Are you Guys Rich or What!?

My wife and I share an insane passion for music. I'm sure that there are others on this site who are equally crazy but here is our short story. When we got out of graduate school we got very good paying jobs. (we both have technical degress and MBA's). For the first few years we were spending 50-60% of our income on equipment, media, live music and books about music. Literally, we ate a lot of macroni and cheese and Japanese noodles. Fortunately we had subsidized employee cafeterias! Our budgets are driven from music first, retirement second, then make due on what's left over. As our career's developed our peer's were driving big BMW's and we had ONE eight year old car. We used to bet that the value of our car plus our stereo was more than that sum for our peers and we always won. We lived in a cheap loft in a dubious neighborhood for 14 years because the sound was so good and any house we could buy didn't have an equivalent listening room. When we could afford to move we looked at 500+ houses until we found one with a better listening room. We had the room evaluated by an audio engineer as a contigency inspection. We are now quite senior in our fields with high pressure jobs that we couldn't manage without retreating to our listing room or going to a concert. Last week was live opera on Wednesday and from Friday night - Saturday night was a Bruckner fest with our musical friends, two performances each of symphonies 4 through nine. Our business associates have always thought that we are crazy and still do.

Well 'crazy' is just someones opinion.My opinion counts for more,as should everyone's. Pis1- A marriage made in heaven;as good as it gets!!You are blessed.How can you not get behind anyone with the same priorities.More beans,anyone??

While it is possible to spend $100k plus on a statement type system, it is possible to obtain a truly great sounding system for $7,500 MSRP. It is my opinion that most gainfully employed people over the age of 25 can afford to spend this amount if they so choose.

Thomas, listen to Onhwy61. 7500.00 is probably more than enough to spend on a system. I am at about 4500.00 and still upgrading. 7500.00 is my limit. I would not spend more if I had it. 50-100K systems are in my opinion morally incorrect. It is one thing to quest for the absolute sound and quite another it indulge in greed and obsesiveness for any hobby. I say hobby, because that is exactly what it is. If you think that 50-100k is going to get you spiritual enlightenment, good luck! I say you are most likely to find happiness, enjoyment, fulfillment, pleasure and all the other reasons for this hobby, by giving your 50-100K system to someone in need. They could then sell it at 1/2 price (if it's actually worth that much) to pay for their shelter, food, and clothes. The down side of this hobby is those that take a good thing too far. 50-100K in audio becomes not a hobby but an obsession. This would be a reasonable thing if you were an audio professional, either sales, recording, musician, etc. But for the average or even above average, it's just plain stupid. Remember this is just one person's opinion. Some might think my 7500 budget is out of hand. I guess it's all how you look at it.

Having been in the general neighborhood of "audiophilia" for MANY years... and being poor! I can sympathize with the plight of the 'person on a (small) budget' going into a "Hi-End" audio salon. The 'Top of the Line' costs are mind blowing. But then with a bit of searching and reading and listening, one can arrive at a compromise that leaves one aurically satisfied. In 1966 I had a system that cost under $1,200. Now, my (musical only/non video) systems' list price would be around just $10,000 (this is with speakers 17 years old that today would alone be a $5,000+ replacement cost). Over all, the rate of improvement in sound quality ALONG WITH the lower than standard rate of inflation in audio prices (IF you compare the quality of the sound, and not the absolute price of the most expensive things)leaves me with a FAR better system than the one I had as a teen... at only a bit more in real dollars???. To find this system has taken a lot of searching out 'what I really want and can afford', and bargain hunting and price haggling (and dumping horrible mistakes). Audiophilia IS a relatively "nice" affliction to have... but to be "bitten" is NOT the same as having the mature result. Good luck!