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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
immatthewj
1,187 posts
 

One has to be careful with absorption. If used it needs to be broad band otherwise it can become a passive equalizer with dull high frequencies 

@scottwheel  , can you expound upon that?

scottwheel
184 posts
 

Sure. Absorption is not uniform across the frequency spectrum. It depends on the absorptive material, how thick it is and how much space if any there is between it and the reflective surface behind it. If one haphazardly puts 1”-2” “acoustic foam” on the walls the result will certainly be duller highs and no improvement in the mid range 

skyscraper OP
825 posts
 

hsounds, Trouble with the room decor is that I have mostly Federal style furnishings (mostly repros of an early American, roughly 1790-1820 style, for anyone not familiar) that doesn’t lend itself to what you are describing.

How would you tell if you had either Series 1 or 2 tweeters?. I will listen to the Magico S3’s.

niodari, If I can use rugs, furniture, plus lots bookshelves and some paintings to achieve the same ends that would be great.

mdalton, I will look at Ember Audio and Design, see what they carry. on their website and hopefully pay them a visit. Thanks for mentioning them. They’re about two and a half hours away, maybe an hour closer than DC.

Mike

 

 

tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,831 posts
 

Some of the best mastering rooms - think Blue Note Tone Poet are not the over treated dedicated audiophile rooms…..in fact they resemble living rooms … You can ( i’ve done it many times ) get control room RT-60 targets using natural absorbers and more diffusion….. 

You got lots of advice on gear… some spotty advice on acoustics… you might want to start a separate thread on what to look for and avoid in the new  space… including electrical….

Finally, speaking from some direct experience…tubes might be more reliable than certain old Mercedes…. ha….

deep_333
841 posts
 

Some of the best mastering rooms - think Blue Note Tone Poet are not the over treated dedicated audiophile rooms…..in fact they resemble living rooms … You can ( i’ve done it many times ) get control room RT-60 targets using natural absorbers and more diffusion…..

Some of the "best mastering rooms" use tuned resonators to address all the strong room modes (It may have been quite discreet, i.e. you may have thought there wasn’t anything there). 

 

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