How good is good enough?

For sure in a general way of speaking you are right ...

The problem with this analogy though is that an audio system is not a car or a watch ...It is not ready to go working  right out of the box...

The audio system exist  and work optimally or not at all in an acoustic environment , nevermind the high quality of his design and very high price ...

If you control the acoustic relation of the system and the room you will reach a very interesting level of acoustic experience and satisfaction ... if not it will be mediocre compared to the real potential of the gear you just bought ...

Suppose the system is a car F1, without a specialized road( room acoustics) you will never be able to drive the F1 to his real potential in a non paved road or even on an usually bumping ordinary road...

Acoustic matter at least as much as the gear design ,and because we are not billionnaire, acoustic knowledge matter more than the gear especially for low cost gear, because it is preposterous to buy a 100,000 bucks speakers for a living room , a non dedicated room ... ...

But no designer of dac , or amplifier or speakers will dare to spoke this truth because they want to sell at all cost ...

Suppose you just bought 20,000 bucks for speakers or dac or amplifier and ask the seller if these piece of gear will work optimally in your living room right out of the box , guess what the sellers will tell you ? Yes for sure ...😊

Do you think he will said to you the truth about dedicated acoustic room andmechanical vibrations control and resonance and the necessary control of the noise floor level of the electrical grid of the house/room/gear ?

Any dude who need to sell a F1 will conveniently forget to say to a teen with money that no normal road are adapted to this car and it will be unpractical to use it on average road ...

It is the same with any very costly piece of gear ...We must learn basic acoustics...

«You are an idiot but it is not my business»-- Groucho Marx seller 🤓

Same can be said about audio. You can buy a cheap system and think it’s the best thing out there. But we all know that spending more money (it can be a few thousand to tens of thousands) on the finer things in life will get you something better than going cheap.

p05129,

You have a point.  It is a function of personality.

@jrwaudio Lol 😝 

Last year, I audited a dude’s 600k-ish priced rig. He was playing some of the typical, "safe" crappy audiophile tracks to show off his rig, as one might expect. The minute my playlist intervened, his rig started to sink and reveal that it was lierally another lousy rig filled with audio jewelry fluff (looks good, of course). I have a few different rigs at different price tags but, even one of my rigs that cost 20 times less beats it sonically.

So, if you audit different cost no object or very competently setup rigs and realize that a) your rig can keep up or b) give other rigs the beatdown, you know it is "good enough". On the same note....only knowledge (and some cash, of course) can save you from being robbed constantly, set you free.

If you don’t have a endless wallet, only buy gear made by very very smart dudes. Never buy gear made by dumb dudes. Only smart dude can give you things even at affordable prices that a dumb dude can never achieve at endless cost.

Your post is so true... I concur totally...😁😊

Dumb people value price tags over knowledge ... Well said...

I did not distinguish now between system on the basis of price tags because i experimented heavily with acoustics for one year full time ...( i am retired for sure) ...

I distinguish for very lost cost well embedded system ( optimal balance between all acoustic perceived factors at play) minimal acoustical balance and satisfaction threshold, and for very high cost system the maximal acoustical balance and satisfaction threshold... But minimal as maximal threshold are, the two of them, so different they can be, they are  satisfying in their own way ...

Nevermind the price , acoustic , electrical and mechanical working controls and synergy between pieces matter the most ...

My own 1000 bucks well embedded system made me smile at " better one" certainly at astronomical higher price but at the condition that they are well embedded to begin with ...

Acoustics principles rules the gear not the reverse...

I wish you a merry christmas for you and your familiy ...🎄

Last year, I audited a dude’s 600k-ish priced rig. He was playing some of the typical, "safe" crappy audiophile tracks to show off his rig, as one might expect. The minute my playlist intervened, his rig started to sink and reveal that it was lierally another lousy rig filled with audio jewelry fluff (looks good, of course). I have a few different rigs at different price tags but, even one of my rigs that cost 20 times less beats it sonically.

So, if you audit different cost no object or very competently setup rigs and realize that a) your rig can keep up or b) give other rigs the beatdown, you know it is "good enough". On the same note....only knowledge (and some cash, of course) can save you from being robbed constantly, set you free.

If you don’t have a endless wallet, only buy gear made by very very smart dudes. Never buy gear from dumb dudes. Only smart dude can give you things even at affordable prices that a dumb dude can never achieve at endless cost.