THE MOST EXPENSIVE AUDIO SYSTEM IN THE PLANET

MrCool78 · « **on:** 23 Mar 2006, 01:19 am »

1) Speaker Wilson Audio Alexandra 2 $135.000
2) Pre Amp Audionote Kondo M 1000 $ 85.000
3) Monoblock Amp Wavac SH 833/pair $350.000
4) Turntable Rockport Tech Sirius 3 $ 73.750
5) Speaker Cable Transperant Opus MM $ 31.500
6) DAC Metronome Kalista Reference
C2 Signature $ 20.000
7) CD Transport same as above $ 45.000

Do you wanna know the price in total $740.250

Doesn't include Power Cord and Interconnect, Digital Cable

I'd rather buy a good house, good sport car and very good high end system for that price jeeeeeeeeeezzzz.

This is the links if you wanna see what those looks like:
http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/2005/12/15/expensive-stereo-technology-cz_dl_1216feat_ls.html

Enjoy your looking

acresm22 · « **Reply #1 on:** 23 Mar 2006, 01:37 am »

Unbelievable!

I know of at least one local audio nut here in Montana who also has too much time and money on his hands. The last I heard (which was several years ago), his system consisted of Krell Master Reference mono amps ($125K the pair), Wilson X1s in some recent iteration ($80K+), a pair of Krell MR subs, Krell's flagship CD player/preamp all-in-one combo from the late 1990s, and Transparent's obscenely priced Opus cables throughout. I never heard it, so can't comment on the sound.

I must confess though...when it comes to pricey audio gear, the Shindo stuff really makes my heart pound.

D.

MrCool78 · « **Reply #2 on:** 23 Mar 2006, 03:21 am »

Hi, everyone

This is a guy who's owning the best audio system set-up in USA
here is the link:
http://www.ultraaudio.com/features/2004_02_01.htm

I can't imagine need 5 people to set up that systems, unbelievable

Folsom · « **Reply #3 on:** 23 Mar 2006, 03:27 am »

Quote from: acresm22

Unbelievable!

I know of at least one local audio nut here in Montana who also has too much time and money on his hands. The last I heard (which was several years ago), his system consisted of Krell Master Reference mono amps ($125K the pair), Wilson X1s in some recent iteration ($80K+), a pair of Krell MR subs, Krell's flagship CD player/preamp all-in-one combo from the late 1990s, and Transparent's obscenely priced Opus cables throughout. I never heard it, so can't comment on the sound.

I must confes ...

Where in Montana is he, and you? I am in Montana as well. I am pretty sure we are far and few here.

csero · « **Reply #4 on:** 23 Mar 2006, 05:22 am »

Quote from: MrCool78

Hi, everyone

This is a guy who's owning the best audio system set-up in USA
here is the link:
http://www.ultraaudio.com/features/2004_02_01.htm

I can't imagine need 5 people to set up that systems, unbelievable

And the test disk was Andrea Bocelli

This setup is also very much in the most expensive league:

Those chalkboards are Soundlabs (28 of them in the room) driven by a couple of TACT units and SONY convolvers.

Vtech2000 · « **Reply #5 on:** 23 Mar 2006, 05:26 am »

Aside from financial freedom, really it's a matter of priority (i.e. what is important to you). It would not be unreasonable or unheard of for a passionate music lover to budget more to his/her audio system than to his/her personal transportation, for example...

bhobba · « **Reply #6 on:** 23 Mar 2006, 07:09 am »

Quote from: Vtech2000

Aside from financial freedom, really it's a matter of priority (i.e. what is important to you). It would not be unreasonable or unheard of for a passionate music lover to budget more to his/her audio system than to his/her personal transportation

Quite true. Nor would it be unheard of for systems at much more sane cost levels to outperform such systems. For example the speakers that bought well known 'speaker hater', Jim Merod, to tears, cost $15,999 not 6 figures.
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue24/ces06gw.htm

I suspect such systems garner more poser value than actual audio excellence commensurate with their price.

Thanks
Bill

BrunoB · « **Reply #7 on:** 23 Mar 2006, 09:14 am »

Here is another expensive one:

$1000,000 Kharma based system.

JLM · « **Reply #8 on:** 23 Mar 2006, 11:07 am »

Other examples I recall (but sorry don't have the links):

Concrete bass horns built into the floor or off the end of the house (the size of a garage).

