You don’t say where you live. In my area (Dayton, OH) there are still audiophile 2 channel brick and mortar dealers where company reps will have shows occasionally and permit critical listening to some fantastic medium expensive and ridiculous, out of reach expensive systems.
But I agree with you that listening to the out of reach systems is instructive. I got to listen to a huge ballroom sized system of the biggest, most expensive Focal Utopia loudspeakers driven by a Boulder solid state amplifier the size of a dishwasher. Very amazing, fun experience for all. I was not an opera fan before, but someday I could be one thanks to demos like that. And just a re-listen of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” album on a great turntable over this system was a real revelation over songs that I thought I was completely familiar with.
I would encourage you you to go to whatever big city is near you and make a visit at some different dealers and familiarize yourself with some different product lines. I know for me, I assembled my audio system backwards from the speakers, which in my case are Thiel CS3.6. Notorious power hunger made spec’ing my Bryston 4Bsst2 amplifier a choice that I felt pretty great about. You might have different priorities for amplification or speaker attributes.
Listening to those uber-expensive demo systems educated me on what compressed dynamics weren’t. It is the definition of what uncompressed dynamics are! I suffered through my favorite music on CD’s played over a Sony D5 Discman through a harsh sounding NAD 2200 amp for 30 years! I knew my system was fatiguing and finally set out on a discovery quest on ways to dig deeper into my favorite well recorded music that I knew damn well had many, many added layers of detail to them that my equipment at the time could not un-ravel.
For my money, I feel like Bryston components are a fantastic old-fashioned value. The current cubed series amps are worthy of an audition. It would be worth your while to search for the nearest dealer near your zip code and make a day trip out of it. I haven’t listened to the Bryston 4Bsst3 amp yet - if I could convince my local dealer to get one in stock and set up a proper demo, I would most likely purchase the amp on the spot if its performance is to the 97th% of perfection that I suspect it is living at.
But I agree with you that listening to the out of reach systems is instructive. I got to listen to a huge ballroom sized system of the biggest, most expensive Focal Utopia loudspeakers driven by a Boulder solid state amplifier the size of a dishwasher. Very amazing, fun experience for all. I was not an opera fan before, but someday I could be one thanks to demos like that. And just a re-listen of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” album on a great turntable over this system was a real revelation over songs that I thought I was completely familiar with.
I would encourage you you to go to whatever big city is near you and make a visit at some different dealers and familiarize yourself with some different product lines. I know for me, I assembled my audio system backwards from the speakers, which in my case are Thiel CS3.6. Notorious power hunger made spec’ing my Bryston 4Bsst2 amplifier a choice that I felt pretty great about. You might have different priorities for amplification or speaker attributes.
Listening to those uber-expensive demo systems educated me on what compressed dynamics weren’t. It is the definition of what uncompressed dynamics are! I suffered through my favorite music on CD’s played over a Sony D5 Discman through a harsh sounding NAD 2200 amp for 30 years! I knew my system was fatiguing and finally set out on a discovery quest on ways to dig deeper into my favorite well recorded music that I knew damn well had many, many added layers of detail to them that my equipment at the time could not un-ravel.
For my money, I feel like Bryston components are a fantastic old-fashioned value. The current cubed series amps are worthy of an audition. It would be worth your while to search for the nearest dealer near your zip code and make a day trip out of it. I haven’t listened to the Bryston 4Bsst3 amp yet - if I could convince my local dealer to get one in stock and set up a proper demo, I would most likely purchase the amp on the spot if its performance is to the 97th% of perfection that I suspect it is living at.