What of your gross annual income is your system?


It's the old case of my eyes & ears wanting more than the wallet will permit. . . I realize that to the degree that music is important in your life will influence your spending on system components, tweaks and music. What % of your annual gross income would you say your system is worth? Moreover, how have you allocated your system investment (as a %) to amp, pre-amp, speakers, wires, source etc.? THanks for your input.

Kevinzoe
kevinzoe
To replace everything with new components (most of my system was purchased used), it would be about 40% of my gross yearly. In decending order (most expensive first); Pre-amp, Transport, Speakers, Phono-pre, DAC, Amp, TT plus Cartridge, Cables & Tweaks. There was no "planned" budget, this is just the way it turned out.
About 40% in equipment and 75% in lp's and CD's (not all bought in one year!). You need one anchor in your system which will not change much in the future so your first priority sould be to buy the best preamp you can afford, then the speakers and amp, then CDP's and turntables. Save the tweeks for last and spend your bucks on the best basic equipment you can afford.
About 20%. In decending order (most expensive first( Room construction, Front proj. speakers, amps, video proc. pre-amp, cdp, cables and tweaks
Assuming I had purchased my system at retail it wound have cost about 37%. You must understand this is a work in progress, thus, the manner in which my money is allocated is quite odd. Ibeleive i will elect to list as Constraveler did (in decending order). Pre-amp, cables, speakers, amp, cd player, subwoofer and tuner.
I guess that it's not what you make, but what you do with it. I've been putting things together for about 5 years. The most that any one item cost was around $3200. Speakers around $3200 x 2 (used), tube pre-amp $1500 (used), SS amp $2700 (used), tube amp $800 (used), active tube xover $2200 (new), tuner $2000 (new), dozens of NOS tubes ($?$?$?), power cond/cords $2500 (new/used), speaker cables $1800 (new/used), interconnects $3000 (new/used), trans+dac+jitter $3000 (used), room treatments $200 (used) and misc probably $1000 give or take. Throw in source material and the total is probably around $30,000. All new gear might be twice that amount. Averaged out per week over 5 years that's about $115/week. If I could do it all over, I would do things differently. I'm very happy with what I have. But I now know that I could build an equal system for less, that I would enjoy just as much.