Combos you'd love to audition

[Ajani]

Ajani

While I agree you want to compare things of a certain price range - the car analogy is less useful here because a Ferrari as a sports car has few peers in the $25,000 price range (or no peers more likely). And with cars there is more relevant objective evidence of the superiority of a Ferrari versus a Prelude.

With audio it's not necessarily the case that an affordable $5k speaker is bested by a different maker's $50,000 speaker. I prefer the sound of the Gallo 3.5 for example to a lot of $20,000 speakers that I have heard over the years. So I do agree with you on the "affordable" front in the case of ZU for example which is something you would have to seek out to audition - Gallo and King Sound are arguably also speakers that most would have to seek out as opposed to B&W and Paradigm.

And I don't consider it being a clown to hear a $5k speaker beat a $20k speaker. It is about design not prices in many instances and the design that is tailored to the strengths that you may wish for versus those of another design that may perform admirably with aspects you don't regard as important.

Still in general I want to hear what is possible not necessarily just what I can afford since if I hear a true stunner I have a new frame of reference of what I really love and then try to figure out how close I can get with the budget I have. Without hearing that frame of reference I may not be heading in any real credible direction just bouncing around in upgrade land with every new product that gets a rave by someone.

Saying that a $5K speaker sounds better than a $20K speaker is still clownish, as it's just my opinion and tastes... Someone else would hear than combo and think I need to get my hearing checked... So there really is nothing to brag about... It's just stroking my ego to say that my setup beats ones costing 4X as much...

Suppose I audition this setup:

Analog Source: Audio Note TT2 turntable with AN/Vx phono cable, Arm 3 tonearm and IQ cartridge. Custom Skylan 3-layer turntable base.

Amplification: Audio Note OTO Phono SE integrated amplifier

Speakers: Audio Note J/Spe stand-mount

Cables and Interconnects: Ultra-Link speaker cables and Tara Labs Prism 11s interconnects.

And honestly find that my all Emotiva rig sounds better to me... Would it really make sense for me to claim that my system beats the Audio Note rig and that the persons and reviewers who own such a rig are fools for wasting their money. Especially when they could have got my all Emotiva rig for so much less?

Also, you don't need to upgrade with no direction... You upgrade based on whether something sounds good to you...