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Moderately priced audio

So I have been a audiophile for 40 years and in that time I have seen and owned a huge amount of equipment. Lately I have been reading Sterephile magazine and attended the last 2 years of Axpona. My question is what about the people that love the craft and get tremendous joy out of their audio systems that are in the $2-5K price range. Are they to be ignored? I know this hobby holds a lot of enthusiasm by people that have great sounding systems of new and vintage gear that they are proud of and enjoy listening to. While I appreciate the sound and the technology of the systems that cost more than a house I think there is a slice of enthusiast that are silent. Back in the 70s I worked at a stereo store that your average person came in and spent $600-$1000 and got a good sounding system. And we sold a lot of them. Seems a lot less interest today. Could it be the price of what you see in magazines and shows? I am curious to see if you people are out there that love the music and get great joy out of listening to your moderately priced audio equipment. Feel free to share what you have. I know you are out there. 
schmitty1

Showing 2 responses by melvinjames

melvinjames
416 posts
 
The internet has given visibility to what was an obscure market.

Couldn't agree more. The vast majority of my system consists of products by small manufacturers with an internet-only presence. In fact, only my server and router are from large manufacturers. There's such tremendous value to be had with a bit of careful research. Thanks to community's such as this one it's pretty easy to find some gems. BTW, my system is in the $6000 - $7000 range all tolled. The sound quality is sublime.

melvinjames
416 posts
 
I put this together for my work space for under $400:

$100 - Dayton Audio DTA-120
$120 - Pioneer SP-BS22-LR
$100 - Apple TV2
$  50 - Monoprice cables

The old Apple TV2 has since been replaced with a Bluesound Node 2 ($500) bringing the price up to just below $800. This simple system sounds far better than expected and I can't tell you how many nice comments/compliments I've gotten on the sound over the past few years. 

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