Law of Diminishing Returns; where does it kick in?



I think that most of us who have been in this hobby for a while have experienced the "law of diminishing returns", the point at which spending a lot more money produces a little bit better sound or just tradeoffs.

I would like your opinions on where you believe this occurs in Speakers, Amps, CD players, and cabling.
ultrakaz

Showing 1 response by pbb

Mr. Bomarc is quite right in pointing out that this is based on a false premise. Mr. Classsicjazz proposes that up to approx. $78,000.00 MSRP, you are still getting value for each additional dollar spent: I don't think that the said law kicks in at that point, I think it has then reached the point were it has been kicked to death and trampled for good measure. I remember years ago going through the October issue of Audio magazine and fantasizing by building the greatest system on earth by adding to my dream list the most expensive component in every category. Harmless fun, I guess, but not the way to building a realistic hi fi system to live with. It seems to me that a good number of participants to this forum appear to think along such lines. Any attempt at drawing lines at which one should simply fold his hand and walk out will be met by the bouncy rhythm of audiophiles jumping up and down claiming that every last microgram of "improvement" justifies any increase in price. The strange thing here is that we are not dealing with percentage increases but with multiplying the price by factors of two, three or four times and yet there are still those who contend that the perceived added benefit is justified. With no objective guidelines on how each component should perform, there is no way to set a dollar amount at which the whole thing becomes abusive. If you do as cable manufacturers do and claim that the whole thing is a question of aesthetics or perception, then the sky is the limit. I have no wish of leaving the bang for the buck brigade, so my priorities and price points are pretty well established in my mind and they are a lot closer to Mr. Bomarc's. Happy holiday season, one and all.