good professor is making some money instead..

Go get yourself a MSB reference now Scotty, keep it real.