Audiophile preamps - What should you get for $30,000?
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Sunday December 15, 2024
David Mellor
David Mellor is CEO and Course Director of Audio Masterclass. David has designed courses in audio education and training since 1986 and is the publisher and principal writer of Adventures In Audio.
@Atelierul29: For 30000 you should get some proper help or at least a decent car!
@danielpally2641: Don´t forget about the silver wire audiophile grade mains fuse.
@John-ys2pn: think for thirty thousand your gonna imagine its good......blind test people they cant tell .....its a lot of concert tickets...
@Haifeif55: Ever heard of the McGurk effect? Our brains overwrites what we hear by what we see. And there is nothing we can do about it. So when we see a pricetag of 30k - guess what we hear?
@johng4991: In the day I had a rotel michi phono stage pink triangle anniversary turntable sme series five tone arm Lyra Lydian cartridge. Bought a tom Evans grove phono stage. Looked great but in reality it was not as good as my r9otel michi so I moved it on..
@brunohebert1351: A better shipping and care in delivery would a good start.
I mean if that preamp hadn't been busted in shipping it would not have ended on Mend it Mark's end and we would have probably never have heard of it.
Install and setup would also be nice to have for that price.
In the speakers world, some companies do that in that price range (or maybe even less), of course, it's location depending but still. You pay a lot but there's service that comes with the product.
In this case, there's no care at all for the customer, it seems.
@swift10falcon: Ripped off for being extremely stupid.
@ramonmendoza7125: Love your reviews.
@xfloodcasual8124: This guy sounds like a south park character
@Mane-man82: Parts are from Ali express I recently worked there as rubbish removal as the unit was a mess,and there was big empty box’s of 1000 pc Chinese valve’s and resistors so that is what gets you the 30k.the technician building them though is top of his game but components are cheap shit
@Silver-e7m: I read a comment from a person who doesn't have a problem with, say, 400,000 euros for speakers. He said, and I quote: "I don't have a problem buying it, but I wouldn't even consider throwing my money away."
@MusicwithMascots: Let’s see, 5k seems fair. I want 8% interest on the rest until they give it back!
@patthewoodboy: Tom Evans has come across as a very bad buisness man and a man with narcissistic tendencies ?
@texasbassranger: I got into stereo hifi in the mid 70s and I've bought and sold thousands of dollars of components. I know what good two channel stereo sounds like, unlike much of the younger folks today. They are happy with a crappy Bluetooth speaker and Spotify.
The diminished return on gear like this is huge. I found that out when I A/B'd my 3000.00 Focal Stellia set against a 500.00 set of Sennheiser cans. It kind of pissed me off that I did not hear the difference I expected. From what I've observed, rich guys buy stuff like this as a badge of honor and bragging rights. It's nothing for you to whip out your black card and pay that much for stuff like this.
The rest of us, we have to settle. The problem is, some folks spend tens of thousands of dollars, searching for the perfect sound...and it always eludes them. I am glad I came to discover the truth.
Sometimes guys, good enough is just good enough.
@WizardClipAudio: 3:40 - concerning AC power interference, an Isolation Power Transformer Automatic Line Stabilizer ought to be your highest priority in any sort of expensive audio setup. Whether it’s some cool vintage hifi setup you picked up off the side of the road, or you spent stupid-dollars on snake-oil, or music production/reproduction setup, you should be using an adequate power supply system to the whole setup. Not just to enhance the sound quality alone, but to preserve and protect your investment in it. That’s like the 101 of professional or consumer audio wisdom. 😂
@AudioMasterclass replies to @WizardClipAudio: I am not in disagreement. I have looked at mains on an oscilloscope and was fortunate not to receive a Darwin award. It was a mess. I don't care whether I can hear the effect of that mess or not, I would prefer my audio to be powered by a sine wave, and for your other reasons. Sometimes there is just right and wrong.
