2. misc-audio
  3. 192433-3130

??? What Is The MOST Expensive System You Ever Heard ??? What Was Your Opinion ???

So yesterday I stopped by the dealer who sold me my Harbeth speakers..I was invited into the "BIG System" room where he had finally got everything set up & dialed in on the nearly 1 MILLION $ MBL system(price after tax,delivery & set up)..
Everything,& I mean EVERYTHING,from the thick cables,to the amps & pre to the turntable to the 6’ tall speakers was FREAKING HUGE!
As I settled into the sweet spot he dropped the needle on a freshly wet cleaned & vacuumed heavy pressing of "Kind of Blue" the VERY first sound that greeted me was a horrible THUMP as the needle hit the groove!
I spent the next 10 minutes or so listening intently..Never in my life did I imagine imaging & staging like those big MBL Omni directional speakers threw out!Every single inch of that room where the recording was made was laid out in micro detail,you could hear feet shuffling around & tell as horns were swung up & down or side to side..As far as those aspects of the demo were concerned it was very impressive..However I didn’t hear that anything unique about the natural warmth & "more"organic tone always spewed about vinyl,plus the tics & pops from the record were pretty annoying & thinking about what I heard as I made the nearly 2 hour drive home I didn’t recall ever having that melt into the presentation feeling of relaxation I value when listening to music..On the contrary,I did recall a constant barrage of individual aspects of the performance that were highly noticeable but IMO there was never a unification of what I heard & sometimes the performance came off as a little mechanical & hard...
When I got home & settled in,I qued up the SACD copy of the same album on my Elite multi disc player..The imaging & staging of my meager little system shouldn’t even be called imaging & staging compared to that MBL system..Micro detail was pretty much non existent when compared as well..But the music was relaxing,it didn’t beg to be dissected & analyzed,only enjoyed..Oh & 1 VERY important difference was that while the tape hiss of the original recording was clearly present & evident,there was absolutely no THUMP when the song started & ZERO pops or tics from that needle following roughly cut grooves in vinyl!
All in all,the experience makes me appreciate what I have even more..

freediver
nitrobob
250 posts
 

I stopped over to Legacy to pick up mu last 2 sub. (Foundations). While waiting to be loaded the owner throwed me the keys to his showroom where a pair of Legacy speakers worth 80 grand were set up. My son and I spent 20 minutes alone in there to do whatever we wanted. I can't describe what I heard. Just unbelievable. 

yoyoyaya's avatar
yoyoyaya
764 posts
 

Forget about listening to megabuck system at shows. It's not representative of what those systems can achieve in a more controlled environment.

donavabdear's avatar
donavabdear
506 posts
 

Harmon has a very large room at their headquarters in LA I was doing playback on a music video when we finished the technical guy there said you want to hear something special I said of course. He then showed me there full concert JBL system that wouldn’t be out for years, it was used to shock the potential concert sound companies into thinking how good systems could be. It was a completely different level than home systems are capable of. The other system was the same type of thing it was a full concert system of the newest and best equipment in the industry to be seen as product placement on the TV show Roadies. It was ShowCo, and Meyer speakers all networked, we would take this system to stadiums and it sounded great but when it was on the big film stages Huntington Beach Studios it was every bit as expressive as a living room system only it was like the difference between playing with an earth mover or a Tonka toy there is no faking hugeness. Both were several million dollar systems.

bassbuyer
119 posts
 

My neighbors system when I was just starting out on my own.  I don’t remember the brands used in the components layout but I do remember the Martin Logan towers with the hug top panels and giant bass units.  The cables were thick enough to tow a truck.  Really too big for the little front room he had them in but he had downsized from a big house with a great room and had taken his setup with him.  I don’t know the cost but he drove a Porsche and he said the system cost more than the car!  If I ever win the lottery I know what good looks like now.  

rcm1203's avatar
rcm1203
98 posts
 

I have never been to an audio gear show. I haven't been in an actual audio gear demo salon in many, many years and I don't have any friends who are audiophiles, so my answer would have to be my current system. It's the most I ever spent on gear and I'm very happy with it's performance. Life is a lot less complicated when you are the only one setting the height on the achievement bar!

More to discover