And yet... Me too. Very much so.
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Who buys $20,000 components?
- Thread starter JohnnyAudio
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MattHooper
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What type of person asks questions like this? 
My speakers if bought are over $20,000 CAD. But I bought them used so I paid much less.
I owne MBL omnis for quite a while that caused around $20,000 new - but again I bought them at a substantial discount.
Pretty much all my gear is bought used.
And it’s obviously fallacious to think that if you spent $20,000 on one component that you are spending that on every component. None of my other components cost as much as my speakers.
And the idea that if somebody spent $20,000 on a component that they are rich or that it’s no skin off their nose is another fallacy. To be an enthusiast in any hobby typically means you’re willing to spend a greater portion of your income on that hobby than the non-enthusiast.
So plenty of audiophiles like myself take money somebody else might have spent buying a car, or a nicer car, and put it into our audio hobby. It took me years to save up for my speakers. And a lot of that was due to having slowly built up other audio gear overtime that I could sell to buy certain expensive items in my system… so in a way my current system represents a slow investment over decades.
My speakers if bought are over $20,000 CAD. But I bought them used so I paid much less.
I owne MBL omnis for quite a while that caused around $20,000 new - but again I bought them at a substantial discount.
Pretty much all my gear is bought used.
And it’s obviously fallacious to think that if you spent $20,000 on one component that you are spending that on every component. None of my other components cost as much as my speakers.
And the idea that if somebody spent $20,000 on a component that they are rich or that it’s no skin off their nose is another fallacy. To be an enthusiast in any hobby typically means you’re willing to spend a greater portion of your income on that hobby than the non-enthusiast.
So plenty of audiophiles like myself take money somebody else might have spent buying a car, or a nicer car, and put it into our audio hobby. It took me years to save up for my speakers. And a lot of that was due to having slowly built up other audio gear overtime that I could sell to buy certain expensive items in my system… so in a way my current system represents a slow investment over decades.
A LOT of people. I'm not one of them but I've met a few that 20K is for the equipment rack alone.
Great to look at, and all that but I'll stick to used (for the most part) and the fact that 20K will pretty much buy everything I need in a system
including treating a room, with newer furnishings, like a good listening chair.
I met a guy who purchased darTZeel amps and then had them changed for another 15 or 20K. He was over 100k.
I paid 39K for a house one time and I enjoy the heck out of my 2003 Toyota Camry. I wouldn't trade that car for anything. It's the perfect fit.
No one wants to steal it and I can still fix it, though its never needed anything but brake pads, oil changes, tires and the occasional battery and bulb
change. Wonderful car. Better than eatin' bugs.
In many cases I think this is the intended business model.
I read an article years ago, I think it was Michael Elliot after the failure of counterpoint giving advice to someone said “sell to the highest price point you can and produce less”. When selling lower priced gear at higher volume, one mistake or bad batch of resistors, etc., in a production run could ruin you. You catch it in post production testing, you still have to send every unit back through again (plus anything that went out the door).
Instead, build “hand crafted” gear at low volumes and high margins.
For what that’s worth. (Keep in mind, this is pre outsourcing everything to China and they had actually made stuff here).
As always. We need DBT to compare eatin' bugs vs car\truck of the turn of the millennium vs hifi stereo system
"Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a treatment for mental health conditions that involve emotional dysregulation. It's often used to treat borderline personality disorder (BPD), but it can also help with other conditions."As always. We need DBT to compare eatin' bugs vs car\truck of the turn of the millennium vs hifi stereo system
Are you implying I'm nuts or borderline nuts because one inference is downright disrespectful? I'll have you know I've never done anything 1/2 way!
Regards
I meant double blind test. Perhaps the mentioned testing can have a dialectical-therapeutic effect. I will write to my psychiatrist.
Here is the thing about double-blind testing, it doesn't work too well on 50-250K power plants. You either know what you're listening for or you hire someone
that does. It's as simple as that. There is no AB or ABX testing. About the first time you say it sounds fine and THEN scatters over a 50-foot radius you won't
be working there anymore to begin with. Just saying.
To thine own ears be true.
Wanting something to be repaired correctly and something being repaired correctly are two different things. ONE doesn't work in the industry I was in.
Either "in the patch" or foundational drilling either one you could wind up on the moon or worse splattered all over it. Oops! is not something you really
want to hear.
The measure for taste testing is pretty simple too. Did the guy throw up or not? LOL
Regards
Not me. If a pair of speakers were a "component" then that'd be the closest consideration. Can't think of a component (to me pretty much anything but a speaker) that I'd want to spend that much money on....
Wish I had the budget for it. I would probably use it for a vacation though and just stick with my sub $1000 components. If you have the budget and want the best sound I can totally understand spending 20K for speakers you will listen to for a lifetime. The other components I doubt I could talk myself into, but speakers are so important why not spend it if they are worth what is being asked.
MarkS
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Punter
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I know a guy who lives in his garage with a set of AU$40,000 speakers. He can't live in the house because it's a hoarders hell that includes two other sets of stupidly expensive speakers. In his case, HiFi isn't a hobby, it's a disease!
MattHooper
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Oh man, I’ve certainly seen some cases of audio disease.
There’s a guy on audiogon who is full on board with the craziest tweaks you’ve ever heard of, quantum this, energy that, magic pebbles on components, some sort of metallic foil Wrapped around chords and other parts of components.
I finally saw his posted system several years ago, I think it was in a basement or it looked like a basement, but it was actually filled with pebbles placed on everything, bits of foil covering components, pasted onto cables, and tons of it to the ceiling and hanging down all over the place. Not to mention the whole basement room had serial killer vibes. It was spooky as hell. (he took the photos down at some point.)
It was definitely transgressing into, or arising from some level of psychological issues.
WillBrink
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Vs $18,000 or $22,000?
How do you wrap aluminum around a chord?
MattHooper
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Aluminum foil. (or something that looked like aluminum foil)
MattHooper
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