there are alot of amplifiers that sound incredible for $5000.
if you take into account the used market, that becomes "a whole lot of amplifiers". as for $20k and above, that usually (okay, they could be hand-built of course) buys you more watts and/or more current into often-times non-existent loads. a pass aleph-3 (30W/ch) will knock most people's socks off for $1000. for $2000 (please correct me if i'm a bit off here), so will a used VTL ST-150. talk about flavor of the month. i've owned some embarrassingly expensive amps, and they made ME (just me) very happy. i've also enjoyed listening to an $1800 Sonus Faber Musica which will more than do justice to SF-Guarneri speakers. i also trust jb8312's ears when he says he loves the sound coming from his present system. i just wish he hadn't used the expression "one of the top 5". stereophile once exclaimed on the COVER that HALCRO-58'S were the best amplifier in the world(?!) yeah, and Motor Trend contends that a model XYZ ferrari goes 5mph faster than a model ZYX porsche... who cares?...
if you take into account the used market, that becomes "a whole lot of amplifiers". as for $20k and above, that usually (okay, they could be hand-built of course) buys you more watts and/or more current into often-times non-existent loads. a pass aleph-3 (30W/ch) will knock most people's socks off for $1000. for $2000 (please correct me if i'm a bit off here), so will a used VTL ST-150. talk about flavor of the month. i've owned some embarrassingly expensive amps, and they made ME (just me) very happy. i've also enjoyed listening to an $1800 Sonus Faber Musica which will more than do justice to SF-Guarneri speakers. i also trust jb8312's ears when he says he loves the sound coming from his present system. i just wish he hadn't used the expression "one of the top 5". stereophile once exclaimed on the COVER that HALCRO-58'S were the best amplifier in the world(?!) yeah, and Motor Trend contends that a model XYZ ferrari goes 5mph faster than a model ZYX porsche... who cares?...