When I visit HiFi stores in the LA basin, I ask the consultants not to tell me the price of any of their rooms. I sit and listen and then try to figure out what I like and what is unacceptable. To my ears, tube amplifiers still sound the best, especially the Japanese manufactured ones. But I honestly could not distinguish between the $50,000 and $600000+ speakers in most of their systems. The Acora Acoustical didn’t sound any different to my ears than the Stenheim. My kit is Brinkmann Nyquist, VTL 6.5ii pre and Tube Audio Lab amp.
??? 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..
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The most expensive systems I've heard were audio show ballrooms, the small rooms never worked for me. Would have been nice to hear those systems after hours without all the environmental noise, gotta be 60, 70 or more db background noise levels at shows. I did get to listen to some more modest systems after hours at shows, much superior listening experience, we aren't hearing near full potential of these systems during open hours.
The most expensive home systems I've heard were churner audiophiles, equipment far superior to setup. Informative as to why they were churners. |
This one (mid 70’s Des Moines, IA). Not too shabby. https://www.dead.net/sites/g/files/g2000007851/files/dead_site_files/images/19740616_0985.jpg
DeKay |
- 34 posts total