An $1 million Italian wall of speakers.

The guy in Washington state who transformed a barn into a listening room with customized system. I think it was about $600,000.

Bottom line: An "ultimate" system requires an ultimate room (or two if you add those very nice bass horns) to really perform.

nickspicks · « **Reply #9 on:** 23 Mar 2006, 12:38 pm »

those are all pretty slick systems.
though, I just DO NOT believe it is necessary to spend that much dough to get serious sound reproduction.
I"m sure I could swing it on just a measly $200k.

maybe even less.

all I want are VR9s, eMM labs DAC/preamp/trasnport and some monsterous amps and i'm good.

JLM · « **Reply #10 on:** 23 Mar 2006, 04:59 pm »

Thanks for the link.

Wonder how Mother Teresa would react to spending so much.

Vtech2000 · « **Reply #11 on:** 23 Mar 2006, 05:08 pm »

Regarding the above built-in sub-woofer horns...now that is certainly yet another example of serious commitment to music reproduction. If one can make it happen, definately the route to go...

Russell Dawkins · « **Reply #12 on:** 23 Mar 2006, 09:11 pm »

If home theater is part of this, check out this study in excess!

http://theater.stevejenkins.com/gallery/complete/

Vtech2000 · « **Reply #13 on:** 23 Mar 2006, 09:30 pm »

Thanks for the link. Expensive room...looks like it. But can't really tell about the audio system itself...we'll assume it is commensurate...

Russell Dawkins · « **Reply #14 on:** 23 Mar 2006, 09:56 pm »

I guess this room also serves as an object lesson in how different our priorities are from the norm.
This may be an example of WAF considerations taken to the nth degree. The speakers ("James" - click on "equipment and scrolll way down) seem to be pretty low on the priority list, but at least they're invisible!
I would say there is a degree of obsessiveness in operation here as evidenced by the inclusion of such things as rack bolts in the equipment list.

Atol · « **Reply #15 on:** 23 Mar 2006, 10:27 pm »

Surely there has to be a limit on how good a recording can sound.

I think they'd have to start using master tapes.

acresm22 · « **Reply #16 on:** 23 Mar 2006, 10:59 pm »

Quote from: Destroyer of Smiles.

Where in Montana is he, and you? I am in Montana as well. I am pretty sure we are far and few here.

I am in Bozeman. The Wilson/Krell system is somewhere in Paradise Valley.
And where under the Big Sky are you?

D.

Bill Baker · « **Reply #17 on:** 23 Mar 2006, 11:15 pm »

If anybody saw one of the last issues of TAS, you will see the Magico Ultimate which on their own are a quarter million. Add to that 10 custom built 300B mono bloc amplifiers and the front end, which included Dan's ModWright/Denon 3910

http://www.magico.net/products.html

I have spoken to more than one person who heard this system and said there are no words to describe it.

Obviously for the elite but I wouldn't mind spending some time in the sweet spot.

nathanm · « **Reply #18 on:** 23 Mar 2006, 11:24 pm »

Quote from: MrCool78

This is a guy who's owning the best audio system set-up in USA
here is the link:
http://www.ultraaudio.com/features/2004_02_01.htm

Looks like lots of money playing inside an untreated space, I just don't think the gear is living up to its potential with all the hard walls around. I don't doubt it was impressive, just not as impressive as it could be.

There's people that have spent far less on their dreams systems and are probably getting better results because they built the ultimate room. Think of it this way, if you have the ultimate room then EVERYTHING sounds better even if it doesn't have a zillion zeroes in the price. How much value can you possibly get out of an $85,000 preamp when two resistors is the next step up in quality? I don't get it. If you're that loaded then you can hire architects and acousticians to design a golden ratio dream room from scratch.

They always use the sports car analogy in those kind of articles (re: Forbes), I just don't think it applies to sound that easily. The real relation of high performance cars to the audio world is subwoofer competitions, not exactly something audiophiles are into.

Bill Baker · « **Reply #19 on:** 23 Mar 2006, 11:31 pm »

You are absolutely correct Nathanm. The room is the first and foremost important factor in any system. The best system (okay, most expensive) in the world set up in a less than ideal application could be taken to the cleaners by a much more affordable system properly set up in a well treated room.

I have heard some very expensive systems sound like crap and some much less expensive systems sound much better than they had any right to.

It's not always the money that matters but the brains behind the complete setup which does include the room.