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Help me spend $100,000 on a new system

I’ve recently been considering moving and downsizing my home. While exploring how much I might sell my house and land for, I was shocked that I might have an excess of $100,000 after selling and buying a smaller new home with less acreage. I’m 71 years old and can’t take it with me, so I’m trying to figure out how to spend that potential resource.

One possibility would be to purchase a new stereo system with all that cash. I would like to demo a system costing that much to see what sound quality you could get for a stupendous amount like that. But I don’t have any idea what brand/model components to look at. Perhaps you could suggest components you might consider if you were setting up a system at that price point. Also how would you budget the total amount per component including wiring.

I am not interested in adding streaming or anything else I might not already have to the system. I would be open to buying separates to replace any single component such as the integrated amplifier. Maybe a separate DAC, phono stage, preamp etc. Please tell me what you would do.

Following are the components I already have to upgrade. My system consists of Magico A3 speakers, a Luxman 507uX MK2 integrated amp, a Marantz Ruby KI CD/SACD player, A VPI Classic 2 turntable with a Fatboy tonearm and a Lyra Kleos cartridge. Wiring consists of Audioquest Rocket 88 speaker cables, and VPI house brand wires that connect to the tonearm. I forget the brands of the other wires and cables, but they are of similar quality to the above.

I also have a Shunyata Hydra Denali 4000 power conditioner with a Venom power cord (I think) that I will continue to use without upgrading.

I would welcome any of your suggestions and utilize them next time I go up to Washington DC to visit dealer showrooms for demos. Thank you much.

It does sound weird to consider spending that much on a system costing over three times what I paid for my first home, so I hope I’m not sounding uppity here.

Mike

 

 

skyscraper
maxwave's avatar
maxwave
924 posts
 

Wait until you are in your new house.
Have a dedicated listenig room.
Room’s acoustic is half of the sound . So treat the room.
Offer yourself a trip to Axpona 2024.
Stop at Vinnie Rossi booth ; for amplifiers and preamplifier. Brama line 👍

 

patrickdowns's avatar
patrickdowns
497 posts
 

How can you really do this now, you don’t even have a room and much of what determines what you use will depend on the room and it’s characteristics?

GREAT point. Don't forget the use some (more than a little) of the money on building or treating your new listening room acoustically. Just as important as hardware upgrades.

 

willgolf
933 posts
 

Consider better cable, especially the speaker cables.  Two of the best I have testred Are Hijiri and QSA Lanedri.  Your system is already very nice.

tablejockey
3,793 posts
 

Top gear is priority, but THE ROOM is what's gonna make it sound fabulous. 

Some of those dollars should be allocated toward getting the room 

skyscraper OP
825 posts
 

Thank you for your suggestion immatthewj. Is the Cary brand still available new? I forgot to mention I’m going to purchase new, not used equipment.

grisleybutter, , sorry if the title sounded obnoxious to you. I was thinking it was a fun fantasy to spend that much money on a system, and maybe some of the folks here are familiar with that kind of expensive equipment, so could suggest some specific items to demo. It honestly was not my fault real estate prices have gone up so much over the past thirty years affording me that kind of cash to make this kind of purchase a real possibility. I honestly almost fell over when I was told what I could get for my home.

Patrick, thank you for all your suggestions. I’ll look each of them up. I’ve so many records and CD’s, I really don’t desire to incorporate another medium like streaming into the mix. I will do some more studying on building a listening room as you suggested on your second post.

testpilot, travel is another consideration I’m considering along with getting some oil paintings or some other things like an old Mercedes from the fifties. I thoughtr this would be a good place to explore the audio option.

newbee, as you suggest, I will get a house with a suitable listening room with the bulk of the cash I get for selling my current home. At this point I’d just like to find out how much better a $100.000 system might sound than my current set up to determine if that is worth pursuing.

By the way what upgrades to the current system would you suggest?

maxwave, good suggestions. I built my own home so have the skill to make any size room needed for a listening room. I was thinking about that earlier when starting this thread, but didn’t mention it here to keep this post more focused. Going to Axpona or a similar show is an excellent idea. Hadn’t thought of that. Thanks.

Mike

 

 

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