Mid-Fi, Hi-Fi or.....?

@jetter …”A person who has invested $150K in his system will have a resale value of about $75K after 5 years. Cost of ownership $15K per year.”

Well, for me, I would do the math a bit different. So, my system is about $150K. Typically I will go for 10 years between major upgrades and I trade old equipment in. The roots stretch back fifty years. My last upgrade would have been $75K, but I traded stuff in… so out of the pocket was only $50K. But most current investment would still have residual value. Say half. So $25K of depreciation.

So, $2.5K / year. I listen three hours a day. That is $2.50 / hour. But there is no need to upgrade… so I could continue to drive the cost down.

One amp I kept for nearly 18 years. It was new and listed for $10k I traded it in and lost only $500.

So, nothing wrong with your calculations, but it really depends on how you invest and length of time.

NAD and Rotel have traditionally been transitional companies… bridging consumer and mid-fi products. They typically have offered low priced components, but designed to sound good for high consumer product prices. Over the last couple decades they have stretched with their upper product lines into through Mid-Fi and into the High-Fi tier.

Typically the division between consumer, mid-fi, hi-fi, and audiophile are based on sound quality (something that has changed over time as the latter three have improved), the number of features and functions (the more the closer to consumer), and construction, with emphasis on the former. Price / features / functions are what are most easily determined by survey of the literature, and therefore are commonly used as proxy for Sound quality. The actual sound quality typically varies within each group.

Classifications like these are often hotly debated because folks that can’t afford upper echelon equipment are prone to deny the categories are valid. They want to think of their purchases as smart, not limited by their financial circumstances. Folks that can afford higher level equipment want to reinforce the classifications as it shows them in a favorable light.

Regardless of the cost of your system, if you love the sound… I have since I bought a Marantz 2040 (?) integrated amp in 1972 for $250.  You should enjoy it. 

The NAD C 375BEE integrated amp Is in the mid-fi range. This is coming from someone who owns mid-tier audiophile equipment, but cannot afford upper tier audiophile equipment.

Yes. Music / Audio is fun at what ever level you are at. I have had a NAD receiver for over 30 years and gave it to a friend that had a contemporary audio video receiver and it sounded much better… the NAD was about 25 pounds the AVR about four. Definitely better sound and build quality.