What Do You Get When You Spend Megabucks?

" don't think anyone could seriously question the overall quality of these latter systems, but they would in no way approach the state of the art."

You're 100% wrong.

Money Guarantees nothing, clearly this site proves this out.

And I can think of several under $50,000 system that would eat the lunch of Wilson X-2 and the mega$$$ Kharma's. And although I find the X-2 not so impressive. I don't take the Kharma's so lightly. And yes by just about anyone's standards would these under $50K systems would be considered state of the art, especially for a domestic application.

The more you know the less it cost you to get state of the art sound. Right down to building some of the system or the whole system yourself. Atleast from an actual financial perspective.

My "DIY" (although I'm not sure I qualify for DIY status anymore)active speakers cost about $8500/pr (amps/crossover/box/drivers) and they will hang with $40,000 Kharmas. Fact is they have too since the project was inspired by the need for a center channel for the Kharma Midi Exquisites.

Working on some final box energy issues, total project cost, 10 years of DIY, 10 years audio industry experience, 6 years component design and about $10,000 total investment. And a passion and determination for excellence.

The more you know the less it costs. But if the designer of the system is truely knowledgeable spending more will move the performance up incrementally. But there is a wall.

As a consumer you are not in a position to "develop" the products technology so at a certain point you can only buy a certain level of quality and then the technology maxes out and ones tolerance for price increase versus performance gains creeps in and determines quitting time.

How can an individual without knowledge and access to tools and resources make a new and improved opamp, tube or a DAC.etc. hopefully you're getting my point.

Even if you make minimum wage the most expensive part of a system is getting the experience and knowledge to know what SOTA sounds like. Prioritizing compromises to suit your tastes and understand that the sound you maybe looking for is not state of the art sound.

Always be careful what you wish for.

Cinematic_systems, what are some of the sub-$50,000 systems that would 'eat the lunch' of the Wilson X-2s and bigger Kharmas? I too am somewhat skeptical as to what you get for the dollar, but the Wilsons and Kharmas have a pretty good rep....

Meyer Sound X-10/EMM Dac2/CD transport

The following System is competitive with the Kharma, subjective tastes will sway your decision. Better than the X-2 for sure.

ATC SCM200, SCM150, ATC SCA2, Reimyo CDP-777

Those are two under $50,000 systems that for normal domestic applications are virtually unbeatable.

It may be difficult to accept that pro audio companies can make the best speakers, but the technology built into the Meyer for example, makes it almost peerless, and the ATC's aren't far behind.

When the engineering skills are equal an active speaker will always be better than a passive one. no matter how impressive the cabinet is.

Elite level speaker design is valid no matter what the application or market. I am I no way discounting some home speakers but cosmetics tend to drive the price up and many of the best speakers are made by people who are not strong marketers.

Kharma are Waaaaaaaay over-priced in the US which makes the susceptable to these kind of comparisons.

The X-2 should be active, but its not, so it performs like a $30,000 speaker system, not a six figure one. Sure is pretty though.

Thanks for your response. I have only heard the passive ATCs, never had a chance to hear the active. Meyer is entirely new to me. I will see if I get a chance to hear either of these.

I do believe that you end up paying for cosmetics with home speakers, but the trouble is, I have to look at the damn things when I listen!

Agreed :)

The examples given leave little doubt on the performance end, but there are several other options that are good enough to fall into the "subjective" choice category. Even $6000 Quads can do what they do as well as any speaker on the market.

For light jazz, classical ensemble, Quads with subwoofers would really push the best speakers in the world very hard to prove they had clear audio supremecy.