What is the current retail cost of your reference system?


It would be interesting to share this as I am not sure some of us understand how decisions are made within the framework of cost and resolution. Please avoid used prices as that muddys the water significantly. Also cabling costs would be revealing as well if willing to share. 

jpwarren58

When people ask I give them the price excluding all the cables, power distribution, tweaks and ancillaries, just so it does not sound so insane.

A better question would be:

How much do you spend on average each year on gear?

 

Regarding my system here is what I will share.

My mentor of the past 3 years came over for a listen and said-"I can't believe you have put together a system that sounds like 3 x what you have actually spent".

That did warm some cockles. 

 

The man I bought my amp from imagined he was boasting, but I was appalled, the list went on and on; he had spent - by my rough estimate - upwards of three hundred thousand dollars over the previous twenty years on dozens of things, and yet he was still groping and didn’t sound satisfied.

I took it as a warning.

I have older equipment that sounds wonderful and is mostly 8+ out of 10 condition.

That means the previous owners exerted a special effort to keep those things fine, day after day for decades never letting the cat jump on it, etc.

I feel a responsibility to them whom I will never know and am thankful to for doing so, and someday God willing, others will enjoy this equipment and feel the same way.

And a system is a kind of musical instrument, deeply personal to the owner-user, an extension of their self, worth more than its price.

Every penny spent is written down, but for me, the total cost reveals mistakes vs successes, the total cost of the system vs the total cost of learning to build a system, as evidence of the effectiveness of my research and the soundness of my reasoning in making choices.

The ratio means a lot to me, and the system is worth far more to me than what I spent on it.

I'm always up go for highest value/deal/performance ratio. So to replace my 22yr old CJ preamp - $13500, amp - $1200, streamer - $600, CD Player - $400, speakers $2600. So: $18300

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