@WizardClipAudio replies to @WizardClipAudio: @@AudioMasterclassYeah, I’m not entirely sure what you’re implying about preferring sine wave, on account that an isolation transformer doesn’t square off waves, so much as isolates it from mains, reduces ground noise interference, lowers the sound floor, and senses for anything particularly unusual on either side of windings and trips preventing electrocution or damage to your equipment and buffers out micro surges with mondo-sized capacitors. The primary one I use to run everything in my studio through a modular hub of 6 breakout boxes is hospital industry grade, designed for life support and vital sign monitoring equipment. Saved my life on a few occasions while working on live electronics, and saved my equipment from some serious power surges, and one instance where a fault from a storm up the road fed back hot over the neutral line, and blew every light that wasn’t incandescent in my house, and every tv that was plugged straight to mains, and not my transformer. The transformer tripped when none of the mains or surge protectors did, saving everything that wasn’t incandescent wisely connected to it. 😮💨❤
@WizardClipAudio: As a sound engineer and someone that love vinyl, don’t get me wrong, but if your audio media requires a 10 thousand dollar + preamp to sound ‘good’, it sucks. It’s like putting makeup 💄 on a pig. 🐷 Also, when it comes to vinyl sound reproduction, the preamp quality, presuming it’s adequately performing its baseline job correctly, is probably the least significant component in the chain from stylus to speaker. I honestly don’t know what an expensive ‘audiophile quality’ phono-preamp is supposed to sound like, but all of my phono-preamps, of various prices and vintages are transparent enough that they’re virtually indistinguishable on their own merit, to my ears. 🤷♂️
@stevenwilliams6258: I saw an interview discussing phase and that their power amp went to 1 MHz to have audio frequencies in phase. And of course matched with speakers that also provide phase alignment of drivers.
Isn't phase messed up at higher frequencies by head position? I know speakers with crossovers aren't perfect in phase. Or, do these use an all-pass active crossover with power amps for each driver? No, otherwise the 150W amp would only be for bass and mid ranges (each using about 50% power if crossed at 400 to 500 Hz) and only two power amps were shown, one per speaker.
My DIY power amps only go to 22KHz. My tube pre with transformer coupling at both input and output goes a bit higher. Sounds very good. Everyone who hears it seem amazed at how real it sounds.
I guess I will just have to wonder how great those other amps would sound. I would have to use my Allen Wright DIY RTP5 preamp that only goes to 220KHz oy my DIY Pass Aleph 1.7 preamp that goes to over 100KHz with them. What a shame that I wouldn't be able to match the 1MHz amplifier with a suitable preamp.
@Chronos_TVee: I can afford that, but these audiophiles are just wasting money... im sorry but if you gotta spend nearly half a million in total on a setup that gasp is the performance you got in the high end during the 70s is just a huge waste when you can get the same performance for a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of that cost. The audiophile badge is just a big $$$ to these guys, the best turntable ever made was released nearly 50 years ago, amps and preamps have seen improvements but quickly devolved around the time a/v receivers started showing up in the 90s.
@five5x: You may not be able to afford the phono preamp, but your accent sure sounds like it does. lol
@bepolite22: After watching Mark's video I think that there's not a preamp in the world that can be at that price. I will like to see what think that people that use to say " you get what you pay for".
@krazy.88: well.. i will skip all those preamps coz here in my country you can still get a house for this price.
@stevenbliss989: There is none, you need your head examined to buy ANYTHING near that amount!!!!!!!!!!!
@axonis2306: Tom Evans was audiophiling those ICs.
@sao9995: I love this channel! The best common sense source for audiophiles!
@ivankovac69: 30.000 za preamp? Len pre ľudí s lepším sluchom ako Mozart!😂
@vordan7111: NOTHING in audio, including speakers, should cost more than several hundred, max. a thousand. Everything else is for gullible so-called "audio-enthusiasts".
@Wised1000: If you think you need a 30k pre amp there is something you should definitely get..... A LIFE!
@zonavarbondagoo4074: After watching Mend-it-Mark's original video about the Mastergroove pre-amp I nearly puked when I saw how it was designed/constructed. OMFG!
@bucktis9: BOY I'D LIKE TO MEET THE IDOIT WHO BOUGHT A $30,000 POS
@webekelven: Retail prices in high-fidelity used to be 5 times the cost of the parts.
This theoretically covered the labor to assemble the product, too.
If the parts cost the manufacturer $1000, the retail price would be $5000.
The dealer margin used to be a minimum of 40%, but if the dealer and manufacturer had to a "1 to show, 1 to go" agreement, then the margin could be closer to 50%, (or higher if there was an agreed upon number of units that would be sold over a specified period of time).
Given the high-fidelity market is not a commodity based market, one could expect prices would be higher than what one would find at a general department store that sold mass produced stereo components.
The supply/demand numbers on high-fidelity products have never been very high, and with fewer bricks and mortar stores the market has changed--along with the pricing structure based upon these changes.
