Stereophile Recommended Components Fall 2020 is out

[richard12511]

I'm willing to pay extra for higher quality parts & construction. I want equipment to last, saving me the hassle of returning or repairing it. And the pleasure of using high quality switches & knobs. By high quality I don't mean gold blingy, but professional quality parts. For me, "extra" doesn't mean 100:1, maybe 5:1 or 10:1 at most.

That's good if you actually stick to that , but it often seems that people who purchase these $15,000 DACs end up upgrading to an "even more transparent" $20,000 DAC 3 years later, so "built to last" doesn't hold much value. Upgradeitis!

 

[richard12511]

I would imagine most millionaires(being good with money) are smart enough to see the incredibly poor value of these items.

 

[mafelba]

I would imagine most millionaires(being good with money) are smart enough to see the incredibly poor value of these items.

I don't know any wealthy people who would buy things like this. They all have Marantz AVR's and get the standard installation. It takes wealthy AND a deep audiophile bug together to make purchases like these happen. That is why I said earlier that I think very few units of this level product actually get sold. I'm thinking literally handfuls and not much more than that.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

How many Fono Acustica Virtuoso @ $20,384/1.5m pair do you think were sold worldwide in a year. 20?

I have no idea and less interest.

 

[mafelba]

I have no idea and less interest.

Good to know.

 

[Bigpond]

It almost seems like Stereophile has a vested interest in ranking gear in accordance to msrp. Could it be?? Nahhh

Love this piece
https://www.stereophile.com/content...um-turntable-graham-engineering-elite-tonearm

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

That's good if you actually stick to that , but it often seems that people who purchase these $15,000 DACs end up upgrading to an "even more transparent" $20,000 DAC 3 years later, so "built to last" doesn't hold much value. Upgradeitis!

Exactly. As if any of these people are dropping thousands of dollars on a piece of equipment like a dac and then settling on that item for a decade. lol. I know in a couple years at most there's going to be some new thing tempting me, so if I can get a Topping E30 now for $100 that gives me essentially perfect sound and it craps out in a couple years, who cares? I'd much prefer to spend $100 every couple years rather than a thousand or 3 or 5.

I'd just like to see guys like Fremer and Guttenburg put their golden ears to the test and try and prove they can actually hear any of the things they claim to hear because they don't just review $150,000 turntables. They also review more "realistically priced" components too, and they don't ever seem to say anything like "this cheaper piece of gear actually sounds every bit as good as this much more expensive one so unless you're looking to bling up your system's visual appearance you probably don't need to bother with the upgrade." Oh sure, they'll occasionally pay lip service to less expensive/budget stuff, but it's always with the caveat that it sounds "surprisingly good for the money." There's always the implied "but of course if you have more money you'll want to buy something better because it will definitely sound better."

 

[JW001]

... People with money smartly spend their money to save time.

Explain to me again. How do people save time by spending outrageous amounts of money on electronic devices?

 

[paddycrow]

I'm going to steal a Richard Pryor punchline- High end audio is God's way of saying you have too much money.

 

[Newman]

Any products on the list that we, in the spirit of ASR, would support?

 

[asruser2020]

Explain to me again. How do people save time by spending outrageous amounts of money on electronic devices?

This is something that's only learned from experience. They don't teach it in school.

 

[scott wurcer]

There are millions of millionaires who want high-quality gear.

No there aren't. I know many that want Bose and think it's the best.

 

[ahofer]

Explain to me again. How do people save time by spending outrageous amounts of money on electronic devices?

I guess by not doing any research and assuming more expensive is better.

 

[Angsty]

I don’t understand why people get all worked up about the high-priced items in Stereophile. These are luxury goods and status items. If you don’t want to spend the money to buy them, then just ignore them. No need for outrage - even the people who buy these ostentatious items admit that great systems can be purchased for much less. They simply have a lot of disposable income and choose to spend it on this type of luxury good versus other types. I personally would not pay $1000 for a watch or a bottle of wine - I’ve spent multiples of that on audio components. To each, his own.

But, like many, I do enjoy gawking at the audio eye candy.

 

[mafelba]

I don’t understand why people get all worked up about the high-priced items in Stereophile. .

The people who get worked up are getting worked up because I suppose they feel that there is a snake oil element at work. I doubt that these same people get worked up over a $300,000 Ferrari (at least not until Tesla came into the picture)

 

[Angsty]

No there aren't. I know many that want Bose and think it's the best.

Globally there are millions of millionaires. There are also millions of people who are in the 1% of audio buyers. What the overlap is, I can’t say.

I’d further suggest that many, if not most, ASR regulars are in the audio 1%. I have relatively few colleagues and zero relatives that have invested as much in audio as I have. And, I know my systems are relatively modest compared to many I have read of here.

 

[krabapple]

the phrase 'wretched excess' springs to mind

 

[krabapple]

Explain to me again. How do people save time by spending outrageous amounts of money on electronic devices?

Asruser2020 is quite right. Plebeian gear is simply *always* breaking down, don't you know? And such a bother to have it fixed right up or replaced. My man Jeeves was forever trotting to and fro from the shops, taking valuable time away from polishing the sterling, until I finally wised up and consulted the Stereophile Recommended Components list. Sheer bliss ensued and now my, or rather his, time is at last my own again.

 

[Thomas savage]

This is a odd thread , believe me the vast majority of you will have done vastly worse things in your life's than over spend on a bit of hi-fi so maybe rain in the moral superiority complex.

Hifi as a status symbol? Not for quite some decades ! Nobody you'd bring into your home would have the first clue about what you have , that level of public recognition for hifi brands died back in the 80s.

Generally what happens is you want a better audio experience, you read mags for reference and follow the path layed out . Reading and absorbing the ' reviews ' and all the while being indoctrinated .

There's plenty of ordinary people out there, nice people, kind people that happen to be successful and happen to have spent some money on audio products that they aspired to own for a multitude of reasons.

I see a financially successful person, I say good on them ! Most of us live in a consumer spending based economy so if they're out there spending money they're helping you. No need to be all bitter about it .

You want to be pissed off aim that at the magazines and media. Do something positive , try and make a difference by being as proactive and friendly as you can be to the folks that turn up here as when your not it just pushes people back to the corrupt media sources like ' what hifi ' and stereophile magazine etc .

 

[krabapple]

Stockholm Syndrome is a terrible thing