Door #3 .... Full stop ..... AND it did NOT encompass any assertion or aberration of "financial ruin".
I don't usually get fazed by these increasing number of provoking posts where the OP feels somehow compelled to assert his or her anecdotal and heavily biased personal opinions stretched to be alleged facts ....
In this case, that threshold was somehow breached because I'm in strong disagreement with the OP and in strong agreement with Taters last post ... You only get what you pay for in this crazy hobby.
Everything is built to a pricepoint (at a budget strata level, it is invariably to the lowest price-point possible .. Chi-fi anyone?) and there is no substitute or faking quality build gear, with a performance quotient that moves in lock-step.
A $500 kit versus a $10,000 kit face-to-face bake-off.... I'll take that anywhere anytime.
You only need to do the simplest math: at a $500 retail pricepoint, discount that to the wholesale pricepoint and then price-out the major parts -- E.g caps, power supplies etc... Then check out what quality Mundorrfs and quality power supplies actually cost.
Price is NOT any comparstive yardstick in this hobby -- we all started out -- and/or continue -- sometime at the lower end of the price/performance strata in audio gear. This hobby is a journey and not a destination.
I have an A, B, and a C system even now with differing price-points from $1000 to ... Well... Just call it high-end. . BUT I get that immense pleasure and satisfaction out of each them equally.
yes, I also do have a "north of $10K " integrated amp and matched price and build strata DAC in my A system . To somehow suggest that my entry level C strata gear somehow matches it in performance and even boldly suggest that it bests it ... Well as Taters already amply put it .... A pipe dream.
I don't usually get fazed by these increasing number of provoking posts where the OP feels somehow compelled to assert his or her anecdotal and heavily biased personal opinions stretched to be alleged facts ....
In this case, that threshold was somehow breached because I'm in strong disagreement with the OP and in strong agreement with Taters last post ... You only get what you pay for in this crazy hobby.
Everything is built to a pricepoint (at a budget strata level, it is invariably to the lowest price-point possible .. Chi-fi anyone?) and there is no substitute or faking quality build gear, with a performance quotient that moves in lock-step.
A $500 kit versus a $10,000 kit face-to-face bake-off.... I'll take that anywhere anytime.
You only need to do the simplest math: at a $500 retail pricepoint, discount that to the wholesale pricepoint and then price-out the major parts -- E.g caps, power supplies etc... Then check out what quality Mundorrfs and quality power supplies actually cost.
Price is NOT any comparstive yardstick in this hobby -- we all started out -- and/or continue -- sometime at the lower end of the price/performance strata in audio gear. This hobby is a journey and not a destination.
I have an A, B, and a C system even now with differing price-points from $1000 to ... Well... Just call it high-end. . BUT I get that immense pleasure and satisfaction out of each them equally.
yes, I also do have a "north of $10K " integrated amp and matched price and build strata DAC in my A system . To somehow suggest that my entry level C strata gear somehow matches it in performance and even boldly suggest that it bests it ... Well as Taters already amply put it .... A pipe dream.