Depends on the music source how much is needed to reproduce the quality. For most digital recordings today mediocre is good enough.

Personally have ventured into surround sound and put together a system that makes my living room a music hall/movie theater. Front surround can stand in front of withough changing where the sound is coming from, rears are direct reflecting so do the same thing. Whole living room is the sweet spot.

I had a Nakamichi 1200 in my 78 930 and a Dragon back home. Was reasonably happy with it.

But that was the 80s.

20 years later, my home system finally lost the Bedini amp and went to a Denon A/V setup driving Acoustat 1+1s.

Had a friend -- well known in the Porsche community -- who had all the goodies: Goldmund, Levinson and Krell with Duntech Crown Prince speakers. Popped $1500 for the cables connecting the Krells to the Duntechs. SWORE he could hear the difference. Confirmation bias, IMO.

^^^^ Somebody here knows a bit about about one brand of those $$$ amps above ;).

I despise 5.1 etc...

Had mine configured that way for one movie (once)...an amp per speaker tower....sux for music tho...imo.

Weakest link in that stereo system, per Mort Saul, was the human ear.

^^^ More dollars than cents :D

try a double-blinded, matched level listening test on him - make a substantial bet against him


after you win his Ferrari, tell him that it is perfectly fine to buy things based on visual aesthetics, or ergonomics

strap a bike on the back of the Fcar, and drive it around until it breaks (several miles if you are lucky); ride the bike back home and call him to say you are giving him the car back

First of all, I freaking love Acoustats. I only ditched mine because they have a sweet spot about 6 in wide, but if you can be there, wow. Currently run Ohm 4's, which have the same open sound (well, almost) but amazingly its from almost anywhere in the room. Harry Bosch speakers. Not nearly as lazer focused as the stats.

On the general topic, you can chase it forever. Different is just different. Yeah, I use Kimber interconnects, why not. But they're low high end. I had all kinds of really focused ss gear but have gravitated to tubes for the warmth and lack of 2nd order distortion, they're not better per se but I find them less fatiguing to listen to.
The best system in my house (have 3) is a chinese Dared SET amp (maybe 15 pure class a watts) driving a pair of mission bookshelf speakers from the 80's. It lacks ultimate bass and volume, but for jazz and most country/non blasting rock it just is so ambient and warm...but it only set me back a grand.
The main system with the 4's is almost as good, with much more volume, but at low levels the Dared kicks its ass all day long.

Brings back great memories.
I still run a Pass, oracle, herron system with ohm f or dunlavy sciva speakers.
Cost more than my porsche. Yes it was an addiction. I was really hooked in the 70-90's.
I listened to a $350,000 turntable at the height of my addiction.
Power supply was on a lucite stand that weighed about 500lbs. It was 6feet away from the actual turntable and arm, connected only by a floss like thread. The turntable platter weighed several hundred pounds. There was also a vacuum on the platter that held the vinyl flat. It was amazing. It was better than anything I had ever heard. It sounded better than live music, likely because the performances and mixing could be so controlled. If you have never listened to such systems, you have never heard what is possible. Luckily I had reached my financial limits, but I was torn.
Now I can't hear crap.
Gary

I prefer Dead music...Live :D

The great thing today is a pretty simple digital system outperforms vinyl, and the old reel to reel systems, no matter how spendy.

All you have to do is toss a few $10,000 bills into buying speakers, or active speakers, and you're set.

I still love my vintage Polk SDAs...three pairs. They will still rock the whole range...I just can't hear it :D. Hope Ian doesn't see this ;)...

I have an early '70's Blaupunkt 8-track with a bluetooth connection in my '73 tribute car. No, I' am not kidding. ;)

Outstanding blast from the past. Thanks.

Didn't you just depress that Wile E Coyote dynamite thing to change tracks?

Reminds me of the old coat hanger test failed by so many audiophiles.

_

The thing not mentioned as with anything else, the more extreme you go the more maintenance it requires and seemingly the stuff seems to escalate in fragility.

After spending a fair amount of dough on a purely analog system, there are days where I would like a nice digital setup.

High end stereos are snake oil placebo, like most snobbery things.
Once you get past $1000, there ain't more returns

S! :D

There's nuthin' better than an 8-track blasting disco in a track prepped Lincoln Continental....LOL

Kind of funny but I just got the weekly email from Audiogon. Had this fine post:

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/are-manufacturer-ac-cables-good-enough?utm_campaign=Saturday_Email_20200425&utm_co ntent=newsletter_20200425_message_a&utm_medium=ema il&utm_source=zaius