??? 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

At a certain point, price becomes irrelevant. If it sounds good to your ears that's all that matters, regardless of price. I have heard some amazing $10k systems and some $1M systems that sound like crap. So many variables to take into consideration!

I have a very nice system that works for me (for now).

After all, we are audiophiles! 😉

Listened to a 1M$ system at an audio show. A Nagra system with a 250k$ TT. It was truly amazing. Happy for those who can afford it but it does not take anything away from the fun I have to build my own system to fit my taste and my room at a price point within my budget. That system would not fit my room anyway. Just happy that once in a while I can enjoy different sound and accoustics at audio shows.

I also heard very expensive systems that did not rock my boat. Often too analytic and lifeless. I personally prefer a more organic analog sound, even with its flaws.

Happy listening everyone In this holiday season!

My first was the Mark Levinson HQD  system at a  New Haven  CT dealer around 1980 - it was incredible....then a few years ago a Wilson system at a dealers, also incredible...I've heard some expensive systems I didn't like, but all the super expensive ones were matched and set up great and sounded incredible...

The MBL system I heard was at a show 15 years or so ago and it was probably half million then.  

Estelon speakers (probably their top model at the time) and very large Vitus mono amps - auditioned at an exhibition. Can’t remember the source, other than it was digital. Price: north of $1M. Sound: dreadfully dull/uninvolving, flat and dynamically stifled, and that was before I noticed the price of the system. Something told me it wouldn’t sound much better in a home setting..