"Dealers don’t want to say it’s the best $5,000 system with a fat profit margin but that’s obviously a factor. I can’t personally imagine spending as much on cables and vibration control as I do on the integrated. Not to mention another $200 for a rack and power conditioner. I don’t blame dealers for not recommending better performing systems that would put them out of business. It’d be better if components had higher margins so dealers wouldn’t have to pretend $500 for speaker wires in that system makes sense but that’s probably an unsolvable problem. "
You are absolutely correct. In fact, you could forgo the last 6 items on that list, spend about $50 on interconnects and speaker wire, pick up an amp rack at a garage sale, a $200 to $300 dollar DAC online and spend the savings on carefully selected loudspeakers and get a better sounding system. Of course, some very high profit margin companies will be left out of the loop which defeats the purpose of these shows in the first place.
You are absolutely correct. In fact, you could forgo the last 6 items on that list, spend about $50 on interconnects and speaker wire, pick up an amp rack at a garage sale, a $200 to $300 dollar DAC online and spend the savings on carefully selected loudspeakers and get a better sounding system. Of course, some very high profit margin companies will be left out of the loop which defeats the purpose of these shows in the first place.