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Which area of components to spend the most $ on? Boy I was wrong all my life!

I have been an audio junkie for about 25 years. All those years, I have read plenty of discussion posts and recommendations where to spend the most money on. The majority, even the experts recommend to spend the most money on speakers. Up to as high as 60% of the total budget.Example: CEO of PS Audio-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYwL7vPkPhg
I believed this all my life. Today, my eyes are opened. My total budget is about $15K.Before today, my system was:Speakers-Revel F36 Concerta 2 (For the money, this is the best speakers I’ve heard. I like it more than my previous Dynaudio Contour 30)Integrated Amp-Marantz PM-10 (Class D, balanced, 400wpc at 4ohms)CD Player-Oppo UDP 205 & Marantz CD 6005 (Some of the best in class)Line conditioner-Furman Elite PFi 15Cables-Kimber 8TC Speaker Cables (Sorry, not a cable nut. I’d rather spend money elsewhere)
I upgraded my front end CD player to... Marantz SA-11S3. I was BLOWN away! This is the greatest upgrade I have ever heard in my life. For 25 years, I was taught to spend the most in speakers. Sorry! It’s the FRONT END! The best source you can afford. The purity transcends down the river. I am blown away by the sheer improvement in detail, clarity, depth, the air around the instruments.
My philosophy has changed.
skimrn
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
The Polarity issue is important, I’ll grant you that. It’s too bad there’s no standard for Polarity in the industry. However in terms of priority of importance, i.e., impact on sound quality, I rate the scattered background laser light problem higher than Polarity. Furthermore, you can now do something about scattered light getting into the detector whereas for most people there’s no practical solution for the Polarity on CDs being Inverted. If one has a Polarity switch goodie for him.
kahlenz
168 posts
 
It's a shame these audio engineers are so stupid.  To think they would invert the playback polarity and rip off billions of music listeners.  Hmmph!

Kevin Edward Collins the First, CA, BSLA, member of the Society of Late Night Audioholics
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
Gee, they couldn’t be the same brilliant audio engineers that are compressing the life out of recordings, could they? Maybe those are different brilliant audio engineers.
elizabeth
6,726 posts
 
I have a polarity switch and use it often.
Much of the time in makes little difference.The fact is, particularly for rock, the song or album is mixed from discrete tracks, any of which may be reverse polarity, and certainly many songs have parts right and parts in reverse at the same time!I would say only about 20% of Rock albums I can actually notice a proper polarity. And some of those it is based on the vocals, some on the percussion instruments.
And on NONE of them does the positive, or reverse sound ’bad’... But for those recording which do have a noticeable difference, the ’right’ one generally is slightly better sounding due to mainly better clarity.   
Then the FACT speaker crossovers alter the polarity to odd angles NOT 180! What good is polarity if your speakers alter the bass 120 off counterclockwise, at some peak frequency,  mids 90 off clockwise, and the treble 250 counterclockwise? Did you ever actually look at some of the charts in Stereophile???
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
If you’re having trouble hearing the difference between Correct Polarity and Inverted Polarity I suspect your system probably needs a tune-up. Inverted Polarity lacks bass and proper focus. Crossovers are a separate issue. How do you know your system is in correct Absolute Polarity? Answer at 11.
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