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

@jumia 

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.

My safety net for audio room issues is AccurateSound.ca. The guy running that service has a remote DSP creation service that works well (and easy for the client). I used them for a big speaker in a small room and the results were excellent. I no longer use that DSP (Convolution filter) because I have a small speaker in this room, and it is a seamless fit.

It may sound very nice and very good but I wanna see something and I wanna be able to change something.

I have not tried this new software that AccurateSound has created but they have something to allow you to try different Convolution filters quickly to see how it sounds.

If you are a ROON or JRiver user and are mainly focused on digital streaming audio, then AccurateSound is gold. This is a computer software-based approach to room correction so it will work with all gear. The software they use is very expensive audio software and is very complicated.  I also consider this solution miles more powerful than any DSP stuffed into audio gear (no matter the price of the gear).

I am considering a $35K amp for my Livingroom system. The cost of that amp is way higher than I normally spend but I have reasons that made me chose that over a $6750 used amp in the same lineup. I also considered the phenomenal CODA #16 at $13K, but I want more power.

My to the grave amp in my office cost $3K each (monos)

Only your ears will be able answer that question. Stop listening to others and start listening to yourself. Should a 40k amp sound better than a 20k one: it should, but it’s you that must make that determination not the supposedly know it alls that troll these forums daily with their opinions based on their beliefs!

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

@jumia I put some money into interconnects for my Benchmark system. The sources to the preamp use Audience Au24 SE XLR and RCA. The speaker cable is Audience FrontRow. The cable between the Benchmark LA4 preamp and Benchmark AHB2 monos is low cost Benchmark XLR (there is a reason I did not spend more here).

I think the cables are dialed in perfectly on this system. I also have a power management system that I think is very good, a Torus RM15. Essentially what Bryston uses internally in their amps for instantaneous power deliver.

I have tested all of these pieces both with 2-channel and my RAAL SR1a headphones (which are as revealing as it gets). There is nothing I am unhappy with in this system.

On the new system I am building for a much bigger room (volume) I want to get exactly the sound I have before with an amp I sold last week. I just want way more power from the new amp than I had before. There are also some other improvements on the new amp that I have not heard yet that I think will make me buy the amp. I am buying a $2K or $3K preamp instead of the $16K preamp my dealer is suggesting. I rather put more money into the amp.

I had a really nice car for 20 years. A stick shift BMW M3 E46 that I put 200K miles on. I sold that recently and now have a RAD Wagon cargo bicycle which I did 4K miles locally over the past 13 months. A car no longer has any attraction for me. Now the audio system I am building is much more interesting.