HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH TO SPEND ON A SYSTEM? IF YOU GET THE SOUND DOES IT MATTER?

@jayctoy @ckr1969 i will update you on that soon. Would love  to meet each of you. @ps  to you as well.  I don’t wanna argue over the internet.  That’s not my style. Audio is a happy thing for me. Not a job.  A happy hobby.  Take care. 

SOME MIGHT SAY THAT TOO MUCH IS NEVER ENOUGH WHILE SOME MIGHT SAY TOO MUCH IS SIMPLY TOO MUCH.

Clearly this is a serious conundrum for many.  And  sadly, the audiophile landscape is littered with all too many failed marriages due to unresolved WAF's.  

My question to the husbands, IS IT REALLY WORTH IT?

My main system is now a mono system with a CD and a streamer and a few spare tubes (a banker box full, LOL). I can't seen to put a system together for less than $6000 lately. In stereo, closer to $13,000. That is with a lot of experience and careful shopping. That's close to my rock bottom, Could easily spend double that but would be pretty far up the point of diminishing returns. One caveat, I don't play loud so that makes it cheaper.  

@calvinj cool, will do.  we have 2 rooms there this year as well

Calvinj let me know what room .

@ckr1969 
I’m with Infigo Audio.  We will be showing with Final speakers. Come see us. We also sell cables and I allow free no cost demos for people to try. Come check us out. We will have our Class A Method 3  mono blocks with our World Class Method 4 dac and our new Streamer. 

@calvinj what are you showing at axpona, what company/manufacturer are you with?

@jayctoy yes. We will be showing with final speakers this year. Come see me. Would love to meet. 

Calvinj are you attending axpona this year I hope we can meet. 

Odd premise for a post. Get what sounds good to you. But at a certain point price has absolutely to do with it. 

@jayctoy great answer .  Exactly. Putting a system together is a journey. With so many ways to put good ones together. Yes you gotta spend a little bit sometimes but you can het great performance when you have synergy and know how.  Great answer! 

It proves to me Calvinj not because your system  expensive it does mean it’s automatically good , or even live sounding. You can put a modest price system that will go head to head to expensive system? If you know how to put up a good system.And if you have a good listening skills.At axpona so many expensive set up that are not good sounding.

If you have to ask, you’ve probably spent way too much. 

The most excited and satisfied I have been with a stereo system was my first one: in 1971, 11 years old, a Panasonic receiver with two speakers and a turntable.  Since then, it is has been a challenging journey to get back to that state of mind  when all you care about is the music.

Spend what you can afford and makes you happy. It’s nobody’s business what you do. 

Name a 3 driver speaker that costs $1 million dollars.

Why would anyone suggest how I should spend my money?

@limomangus great answer 

When your wife hands you divorce papers...

Asking a bunch of audiophiles what's too much is akin to asking any addict what's too much. Right question, wrong focus group. 

All the best,
Nonoise

Hopefully Ron, you will outlive your current system...I'm 75 and figure my kids will inherit a different system than I have now, and maybe even learn to love tubes and LP's...

I'm 73 and I am conscious  that my son will inherit my system.  I know he isn't gonna bother with replacing tubes so everything needs to be solid state.  He isn't going to bother with records so music needs to be on CDs.  I do a lot of streaming and stream elevator music while asleep.  My hifi gives me a peace, and I want to leave that peace to him.  My system needs to have a small foot print so my son can take it with him wherever he moves.   My interest in hifi greatly increased when I retired.  

Ron

As long as YOU like the system YOU CAN AFFORD, nothing else matters.

Sky should be the limit for a toilet paper roll too.

For a long time now, some charlatans have been trying to claim that the price of 3 dumb drivers in a box can be a million dollars somehow...he’ll do "r&d" apparently to make the soundstage stretch to the sky. A piece of wire costs 100k somehow with these charlatans.

If it works for 3 dumb drivers in a box and some wire, a toilet paper roll (fancy one) should cost a million too, why not?

"IF YOU ARE RICH, WHY NOT?", said the charlatan. He must think rich people are stupid as doorknob stoopid. Some of the rich ones got rich because they were way smarter than you charly/charlito... try harder.

Sky is the limit

As I have aged (turning 64 soon), my adio hobby/passion has taken on a greater importance to me. Due to three knee surgeries, two joint replacements and a fusion in one foot, a rebuilt shoulder, and arthritis throughout, I no longer run, or play tennis. I'm extremely fortunate to be able to play golf at the level I do and we are club members, and our home backs up to a course in coastal SC. So, on most nice days I am playing golf or going to the beach. When its too hot, too cold, or too wet, I am in my "music room" spinning LP's or streaming. I'm very fortunate that my lovely wife shares these passions with me and has never batted an eyelash at what I have spent, or am spending on audio gear or golf related items. 

Of course, the question is relative to one's finances.  However,  I've always found it ironic that as we get older and have more disposable income, we can afford to purchase more expensive audio gear, while our hearing is no longer as good as it was when we were younger; back when we could have  more easily heard the improvements that a better system offers. 

