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Except for speakers, $5k is about my limit for reasonable.

I think its depends on the certain piece of of equipment. For speakers no more than 5,000. For a processor or receiver no more than 4,000. For amplifer no more than 4,000. Basically anything over 5,000 to me would be considered expensive. Once you past the 10,000 dollar mark on total purchasing of audio you start to think about debt consolidation,investments,college tuition payments,house upgrades!

cost plays a factor of course.musicality who can put a price on?Most of us can have a musical system starting at the 2000.00 price,especially when buying previous owned equit.

My pocketbook

I'm a Meridian branded listener...and all there high end stuff is +5000, but worth the trade off to me

I guess "expensive" depends on your economic status. Five years ago I would have thought anything over $800 was to much to pay. Now that my household income is aorund 95k my perspective has changed. I will say that without this magazine I probably would never have thought 10k was an aceptable amount for stero equipment

Expensive perception diminishes as my deisre for said component increases, or so I tell my wife.

law of dimminishing returns kicks in

After that, something must be wrong with you.

I make plenty of money. In fact, I made about $80k last year. But with all the great budget equipment out there, spending too much money is just a waste unless you have extravagant means.

Anything over $500 means I have to plan my purchase carefully; doing all the proper research.

but if it sound really great......

any definition of expensive depends of the size of the beholder pocket, but about 2000 is expensive for the vast majority of people

To me, $5,000 is "expensive;" $10,000 is "quite expensive;" and over $30,000 is "ridiculously expensive!"

>$3000 for speakers, >$2000 for any other component is too expensive in my budget

Because I'm a poor man with rich taste.I work really hard for my money and I save and save,to acuire the taste in equiptment that I own , dream of owning and will one day own.

Expensive is a realitive term, meaning that one item may be called expensive by one person and "the bargin of a lifetime" by another! My point is, my friends and wife think that spending several hundred dollars on ceramic cones to place my gear on is crazy, but I think it makes perfect sense! To each his own and good listening!

It's all expensive, that's the wrong question. The real issue is what can I reasonably afford? For me, anything over about $5k is something I would have to save a long time to be able to afford.