[mort]

Cheep and affordible are realitive terms to me under 1000 dollars is affordable to my good freinds wife $400 is readiculis for an entire audio component collection( shell pay $150 four times a year for hairtcuts) Bill Gates may feel that a million dollars is reasonable. For me Paying more than $10000 is probibly not a responsible thing for a human to. What is your Limit,where do you draw the line? What do you have into your system, systems?

[thunderbrick]

A grand is my tipping point per item, preferably less.  I might do that every other year at most, but I sell a lot of hanger queens to do that.

[chgolatin2]

It all boils down to how much you can actually "afford"  so if you make enough money you spend enough money but if you are a smart consumer, you buy pre owned! 

[charmerci]

I try to find $50-100 used items like NAD integrateds but usually about 2-300 and my upper limit is about 1K. That's hard on my budget.

[cujobob]

Depends on the product.  Speakers- up to a grand.  Electronics - ~$500

[Cacophonix]

Like someone mentioned earlier, it all depends upon how much you make, and how much you are comfortable spending. But $1000 limit for a stereo setup seems to be the limit in this circle - which is great by me!

Buy second hand, and you'll see that $1000 can buy a great setup.

[JeffB]

It also depends upon how important it is to you.  We all spend money on something.  For some people that something is a waste and for others it is a must have.  I think cars are a great example of this.  Next to the home, probably the greatest expense for most people.  A lot of people will buy the most expensive car they can afford when basic transportation would easily suffice for most people.  And when you buy a more expensive car, you usually get a lot more horsepower to simply sit in stop-and-go traffic.  I debate this with myself all the time.  Should I buy a BMW or a Honda Fit?

Audio in relation to men/women is very interesting to me.  I just don't understand why women don't seem to like audio.  They almost all want small speakers that nobody can see, and see no reason to spend any money on them.  And of course women love their shoes, which I don't get at all.

At least with audio, you are paying mostly for function and secondarily for looks.  There is also a point of diminishing returns for the money, and I believe this price point continues to move downward in inflation adjusted dollars.

[cujobob]

The lack of women in the hobby is interesting..especially since so much time and effort is spent making the various designs pleasing to the eye.  Women like music...I guess most just don't like music.

[baldrick]

My wife is a professional classical musician.  She couldn't give a damn about proper (reproduced) sound quality or audio systems.  I suspect that this attitude is shared by many in the same profession.
However, she can and does appreciate the difference between a good sound system and a mediocre one.  She prefers the modded Dynaco Stereo 70 to the Hafler DH500.  She was able to tell the difference when I switched output tubes without being asked.
Nothing wrong with her ears.  I guess it's just how she sets priorities.

[srb]

My wife is a professional classical musician.  She couldn't give a damn about proper (reproduced) sound quality or audio systems.  I suspect that this attitude is shared by many in the same profession.

I find it's about half and half with musicians.  We have a number of musicians here on AudioCircle with really nice setups.
 
I know other musicians who make one quick stop at Best Buy and they're done.
 
Your wife, as a classical musican, is more an anomaly among the musicians I know.  I find a lot of classical and jazz musicians have and appreciate nice systems, where those that are into rock, metal and rap seem more content to listen on any system, as those genres of music often contain a lot of distortion to begin with.
 
Steve

[mort]

Mabey it would be-hoove speaker manufacturers to build a pair of good quality loud speakers that look like high-heels.

[Mariusz]

Guys please keep the topic within the guidelines of "Cheap & Cheerful".
Otherwise it will be moved to "Pub".

Mariusz

[JimJ]

What is your Limit,where do you draw the line?

I don't, at least in terms of a fixed dollar amount.

If my income was such that I could easily do $10k speakers, I would - I'd be paying cash, so it's not like I'm getting into debt over it.

[droht]

I have found that for what I listen to, how I listen and where I listen, the point of diminishing returns is pretty low.  I have $300 second hand speakers, a $250 amp, a $225 USB DAC/pre/HP amp, and $200 cans.  I am very satisfied with this <$1000 system.  The trick was to stop carefully analyzing every tweak or new component and simply evaluate things the way I actually listen.  That change was kind of cathartic for me.  Getting way more enjoyment out of the system now.

 

[JackD201]

I put the upper limit of "affordable" at $5,000 for a complete operable system inclusive of all cables and racks with some room for power protection devices.

[chgolatin2]

A $5,000 to 12k system should suffice, thats for sure~!  that's including EVERYTHING! 

[BobM]

If I had to go out and buy a system starting from nothing my answer would be far different than what I would be willing to spend on a component upgrade. I don't think I could get a $10,000 number past the SO for a complete system bought from scratch new or used. But my current system certainly exceeds that number.

Last year I managed to buy an $1800 CD player and a $1000 phono cartridge. If I was to buy a whole system from scratch I think my budget would probably be around the same total number.

I think you could certainly put together a decent system (CD, integ amp, speakers, cables) for that price, looking used. You might have to stretch another grand to add a turntable setup.

[baldrick]

Since everything is dependent on income it's all relative, but for the average middle class household that is getting by on maybe $70K - $85K per year combined pre-tax salary, has mortgage and car payments it is a great stretch to spend over $1000 on an audio system, especially when the new HDTV they just bought probably cost more than that.

That same average family most likely won't care about power conditioning or fancy audio racks.  To most in that league as long as it holds the equipment and matches the living room furniture that is all that matters.

Affordable to those people probably means combining the audio system with the video system, ditching the CD player because the DVD or Blu-Ray player can spin CDs, or abandoning physical media altogether in favour of their PCs or Macs.  I've seen so many $299 all in one home-theatre-in-a-box setups that it makes me cringe. But that is probably what is most affordable to those who bought that setup.

Now my own perspective on affordable is that I don't have nor do I really want an HDTV.  I don't have, nor do I really want a surround sound system.  I really enjoy vinyl records because I prefer the sound over CD.  Back in the eighties I never bought titles on CD that I already had on Vinyl.

I reluctantly buy equipment from time to time.  However it is unjustifiable to spend $1500 - $2000 on a CD player, because my $300 CD player plays just fine and my outboard DAC improves the sound to the $2k level anyway.  However I feel that it is quite reasonable to spend $500 on a new phono cartridge every five or six years.
I choose very good speakers and very good amplifiers.  I have a mix of modern and vintage equipment on two setups that are the result of accumulating pieces over the last 25 years.

I firmly believe that if one were to go out to a good hi-fi shop one could walk away with a fantastic setup for under $1000 consisting of a receiver, CD player and some high quality mini-monitor speakers. (Heck, the awesome PSB Alpha B1 speakers go for just $199 a pair!)

You could do much better for the same $1000 if you shopped and carefully selected used equipment.
However I think that for most of the people I described earlier it would be very hard for them to put down $1000 on an audio system.

[turkey]

Mabey it would be-hoove speaker manufacturers to build a pair of good quality loud speakers that look like high-heels.

Something similar has been done, and they're not very expensive. Cheap and cheerful.

http://www.classicpumps.com/mpumps.htm

[turkey]

As the thread started out with - it's all relative.

We each can afford different amounts. We all hope that we are spending no more than necessary.