While I don't claim to have all the experience in the world I think there is a disconnect between price and performance. What I have found is a lot of high end speakers companies get hyper focused on a specific genre of music and do that one type of music extremely well, but can suffer at other types. These speakers normally get better as you move up the line, but the sad thing I noticed is I feel a lot of the middle or entry level are not well designed.

I've mentioned it before, but I feel a lot of very well known manufactures compromise lower levels. I may be wrong on this, but I can't believe 2 8 inch woofers is 10K more than 2 6.5inch woofers. I may be wrong here but just doesn't seem to add up to me. Of course there needs to be differences between he speakers, but I personally feel those should be more settle (i.e one is more detailed or can play notes with more accuracy) I don't think you should have it as it is today where you could be missing whole octaves of music. I understand size is import and you never know the room they are going into, but never seems to add up.

So back to Michaels point, I have to believe that some of the high end flagship models are truly amazing and will give you better sound. but I think every step from that, the situation becomes less clear as you don't know how the manufacture compromises the lower lines. Sometimes the compromises may give you a net loss in music enjoyment.

Of course there are always exceptions to the above but it is interesting when you think about it. Sometime the quest for detail and clarity in this hobby get us into a very limited product if you step back.

I don't mean this in a bad way or mean to attack our hobby, but when you look at some of the products and the prices associated with them, the performance doesn't always seem to stack up. TBH, I think this hobby (to a degree) has conditioned people to set their expectations rather low.

Like I said I think a big caveat here is there are always expectations and the flagship products from these company's really can give you a wow factor (not taking into account the cost of these items).

Just my take on things. But in general someone once told me in this hobby and its the best advise I heard is at one point you realize the reviews and rankings and opinions people have are just that. You eventually look for what you like regardless of what people say. you can't forget at the end of the day this is a business so you have to trust your own ears.

Music lover vs gear collector
He must ask himself why he owns the gear he does? I hope that it is not just because he can and has the money to do so as that makes the gear just jewelry. If he bought his gear to listen to the music he owns and loves to hear it presented better, THAT is what caring about High End Audio should be, a means to and end not just owning stuff to own it.

Secondly, does he own his high end gear to share music with others? His family and friends? If he has considerable money in his system I hope he shares it with others so they can see what better audio gear can bring and help improve enjoyment of music.

There are always reasons to own something, but one must consider the intention of owning it and what it ultimately means to him. Without a clear purpose it will lack meaning and just be more stuff in one's house. To own a high end music system and not enjoy playing music on it would be very sad to me, and pointless. I could almost understand someone not owning any kind of stereo or music much better.

.......any gear that cost more than you can afford ;)

You can't describe it, but you know it when you hear it.

rothflmao

High End Audio is stuff that seems overpriced.

HiFi Audio is stuff that works correctly.

Some body much brighter than I will need to explain why the former supplanted the latter.

High end audio is an attitude and has nothing whatsoever to do with money. You cannot acquire it with money, you either have it or you don't. A rich man has about as much chance of entering audio nirvana as a camel has of passing through the eye of a needle.

Geoff Kait
Machina Dynamica

High end audio refers to equipment -the best, and it has everything to do with money. In the old days my father had as many vinyl's as books. His vinyl's were lining up a whole room but, like many people at the time, he was playing his vinyl's on a cheap portable turntable. To me was an audiophile albeit without the right equipment. He spent all his money on medias. I consider myself being into high end audio. I have CLSIIZ driven by Pass. I have NHT 3.3s driven by Aragon. I have Meridian processors and players. I have VPI turntable. Soon I will have a Meridian mqa and "high end audio" will change all over again.