"The Law of Diminishing Returns"???

There is some truth to what you claim. Certianly, the cosmetics seems to be a big factor when the price is above $2K or $3K when it comes to amps. This is why I concentrate on Parasound, Plinius etc.., because they are a good value at their price-points and the manufacturer has not put exhorbitant monies into cosmetics. The guts is what counts in my book.

Your right, synergy is important but I really think our rooms are the most important thing of all........I think that room treatment and Isolation devises will get you more for your money than just getting better components alone.....Do you agree or not?........Richard

Sean hit the nail on this one and I will give an example which I think is germaine to the issue. Kevin Carter of K&K Audio (who has also designed for VAC and Art Audio), developed an extremely nice tube 6n1p-based tube phono stage through his work on the Art Audio Vinyl Reference. In his own company, he offered his phono stage as a kit (around, or as a pre-built piece. Just about every one I've heard that has tried one is WAY more than satisfied (I have said before that I think it is the equal of stages upwards of $4K). He now offers a linestage (Mood Indigo) that goes for about $1,700. By all accounts it is just a fabulous piece, but has not sold particularly well. One reason is that K&K is a small word-of-mouth concern without big time promotional or distributing budgets. Another was revealed in a conversation I had with Kevin who said he has found that that the price is too steep for some DIY'ers (kit) and too low for "high-end" audiophiles to take it seriously (pre-built). Sad. Maybe he should put a $5,000 price tag on it and market it like it is the next best thing since sliced bread. To his credit, he hasn't.

I am beginning to appreciate that much of the fun in this hobby can be had by finding such designers and equipment, though. For me, it leaves more dough for MUSIC, since my pockets are less deep than many here.

It is partially true unfortunatly, the breaking point moves left or roght depending on your room size, musical preference and .. yes.. disposable income.

Fernando

It's an exponential curve. I've always felt that--and it's true in most things. Everything from houses to cars. You can get a really good performance car reasonable--the Subaru WXsi (think that's the right model number). It's a 5 second car. You can get a really really good sports car for double that. And then you can get some incredible exotic for $100k+ and a McLauren for about 4 times that.

Luxury homes are the same way. $ per square foot goes up dramatically for better everything--but by how much.

Audio is no different, it's a luxury, and it's a combination of what Elizabeth said and to some degree what you want. Some people want a certain look and ergonomics even though they know it may not sound is good dollar for dollar.

What's my personal take on it all? You reach the point of dimenshing returns very fast if you haven't dealt with room acoustics. Of course, that's my own admitedly biased opinion--but I do think it's very true. Once acoustics are dealt with, it's amazing how modest upgrades can make a much more significant difference.

Now, here's a story that I hope you get some entertainment out of. I didn't--and you'll see why. We demoed a PARC unit for a potential customer (one of my dealers actually). As you may know the PARC goes between the amp and pre-amp and thus requires an extra interconnect. In this clients home the bass peaks were a real problem, around 10 db at one point. So the PARC made everything sound so much better it wasn't even close. But the client decided not to buy the PARC at this time, because he didn't want to spend another $11,000 on that extra set of interconnects. I could have put in some really nice $1k interconnects on both ends added the PARC, had far better overall sound, sold the other interconnects and possibly made change--go figure.