I'm thinking about dollar ratios. I have an untreated room in a new (to us) home that I intend to make a nest of musical joy. I can get into more specifics on the room but because I'm in the learning and planning phase, I find myself wanting to splurge on certain things to a degree that might not make sense relative to the dollars I spend on other areas. In my case I am looking at spending in the following areas:
1. Room treatments
2. Speakers
3. Amplifier
4. DAC
5. Source components (if not integrated with 4).
6. Cabling
Thinking out loud, I'll probably spend $3,000 to $5,000 and I should probably give myself a budget to spread out on the 6 items above. In the absence of a budget, I suspect that the first thing I buy will be disproportionately expense and that the last thing I buy to complete the set of 6 might get squeezed on dollars because the budget is gone.
Case in point as I began to read about DACs I thought that $500 was more than I'd ever spend but now I find myself tempted by the MiniDSP SHD (though that device does more than DAC'ing). But is $1200 on source/dac/preamp/etc a silly amount to spend if I go with Statement II speakers in the $1500 range? Would I be better off with $500 on DACs and sources, and $2000 on speakers? I'm asking this in a over-simplified way and clearly the answer will vary based on differing needs but I think it's generally an interesting question.
My situation might be a little unique because I am open to putting a lot of time into DIY efforts on (1), (2), and (3).
Ignoring for a moment whether this fits into the $5k I'm tempted to allocate dollars about as follows:
1. Room treatments - $1000
2. Speakers - $1500
3. Amplifier - $1500
4 and 5 combined. - $1200
6. Cabling - $50 to $250
This creates roughly a 1:1:1:1 ratio on 1-5 (again with 4 and 5 combined). Is such a ratio silly? Am I going too far on 3 or 4/5 relative to what I spend on (2)?
I'm sure many would say that dollars don't mean performance and perhaps by extension, my core question might be flawed. Do you apply such ratios when you consider a build? If so, what are your ratios and would you change them if you had a chance to do a new build from scratch?
1. Room treatments
2. Speakers
3. Amplifier
4. DAC
5. Source components (if not integrated with 4).
6. Cabling
Thinking out loud, I'll probably spend $3,000 to $5,000 and I should probably give myself a budget to spread out on the 6 items above. In the absence of a budget, I suspect that the first thing I buy will be disproportionately expense and that the last thing I buy to complete the set of 6 might get squeezed on dollars because the budget is gone.
Case in point as I began to read about DACs I thought that $500 was more than I'd ever spend but now I find myself tempted by the MiniDSP SHD (though that device does more than DAC'ing). But is $1200 on source/dac/preamp/etc a silly amount to spend if I go with Statement II speakers in the $1500 range? Would I be better off with $500 on DACs and sources, and $2000 on speakers? I'm asking this in a over-simplified way and clearly the answer will vary based on differing needs but I think it's generally an interesting question.
My situation might be a little unique because I am open to putting a lot of time into DIY efforts on (1), (2), and (3).
Ignoring for a moment whether this fits into the $5k I'm tempted to allocate dollars about as follows:
1. Room treatments - $1000
2. Speakers - $1500
3. Amplifier - $1500
4 and 5 combined. - $1200
6. Cabling - $50 to $250
This creates roughly a 1:1:1:1 ratio on 1-5 (again with 4 and 5 combined). Is such a ratio silly? Am I going too far on 3 or 4/5 relative to what I spend on (2)?
I'm sure many would say that dollars don't mean performance and perhaps by extension, my core question might be flawed. Do you apply such ratios when you consider a build? If so, what are your ratios and would you change them if you had a chance to do a new build from scratch?
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