When someone tells you it's a $40,000 amp, does it sound better?

What’s really troubling herein is that there really isn’t any explanation as to any special part or technique that creates a much more expensive amplifier.

Further, electrical equipment which is very sophisticated requires a break in period. It takes months of listening to mellow out all the components. This is especially true with speakers where mechanics of the drivers need to loosen up.

How is anyone supposed to do a comparison within a dealer with such new products that have not been broken in fully.

And then you hear people who are upset with purchases because they don’t have the patience to break things in so they do acoustical treatments and cables and clutter up their system.

Proceed gradually and work with what you’ve got and then take a chance when your inspired to buy something new.

My next move appears to be some interconnects and maybe a better quality server to replace a nucleus. And longer-term maybe I’ll replace my speakers but they look really nice and need more to break in probably. My amplifiers are mcintosh 600 W mono blocks which go really well with my speakers so no interest in changing these out.

you paint a utopia that few seem to be able to find. And older speakers can sound a lot better than newer speakers

No one is explaining why the price of an amp can be escalated so high?

What parts can possibly be inserted into a box to make it so expensive?

Are gullible people led to believe that it gets better than more you spend?

That don't work and it's grossly misleading for anyone to say otherwise.

Goes back to the problem of Breakin, most very expensive amplifiers are not broken in when you buy them. It takes a while. So what your hearing at the dealer if you're lucky enough for him to have a broken in higher-end amplifier that you have an interest in comes nowhere close to what it will sound like at your home. Most purchases are on faith. Gear looks pretty and expensive so I like it and I'll buy it.

Additionally if you have a large net worth spending 40 to $50,000 is all about optics. 
I suspect most of these people buying expensive gear have no idea what it is. They trust dealers and they don't install themselves. It's too damn heavy. And then they turn it on and it sounds nice. And then they go to their other homes and may not even listen to this new system they bought for quite a while. It's just a piece of furniture in the room probably a lot cheaper than the other furniture they have.
 

It's like a trophy wife, you buy the gear because it makes you feel good and you want other people to see it.  And what else are these people gonna spend their money on.  Having a lot of money it's not what it's cracked up to be. 

Deer creek audio and dsp is great for two channel listening.  But they really don't have a workable solution for home theater DSP.  
 

A good DSP arrangement solves a lot of room problems and equipment problems and is underrated and not fully appreciated.  Probably because the interfaces and the product are so difficult to work with. It's a real pain in the ass to deal with DSP the way it's set up and really shouldn't be.  Mcintosh has a room treatment box that provides no graph before after and no way to make changes and requires microphone for sampling just like everybody else. It may sound very nice and very good but I wanna see something and I wanna be able to change something.

Deer creek audio is very convoluted when it comes to home theater listening. They say you can use it for this but it's really not workable.

I hate displaying gear. Whenever someone comes over it's a distraction. I don't mind displaying the speakers but all the other complexity of gear it's just horrifying to deal with when someone starts asking questions.

I'm not going to get into an audio discussion versus just sitting back Play some music in the background that sounds really really nice well doing something other then drooling over how good something soun… having a party with all the gear hanging out is awful.

So I've got a cabinet and while some stuff is exposed most is not directly viewable/camouflaged enough so I don't get confronted with all kinds of questions.

I wish I had a pantry room to put it all in but when it's just me I like to have it out so I don't go nuts every time I want to change a cable or access something. No

Yyzsantabarbara,

Have you considered putting more money toward interconnects and speaker cables and a good power management system versus taking a chance on a $40,000 amp that you will only really be hearing after it's been broken in.

Or maybe split the difference and use the remaining $20,000 toward interconnects on speaker cables and a good power management system.

Or maybe a really nice car that's $40,000 higher then what you were planning to spend assuming you need a new car. I still find it annoying when you spend a lot more money on a car you have to spend a lot more money on freaking insurance because idiots still steal cars

The problem with the high priced audio gear is that the marketing information that accompanies this gear is horrifying.  It's just a lot of crap meant to be read by people who don't know what they're doing.  The dealers don't really understand what they're selling and they don't have any of these higher end products in stock so you're forced to buy it without hearing it.  The dealers are forced to buy the product before they can sell it to you.  And even if you did hear it, it's not gonna be the same at your home.

It's the worst possible selling situation in the world.  

I doubt many $40,000 amplifiers are sold.  Ie. $80,000 for a pair.

I'm wondering what parts or part makes this amplifier really nice.  Yes it has a very expensive parts I hope but are we talking about merely craftsmanship and R&D that makes it what it is? That's very thin.  It's an amplifier.

Preamplifiers at least have volume controls and source selectors and a remote control which makes it a little bit complicated.  

I don’t understand what motivates Jay’s audio lab? Is he trying to make money? Views are not making money even if they were quadruple what he's doing right now. I used to kind of like it but it's always the same thing. It just goes on and on and on and on and every once in a while there's something of value. He's got a great body if you're into that kind of thing

Everything he shows is ultra expensive and very few people buy the stuff. He doesn’t show you other people systems so he seems to never leave that room.

He’s into click bait it’s just kind of weird.

Phusis

I think I have A real interest in what you're trying to say. I believe you're trying to distinguish between efficient and less efficient speakers. Whereas higher power amps are used to drive…… and this is where I run into a problem with what I'm trying to read here.  I guess with the higher powered amps maybe they should be less powerful because if speakers were designed better you won't need all these additional watts which are now being used to push the delicate analog signal through all the filters. And while doing so it may be harmful to the overall outcome of getting Beautiful unimpeded Music signals reproduced.

It can get terribly confusing and I just wish your phraseology could've done a better job communicating what you're probably thinking.

My gosh this has become very scholarly with respect to transients in a class D setting.

Isn't the harsh reality of class D is that it's to clinical and precise, and harsh. With class AB you get distortion and isn't that what harmonics is all about when you listen to music. It's all about the design and the colorations that are done by the amp designer. Most class D stuff is all about fitting lots of power in a small package.

And class D it's kind of cheap stuff so good luck making class d a preferable way to go

Yeah that probably relates to higher cost class D amps.  But mostly d amps are bargain basement variety and sound pretty bad.  Because home theater is the niche market for d stuff in a world where sound Quality don't matter too much.