musichal
poet emeritus
What components comprised the best-sounding system you ever heard?
What were those in the most expensive you heard?
Were they the same system?
Do, or did, you own it?
Many of you, I expect may find these questions difficult to answer, regardless of the brands and expense involved, at any level. Sme have had more access to more gear than others.
For me, I have some difficulty myself. Although I had the opportunity to hear some fine systems, my access was not nearly as wide-ranging brand-wise as many of you. And my access to premium gear was mostly twenty-plus years ago.
That makes my answer a bit easier. The best I heard included a brand-new Audio Research SP-11 preamp with dual ARC M-300 power amps and a Well-Tempered Turntable with a Denon DL-301 cartridge. However, the speaker choice is murky for me because I heard the very same components - the very same specimens - via two different pair of speakers in two different rooms. The Duntech Sovereigns should have sounded best, but weren't placed well in their room. In a different room, with better placement, a new pair of Klipschorns sounded better to me (and to some others present also).
Khorns were about four grand a pair at the time, while the Duntechs were $30,000/pair. Wish I'd been able to hear them properly placed, but I must go with what I heard. In this case, the most expensive was not the best-sounding to me. The Duntechs, weighing in at almost 300 lbs each, IIRC, well, we were not allowed to move them, and were set upon a small stage near one corner of a large room. Nor was I allowed to make any music selections. So it was not a level playing field, at all. Whether or not the M-300 was a good choice for the Sovereigns is a factor unknown to me, as well, but bad placement made that a moot point, anyway.
I never owned any of this, except finally a pair of (older) Khorns, which did not work well for me, as some of you may recall from other posts.
What about you?
What were those in the most expensive you heard?
Were they the same system?
Do, or did, you own it?
Many of you, I expect may find these questions difficult to answer, regardless of the brands and expense involved, at any level. Sme have had more access to more gear than others.
For me, I have some difficulty myself. Although I had the opportunity to hear some fine systems, my access was not nearly as wide-ranging brand-wise as many of you. And my access to premium gear was mostly twenty-plus years ago.
That makes my answer a bit easier. The best I heard included a brand-new Audio Research SP-11 preamp with dual ARC M-300 power amps and a Well-Tempered Turntable with a Denon DL-301 cartridge. However, the speaker choice is murky for me because I heard the very same components - the very same specimens - via two different pair of speakers in two different rooms. The Duntech Sovereigns should have sounded best, but weren't placed well in their room. In a different room, with better placement, a new pair of Klipschorns sounded better to me (and to some others present also).
Khorns were about four grand a pair at the time, while the Duntechs were $30,000/pair. Wish I'd been able to hear them properly placed, but I must go with what I heard. In this case, the most expensive was not the best-sounding to me. The Duntechs, weighing in at almost 300 lbs each, IIRC, well, we were not allowed to move them, and were set upon a small stage near one corner of a large room. Nor was I allowed to make any music selections. So it was not a level playing field, at all. Whether or not the M-300 was a good choice for the Sovereigns is a factor unknown to me, as well, but bad placement made that a moot point, anyway.
I never owned any of this, except finally a pair of (older) Khorns, which did not work well for me, as some of you may recall from other posts.
What about you?