The Law of Accelerating Returns

@mahgister 

Respectfully, you make it abundantly clear in every thread on which you participate that acoustics and getting the room right are important. You get no argument from any seasoned audiogon participant.

May I point out though that you seem to frequently imply that great gear might be a waste of time and money. May I posit that if your room is, in fact, exceptionally tuned that a great system dropped into your room would outperform an average system in the same room? What is the best system that you've heard in your room? In any room?

The $400 dac very likely has a highly compromised output stage. So, a marginal dac with a compromised output stage...there is a chance that it might sound good but a whole lot of fortunate accidents would have to occur for that to be the case. What often occurs among the well heeled is that they pay extra for the dealer and/or manufacturer to remove variables that detract from the sound. If someone's income averages $1,000 per hour, its highly unlikely that person would willingly spend 20 hours to discover the best $400 dac. Multiply that if someone is on a quest to do the same exercise for amps/preamps/cables/speakers. So many scoff at the value a trusted dealer brings to the table...I happen to believe they save many people the frustration and random successes that can sometimes happen. Is it more or less expensive to get it right the first time?