2. misc-audio
  3. 1333818841

Oh, to be a high end dealer for a year.

I love hifi. But high-end mystifies me. I can't help but think it's my lack of deep exposure.

I'd love to know if $100,000 amps matched to $100,000 speakers really sound so much better than the few-thousand dollar systems in my foreseeable future.

Is the worth of a quarter-million dollar system purely a function of sound quality, or some interaction between sound quality + one's idle disposable funds + time on one's hands?

And lordy, assuming they don't become the next Conrad Johnson, how do these companies that only produce a couple of high-road-to-nirvana-reviewed $50k-ish components fair in the short- and long-term, financially? Do they live long and prosper, and how? If not, are they cleaning up in their short stay, or losing their shirts to their dream?

I'll probably never know.
river251

Showing 1 response by mapman

mapman's avatar
mapman
22,686 posts
 
Any system can only sound as good as the listener thinks it does. It's a
subjective thing that cannot be quantified.

My opinion is that a lot of high end audio is all about perception and
everything that goes into that.

But here is the thing. A knowledgable audio buff focuses on making his
system better continuously over many years. At what point do you hit the
ceiling but still try to improve? What then? Sideways or even backwards
progress maybe? We are so in tune with sound so why is the chase an
endless one sometimes? Kind of like chasing that beautiful girl, getting
her, and then still not being satisfied. It seems to me either an illness or
a business, or maybe both a lot of the time.
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