Where do you draw the line???

Some years ago a friend brought me over to one of his co-workers home to hear his system. This co-worker had a pretty nice system. He also had this huge piece of wood which appeared as though had been covered in some type of batting and attached to what appeared to be bisected wheeled saw horses. He wheeled this piece of wood into the center of the room in such a manner as to bisect the the listening position between the speakers. At one end, the wood was cut into the shape of a profile of a human face. He then proceeded to lean forward from his listening position and insert his face into this narrow profile. He explained that he would sit in what appeared to be a most uncomfortable postion to enhance stereo seperation. This is where, I draw the line.

I prefer to use my iron maiden. It's not comfortable till you get use to the spikes, but wow does it sound good!!!

I saw if somone has a 30,000 setup, and somone has a 20,000 setup, with the same number and basic type of components, and the 30,000 system sounds inferior to the 20,000, then i say the owner of the 30,000 needs to pack all his stuff up and ship it to me for evaluation. Mind you, these evaluations can last years.

seriously though, i completly agree with Nrchy.
a 30,000 system better as hell sound better than a 20,000 or else the person who put it together needs to get his butt on Audiogon and start asking questions.

The only instance where i think a 20,000 system could sound better than a 30,000 system, is if the 30,000 has integrated HT and the 20,000 is a straight 2 channel system.
That will throw off the balance because of cash vs. preformance, because you are talking more speakers, more cableing, DVD player, yadda yadda.
Any HT can do 2 channel playback, but a 20,000 2chan system VS a 30,000 integrated HT probably would sound better

But if its the same setup, and some guy has a 30,000 piece of crap, well, then sucks to be him.

P.S., it would sure take a lot of convincing for me to buy Belts and Tice clocks.

Late to the party but....Sad because there seem to be so many 'educated audiophiles' who seem to equate higher performance with higher costs. Pure idiocy. Speaking from over 30 years of experience. I find it unbelievable that many seem to assume that for example a $2000 speaker or amp must sound better then a $1000 amp or speaker.

Then rationalize that even though they may not be able to hear any differences or may even perceive the expensive amp to be inferior, that somehow those who are more sophisticated can hear the differences.

I remember being in a Nashville showroom in the mid/late 1980s and listened to several sets of very expensive speakers. One set of speakers that impressed me very much and the two friends I was with were dimunitive Celestion DL8 mk2's. 19" two way that sold for a little under a grand. There was a set of $13000 speakers in this botique (sorry can't remember the name). These speakers were over 7 feet tall and were stuffed with drivers. We listened not saying a word, noticed some curious looks on my friends faces. After about 15 minutes I turned to the saleman and said "these sound like shit". He replied with a smile "I know but people love'em because they are so big."

He confided that all the salesmen thought they were a pure joke and laughted at "audiophiles" who carted these 7 foot monstrosities home.

Final thought, I know of one manufacturer who sells speakers for $2400 direct. He also produces a speaker that sells for $18000. Same tweeter and midrange. Only difference is the addition of an extra woofer and larger cabinet on the $18000 model Explain this one to me?