Well, it's like a lot of things in audio. If you are satisfied, that's all that matters. On the other hand, the people on this forum believe that they can hear the difference between pieces of equipment. I count myself in that group. I have tried headphones from $10-$400 and I can tell the difference. I have heard speakers from $200-$20,000 and I can tell the difference. I am hoping, however, that there are suggestions in the $200-$500 range that sound pretty good. Ideas?
Ideas for budget audiophiles
I recently rented an apartment closer to work to save myself a long drive. A big system, like I have at home, is out of the question. So, a headphone system would be perfect. The system I put together is inexpensive and it is a very nice system. The thought occurred to me that people on a budget, or for gifts for the holidays, might appreciate "reasonably priced" ideas. I put together a Pure i-20 ($90) which outputs Toslink to a Maverick Audio TubeMagic D1 pre-amp/DAC/Headphone unit ($199). If someone on your list has an iPod or iPhone or ipod Touch, the i-20 pulls the digital stream and can output to analog audio, Toslink optical, Digital coax, and has a USB input from their computer. Pretty good for $89. The Maverick has USB/Toslink/SPDIF coax/analog input so their computer can stream from the hard drive or Mog/Pandora/etc. I have my music stored on a classic ipod in lossless apple and I have tried my Sennheiser 600s and the sound is amazingly good, although there are remarkably good $99 headphones out there. So, $400 gets you outstanding sound. Now, what other systems out there would you recommend for the budget audiophile? Can we keep it under $500? My rig could add self-powered speakers for an additional $300-400 and make a complete system. I am interested in your ideas. Maybe we can make this holiday something special for those who love great music and sound but have limited resources.