Is there a ceiling limit on what you are willing to pay for an audio component?

Some years back I recall Jewelry Stores pushing the line that you should spend three months salary on a wedding ring for your wife.  Well, I suggest that a stereo system should cost one year’s salary- if you really want to call yourself an audiophile…

(Of course I would never spend that much.  That’s nuts.)

That is certainly not a good idea.  Most of us have to get a mortgage for a home that is 2.5 times our salaries.  And then spend decades paying that.

It is mostly a hobby for well off old men and devoted struggling young men.  Always has been.  Prices for high end gear from the 1950s to now has always been in the unaffordable range for most.

As for me I’m hopeless.  I got the bug in college and found ways to satisfy my lust for audio as best I could.  I lived in Europe for 2.5 years with a Sony receiver and some B&W speakers that I bought in a shop in Stuttgart.  The Hifi was packed away back home.  I was in shear bliss when I got back to the US and got my hifi up and running again.  Absence did make the heart grow fonder.  

You miss my point

First : there exist better audio system than mine...

Second : i know exactly how to upgrade and why ... I know even the cost...

Because i understand my experience listenings experiments what is A SOUNDFIELD :

(a) imaging differentiation

(b) a VARIABLE not a fixed soundstaging dimensions according to each recording

(c) an holographic volume (3-d) associated with each sound source with a balance ration with the factor of listwener envelopment ASW/LV

Observe that in my experience the soundfield had three aspects not two as in ALL audio reviews... Observe that if i could know that, it is because i can MODIFY at will the relation between "sound sources" and the" listener envelopment" ( which are precise acoustic concept )  IN MY DEDICATED ROOM...

Now with headphone i know which  headphone could give me this soundfield and how i will learn  to improve it with the headphone i picked and i did it after 6 months  for my COMPLETE SATISFACTION...Not only a subjective satisfaction but a satisfaction based on acoustic precise factors... : timbre, dynamic, transients, immersiveness, Bass and highs frequencies range  and ESPECIALLY the three soundfield dimensions above...

Three: Then i dont need to upgrade over this ceiling of  15,000 bucks because the two component i picked for the upgrade would be the best dac in the world created by a physicist Dr. Choueri, who revolutionized  "virtual room acoustic"... it is not a dac  who do as most dac do  on the market at all... But i cannot use two pages to explain to you what is the BACCH filters look on the internet to see what i talk about ...

The amplifier i will pick to upgrade my Sansui alpha which was already  top in the wolrd amplifier in 1990  with  a high S. Q. /low price ratio , is also a  NEW design created by a physicist, David Berning, who revolutionize tube amplification TOTALLY... His tube amplifier had nothing to do WITH ANY OTHER tube amplification in any brand ... It is a patented technology : ZOTL tech.  Read about him to understand...

My headphone are already top of the world in 1978 created by a physicist too, Dr, Gorike..­ The only successful hybrid headphone  technology on the market since 45 years... With an acoustic control of the shell with  a passive tuned grid of Helmholtz  resonators ( a unique soundfield )   and now with modifications and optimization , after 6 months of listening experiments with them, i made 6 major modifications, they  are today also top of the world at least in S.Q. /price ratio...Good luck to buy better at any price....

Then with these 3 components i will be in heaven....At 15,000 bucks... I am already in Heaven at 600 bucks and dont even need to upgrade with 15,000 bucks... But if i had the money i will do it because this will not be a marginal upgrade ... Especially because of the Dr. Choueri Dac..

It is always possible to buy an Orpheus Sennheiser system for example  , and who knows ! it may be an  upgrade a bit over my three components at 55,000 of cost...This i dont know but i doubt it a lot... because the Orpheus without Dr. Choueri 10, 000 bucks dac will not compete with my upgraded system...

But i am not a fool, i dont need any upgrade now;  i am already in heaven with a 600 bucks system and i smile because ignorant put speakers of 100,000 bucks in a living room instead of putting 25, 000 bucks one in a dedicated acoustic room... Most people had not the time ( i am retired) to learn basic acoustic for 2 years with listening experiments each day without  rest... I did it...

Sorry but i believe my ears and acoustic experiments... Nothing else...

Price tag are for passive consumers not for acoustician, even nor  for experienced amateur like me... i could be fooled 13 years ago and i was... No more after many years of acoustic experience...

I hope i was clear...

In a word my hobby was acoustic of small room and listening music... My hobby never was collecting gear upgrades... And it will never be even as billionaire..

The best audio system in the world yes is my goal  for the ratio S.Q./low price ratio ( 15,000 bucks is enough with my knowledge)

Fools, look for the best in the world at any price without even knowing what is a soundfield and how to create or modify it... I am no more one... I learned and studied a bit... 😊

 

 

Ok. You are completely calibrated for your income level. You completely understand the sound quality / price levels and understand the optimal point. Now, say, your income level and savings quadruples.

So, do you seriously mean to say you don’t change your buying behavior? No. BS. Absolutely not. You can pontificate as much as you want, give as much to charity as you want… but you are going to realize that the X sounds better and will only cost you .1% more of your income.

Sorry. But your income is one of the two key determinates of the sq/value equation. If you really love sound quality and your income goi]es up, so does your carefully calculated equation of sq/price. This is the way humans work.

I guess we're all fools here....well, all but one of us.

The fact that i learned how to not be a fool  anymore by being an active player and no more a passive consumer dont implicate that i am alone in this state here...

Then saying that my description EXCLUDE all other people and claiming that what i say implicate that all others are fool save me, is an erroneous judgement about my post and character ...

I had been a fool all my life in audio matter ... But i learned that to be more than a passive consumers is the road to freedom and knowledge by acoustic basic  EXPERIMENTS and experimenting with  creative simple devices ( i never bought tweaks) ... This experiments i created for me  dont make me the one and only wise dude here...

😊

Then dont put in my mouth  , what you feel in you and only in you...Dont confuse your feeling with my intention...

 Trying to communicate with others what i know for sure as i did dont implicate that i am the only wise guy here... There is many others more wise than me and with more experience in audio here , do you want name ?  😊

 

I guess we’re all fools here....well, all but one of us.

I have never felt like a fool with audio.
 

I have values… things that I value and things I do not. Until I was 50 I never bought a new car… had cheap used ones, would not pay a lot for tp, I would never buy drinks at a bar, but I had a new PC every two years and would put a very significant amount of my income into high end audio. Because a very small improvement in my audio system would bring me great pleasure. Like the really good bottle of Bordeaux that I would save up for and have once every month or two.

High end audio is not a fools game for people that understand themselves and their values, recognizing the pursuit is extremely complex, but can be amazingly rewarding. I love extremely ambiguous and complex problems…so Audiophilia is perfect.