[erniek]

 I have owned the m4 turbo s Spatials driven with Odyssey amp and tube pre they were quite satisfying. I love the open baffle sound  and would have upgraded to better spatials. . . . if I could have afforded to. The price jump from what I paid for them and what cost I need to deal with now has removed me from the brand. I am also a KEF fan and recently sold my m4's for some KEFs,(I currently also own LS50s) which I can better afford. I understand companies have to make money to stay in business and Clayton is one of the industry good guys. I am also glad the company is doing so well but as many times in audio top prices seem to be what rules the day in media and sales. Many still out there such as Elac, Odyssey, KEF, Cambridge, Marantz etc. that still sell great quality products at affordable prices but the balance between higher and lower seems unbalanced.
I find less to read and listen to these days because of all the news regarding 30000 turntables, 150000 amps, 25000 Dacs and 250000 dollar speakers. I am not really ranting just that I cannot seem to find much to keep me interested in all that is promoted in audio any longer.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

There is a lot of great budget gear out there for $2K and less.  Gear by Elac, Schiitt, Magnepan, AVA HiFi, Wharfedale and many other companies can be budget friendly and offer excellent sound.   There has never been as good a time to put together a good sounding budget system as now.  The issue is jumping up to the next level as prices sky rocket.  That's where the used market comes into play if you are willing to go that route.  I bought my Pass X250, BAT VK51se and dual Martin Logan subs used and saved thousands.  The only gear that I bought new was my Luxman DAC and speakers.

There is still great gear out there that is less than $10K that can approach the sound of much more expensive gear. 

[Early B.]

Everything is escalating in price, and audio is no different. The way to remain afloat is to buy and sell used gear. Every time you buy an amp, sell one so you're only paying the difference in the cost of the old vs. the new. Sometimes you'll sell a component for more than you paid. And don't make lateral moves and convince yourself that you're saving money. Eventually, you'll reach a point where it's no longer economically viable to upgrade a particular component anymore. Follow this approach and in a few years, you'll possess reference gear you never thought you could afford.     

[JLM]

Fall in love with cheaper gear for what it is.  My gear is modest by the standards around here, but I like it.  Fortunately I prefer smaller pieces that tend to be less expensive.  I agree that it's never been a better time to get good sound for less money thanks to active monitors and streaming. 

The last time I heard speakers that struck me as desirable (as good as mine) retailed for $70,000 USD (I have $2300 invested in mine).  I have a dedicated room, well shaped and insulated that cost me less than nothing (built it with the rest of the house 17 years ago, saved money by not having extra storage for wife to fill with junk).  The room allows me to listen when I want to what I want without various interferences. 

[Wayner]

The audio industry treats it customers like drug addicts. The customers will pay any amount of money. Big buck, big dollar mono blocks, digital preamps, DACs, turntable and of course speakers that have long ago turned the corner on common sense design, build and pricing. Some companies have even moved their build to China to reduce labor costs, but of course the price has gone up. On top of that, the audio market is shrinking. Kids care less about stereos, they have their phones.

What's really sad is when some guy puts his family in financial jeopardy just so he can selfishly sit in his own personal sweet spot to listen to his high end system. The prices are what they are because people bought into it.

[Tyson]

The audio industry is adapting to the fact that there are changing demographics.  There are a lot more people that have moved from 'middle class' to 'wealthy' in America at least, over the last 20 years.  There's also more ultra wealthy people around.  It would be silly for audio companies to ignore this part of the market, especially since you need fewer sales to keep yourself in business. 

Re: audio shrinking among the young people, maybe traditional 2 channel is but high end headphones are exploding in popularity.  Just look at the sheer volume of people over on head-fi.  Or go to a CanJam meetup.  In all my years of going to RMAF, it was the only place I saw real growth. 

[nlitworld]

The audio industry treats it customers like drug addicts.

Just one more album, then I'll stop. I swear.  There's something to be said for getting some decent enough gear and then diverting attention to tweaking and embedding to further improve. The room is a perfect example of an area hugely overlooked that will yield better sound. Speaker placement and room arrangement costs nothing, but I bet you'll find a way to make it sound better. Next would come DIY room treatments that can be built on the cheap. After that, try sorting out your cables for better performance. It's not always easy to make it look neat and tidy with also routing cables for optimum sound, but the difference is noticeable. After that, you can look into inexpensive electrical upgrades, speaker crossover upgrades and DIY power cables. My point is, not every "big upgrade" is a new expensive piece of gear. I've heard great improvements in sound with spending little to no $, even on my modest system. Have fun tinkering and tweaking, but don't forget to sit and enjoy listening.

[Tyson]

Just one more album, then I'll stop. I swear.  There's something to be said for getting some decent enough gear and then diverting attention to tweaking and embedding to further improve. The room is a perfect example of an area hugely overlooked that will yield better sound. Speaker placement and room arrangement costs nothing, but I bet you'll find a way to make it sound better. Next would come DIY room treatments that can be built on the cheap. After that, try sorting out your cables for better performance. It's not always easy to make it look neat and tidy with also routing cables for optimum sound, but the difference is noticeable. After that, you can look into inexpensive electrical upgrades, speaker crossover upgrades and DIY power cables. My point is, not every "big upgrade" is a new expensive piece of gear. I've heard great improvements in sound with spending little to no $, even on my modest system. Have fun tinkering and tweaking, but don't forget to sit and enjoy listening.

You are so right, going from a 2k DAC to a 5K DAC might be an improvement to the sound but will not be nearly as big a jump as going form zero room treatments to a decent amount of room treatments.  Same with speaker placement - getting them 5 feet out into the room is going to have a bigger effect than going from a $5k speaker to a $10k speaker.  And if you can't do that because of WAF then you need to invest in som cajone growth lotion before you make ANY other audio purchases.

[Stercom]

I'm not sure the glass is half-empty like you imply. Today, if you are willing to go all digital, you can put together a great system for less than $5K and stream more music than you could have ever owned in the past. There are a number of "younger" guys at my office who have done exactly that.