Can you buy it?

[Phelonious Ponk]

Lol, Frank ain't sedated...the guy's well alive North of the frontier.

My own vote is quite simple; you can put a system together for almost free if you really want to and it will sound superlative with some tweaks and ingenuity.

I think that's Frank's answer.

Tim

 

[FrantzM]

Back to the question..
NO
I believe the technology is there to be able to reproduce music with good Fidelity , low distortion, Wide FR. Linear dynamic reproduction. We know now more about the interaction of room and speakers than we did 20 years ago and we now have enough computing power to do some decent Room Correction without necessitating a multi-thousands dollars processor. Acourate at <$500 or Dirac will see to that. So we can. We have the tools.

Availability of tools do not imply knowledge though. Good results requires knowledge. Whether empirical or scientific + empirical. I would think it would be rather difficult to just take a catalog and order something that will sound good automatically. There are perhaps exceptions : Beolabs, Kii, etc even those require you to know how to set up and what settings will provide good/adequate/desired/preferred results. A dealer can help. His/Her ethics can help. I am not advocating a saint, just a person who is willing to provide good services at a price that the customer agrees to. There are some.

Purchasing the greatest tech or gears or the most expensive gears is no guarantee of success. Set-up plays a large role in the final results at this point in time. Set up is not an accident it is the execution of a plan. Planning is based on knowledge.

So NO you can't

 

[Purité Audio]

Most 'traditional ' loudspeakers designs give scant regard to the question of how the speakers will react with the room, AJ ( sadly departed ) and Gradient designs allow you to adjust the amount of bass emanating from the loudspeaker, really quite rare.
Most designs even the most expensive are plonk down and hope the owner won't notice or has already become accustomed to standing waves and bass boom.
If you want a good simple system buy a contemporary pair of active loudspeakers , a measuring microphone and be prepared to work a little at getting the room and speaker to work together.
Keith.

 

[FrantzM]

Actively integrating speakers and/or room is likely the next step in high quality reproduction. It seems however that in the Here and NOw, one must know a dew things to assemble a high quality speaker system.

 

[Purité Audio]

The room any room changes the Fr of the loudspeakers, that's why you need to acoustically measure your room, consider the issues and how you might tackle them.
In most rooms if you have full range loudspeakers it is going to be the bass region which causes the majority of problems.
But everything can be improved using either passive or active room treatment.
Keith.

 

[NorthSky]

"My own vote is quite simple; you can put a system together for almost free if you really want to and it will sound superlative with some tweaks and ingenuity."

I think that's Frank's answer.
Tim

Not exactly.

• http://lifehacker.com/5883665/how-to-be-an-audiophile-on-the-cheap
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• http://dangerousminds.net/comments/...le_audio_system_for_the_least_amount_of_money
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Bonus:

 

[NorthSky]

And remember: Knowledge comes with time and experience. So it works @ both extreme of the audio ladder.

 

[Sal1950]

In the end all it take is cash, and a bit of homework for a reputable dealer/installer.