An elitest's viewpoint.

[Feanor]

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Find another hobby...I think he was trying to say, you must accept reality that great audio costs a lot, and generally much more than 5k.
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Ah, come on, Chubbs. He said what he said. He either meant it or he shouldn't have said it. Personally I think he meant it, in which case it shows a contempt for people like most of us here.

[Jack in Wilmington]

I'm one that doesn't think that $4200 is expensive for an amp. Sorry Roy, but in the world were there are $100,000 amps, I'm with JM on this one. I think you're just reading too much into what MF said. I'll bet there are some members on this board that have spent more than $4200 on their amps or would have if they had bought them new. If I had the money, $4200 would not be out of the question for the right amp. $100,000 would.

[Hyfi]

I'm one that doesn't think that $4200 is expensive for an amp. Sorry Roy, but in the world were there are $100,000 amps, I'm with JM on this one. I think you're just reading too much into what MF said. I'll bet there are some members on this board that have spent more than $4200 on their amps or would have if they had bought them new. If I had the money, $4200 would not be out of the question for the right amp. $100,000 would.

I am also with you, Jack. Although my current setup includes components that cost close to $4500 each, pre, amp, speakers, and another $2k in cables, I did not pay that much for them. I can say that the performance is very good compared to most $1k items.

I guess if I chose to use some of my retirement money, I could actually buy higher price gear. I choose not to.

My $1200 Stratos sounds real good and does compete with a lot of higher priced SS amps, but the Counterpoint is way more refined, detailed and more. The CP fell into my hands long after I bought the Stratos.

I did choose to spend $2500 13 years ago for a pair of Dynaudio speakers. That was a lot of money for my budget but I always wanted a pair, knew the performance and sound well, and knew I would get many years of pleasure out of them.

If I had to do it all over again or downsize, I would probably focus in on an integrated in the $5K range for all the same reasons I like the Counterpoint and VAC more than the Stratos and my olde long gone Sound Valves pre.

Like Jack said, in a realm of 100k amps, 180k speakers, 20k DACs or CDPlayers, let alone the cabling suggested for these types of components, $4200 for 20 years of glorious music in ones home is not over the top.

Has everyone saying it is actually sat down and listenedd to some real High End systems for any length of time?

Like I said in my first response, maybe the gear is not 50x better, but if you're a millionaire you would do it just to say you did.

[RoyY51]

Ah, come on, Chubbs. He said what he said. He either meant it or he shouldn't have said it. Personally I think he meant it, in which case it shows a contempt for people like most of us here.

Thank you, Feanor...I was beginning to think that I was the only one on this forum who understood the implications of Fremer's comment.

If I didn't have to "spread the points around" I would be sending a greenie your way!

[Florian]

Hello guys,

4200$ is a lot of money, and therefore a lot for an amplifier. Its a lot of money for almost anything.

One aspect which is very often forgotten are the service costs of hifi gear. Buying a old amplifier which used to cost 50K for lets say 16k seems like a good deal to some. But one day you need to have it restored (caps, some resistors, bias settings, load balancing etc...) which is very expensive. I am a prime example, i had my four Krell KRS200 monos serviced just 5 weeks ago for 6115$

So in my opinion its a relative, if you want to and can afford it then do it. 4500$ is not much for an amp if you really want it.