Why would anyone care what someone, who you don’t know, spends on a Hifi system and why would someone feel compelled to criticize them for making a personal decision to spend a little or a lot? 
Doesn’t seem healthy 

if I were a Lotto winner, I'd be much more willing and able to  spend crazy money to get a system that, in my listening room, would reliably transport my hearing mechanism to the venue in which the recording took place, meaning that there would be no "sweet spot" because the imaging would be actual and not a grand [but conditional] illusion, where the sound would sweetly and totally be free of any artifice, lacking any electronic noise/distortion, with the exact same frequency balance as the original performance and venue. as it is, I am a stickler for stereophonic imaging AND decently accurate frequency balance. the only speaker systems I'd ever heard that had a room-sized sweet spot and reasonably accurate frequency balance, were the Maggie tympani III and the Bose Cinemate SR-1, the former very VERY expensive [including the premium ancillary electronics and acoustic room treatment it required] and the latter somewhat more affordable. the Maggie sound system did its magic via brute force engineering, the Bose system did its magic via the magic of DSP. to my ears, the Maggie system sounded "sweeter" and purer, with much visceral impact, as befits its king's ransom price. that would be the system I'd get if I was rich.

@hilde45 how many caps is too much CAPS! Lol 😂 To each his own! Lol 😝 

If you buy high-end used components, you can end up with a good system for $10 to $20k.  There are various formulas as to how to apportion the money spent to various components - 60% to speakers, 30% to amp and pre-amp, 10% to turntable is one formula.  My experience has been that you will get much better value buying used components from reputable manufacturers.  And Audiogon is the best place to find them.  

I’ve actually reduced the retail cost of my amplifier 75% in the last few years and it sounds the best ever.  True story. 

Some may judge others guilty of this, doubt any audiophile ever admitted to this in regard to their own spending unless they're in debtor prison or lost family and friends over their expenditures.

You should have bought 2. Note I needed some slightly longer cables which led me to the Kimbers, and a 3.5 meter pair was around 500 bucks. A steal.

well, in that case @wolf_garcia I just bought an $80 speaker cable!

If you are well off, you would set up a few different rigs for different flavors.

But, spending more than 50k, 100k on a single modern 2025 rig is quite meaningless, if you are looking at the sonics and diminishing returns aspects of things. You never went up the sonic ladder as spent your way into a million or whatever.

Very recently, i saw a couple of dudes pick a 27 dollar cable for sonics over a 100k cable on a blind test, go figure....

People spend $50k on vehicles every day. No big deal. Why is buying a nice audio system viewed differently? You could buy a used vehicle for cheap and it would get you where need to go.

I disagree...you should spend as much as possible, or when in this forum you should at least exaggerate the cost so people respect you. I'm currently hiring groups of musicians to come over and play for me at least 8 hour a day, or using  my 600 lb horn speakers with a $350k turntable and a 2 watt amp. And mapman is right...nobody cares.

Nobody cares about what other people think they should spend or not. 

"People spend $50k on vehicles every day. No big deal."

yes, exactly, that makes no sense either. But the price of eggs....?

People spend a lot of money on booze, vacations, etc and don't think twice about it. 

I bought my first pair of Von Schweikert speakers in 1997 from money I saved by giving up alcohol for 10 years (it was necessary). 

People spend $50k on vehicles every day.  No big deal.  Why is buying a nice audio system viewed differently? You could buy a used vehicle for cheap and it would get you where need to go. 

For networths indicated below, it is good to not exceed indicated rig costs in 2025 (to mitigate maximal diminished returns).

Networth: Rig cost

10k to 50k: Walmart boombox (just kidding, get Hifiman headphones)

100k: 1k

500k: 3k

1 mill: 10k

10 mill: 50k

100 mill: 100k

500 mill: 100k

1 bill: 100k

100 bill: 100k

500 billion (Vladimirovich, Elon, etc): 100k

@carlsbad2: Isn't having a lifetime subscription more like having a library card than one's own library?

I think it depends on your budget.  What can you afford without impacting what else you need money for.  The story of the guy that built a million $ system and having it go bad is a cautionary tale.  In my experience starting simple and lower budget and then upgrading one piece at a time as you can afford it is the way to go.  Also trusting your ears and buying equipment you can try and return if it doesn’t sound good in your system is important.  I love tweaking my system as part of this hobby so I’ll probably never stop. 

Stop with the all caps. FFS, enough with the all caps.

I think it was Benjamin Franklin who said, “ You do you, boo”.

@larsman 😏....I'll oblige, for a nominal fee....*L*

Used to be in the sign & graphics trades, and got used to telling total strangers where to go, what to do when they got there....

"...you gotta fill out this form first....and go stand in the line..."

(The Afterlife: P. Simon)

I cannot define “How much is too much” because it varies with our different subjective preferences, commitment to this hobby, and very different budgets and spending patterns.

”too much” insinuates dissatisfaction with the spending. Outside our hobby this spending can seem excessive, but those with the hobby I surmise most would say the journey is worth it.  Often we don’t like to spend significant amounts for our components, but it’s a necessary purchase to improve sonic performance.

It’s unrealistic to think one can nail down their subjective ideal Sonic’s within their budget in the first try. It often takes a lot of trial, reviews, effort. 

Who is to decide what is 'too much' for somebody else? 

I left the decision to my ears.

@bdp24 My music library is $499 for a lifetime subscription. seems I need to spend a bit more than that.