I very much appreciate you mentioning Tim de Paravicini, whose rebuild of the Technics RS-1500 tape machine can be seen and heard operating for a few seconds here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov2R5QBDktg
As a manufacturer of high-fidelity products that includes a full-function symmetrically balanced preamp (line stage + MM/MC phono stage) that sells for less than half of the item under discussion, while the total parts cost remains close to one fifth of the retail price, I have often been told that my products are underpriced and if I wanted to sell more product, then the price should be increased.
The myth of "perceived value" permeates high-fidelity audio, albeit frequently the perception has nothing to do with reality, let alone the primary sense that is served: our hearing.
@user-tk7kz1fl2r: You can buy an exceptional preamp for £10,000. Some guys will say 30 to 40 k plus is where it gets magical. I disagree based on my own purchases in these price ranges. I wont mention brands, but my £10k modular preamp with just two output modules, sounds as good as my much higher priced preamp which is in another room. Both have top build quality and are dead silent in operation. The lower priced unit represents fantastic value. I think there is no need to spend £25 k on a preamp and especially one that looks like a plain box. At those prices, kit has to look the part too. Check out German hifi and discover what those guys are capable of.
@brucerosner3547: I never understood why $30K pre-amps don't use batteries for DC.
@gregdrew874: 30K on a preamp should get you a psyche eval.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @gregdrew874: That and the followup treatment will soak up any money you have left.
@krautsky: To justify 30 000$? What justification? Labour input? Parts input? No way, parts maybe 2000$ if covered in fairy dust? Handbuilt? maybe 10 000 if someone needs 200 hours at 50$/hr? Designing a preamp? What could possibly revolutionary of a technology that is at least 50 years mature. OK, let it be mental strain worth 10 000$. That makes 22 000$. So 8000$ for hype and hyperbole? Yeah, sounds like a good marketing strategy.
@Nirky: For $30,000 I would expect a very nice sounding preamp & a fully constructed guest cabin.
@barlow2976: My Marxist tendencies would prevent me from spending such sums, and I would warn that, come year zero, you won't want to be found in posession of such bourgeoise items.
I would be embarassed to admit I had spent $30K on a preamp, for all sorts of reasons.
@icarossavvides2641: If there's one thing us Brits can do well it's sarcasm!🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@svendtveskg5719: I agree with The-Nil-By-Mouth on a lifetime warranty. Besides that a transparent case to watch all that goodness. And I totally agree on the access to the guy/people/company that made the amp, feeling that you're "a part of something". Soundwise I don't care, 85% of the music I listen to is recorded before 1960 in mono with one microphone in 5 minutes in a back alley studio anyway...
@stevenclarke5606: I’ve made my £75,000 preamp from components sourced from Area 51
@foxtrotzulualpha: The point (price) of diminishing return for your audio equipment should equal to or less than your hearing
@MartinPGrindrod: I would expect to take the lid off a $30,000 preamp and find $29,500 worth of diamonds inside!
@pjhandle: I am an electrical engineer and watched the video that went viral where Mark in a very professional way repaired a 30k pre amp that had a horrible design, was build even worse and the case was a joke. The components were just regular components (like 99% of the audio jewelry). But if it makes the buyer happy then it doesn't make much sense to say it's a piece of crap.
@ss9749: I'm holding a spool of 18 gauge 925 sterling sliver wire for jewelry. How about hand wiring the whole thing using said wire but in appropriate gauge for the application. Hand wound silver wire transformers, point to point wiring and all the other little things people like. I don't know, I personally wouldn't pay more than a couple hundred buck for a pre amp, but I am not an audiophile. I'm pretty happy with the sound I get from my Focal Elex headphones and a little USB DAC dongle for my phone or laptop.
@Raul_007: Excellent !!!
@jimdemetri8168: Im a pro sound engineer that worked in some of the biggest and best studios on the planet. And i can tell you that there is no pre amp ive use that is worth 30000 😂. The in joke in our profession is audiophiles 😂😂😂😂
@mineown1861: Maybe , but not as an audio system.
@josemontenegro7232: Quere cobrar 30.000€ por un preamplificador no debería ser delito. Pagar 30.000€ por un preamplificador si. <<A caso no hay cosas mejores que hacer con el dinero?
: Radio interference protection circuitry and screened internal signal leads?
@ianramsay7306: Why are you commenting on this affair?
If anyone is in this corner of the market with that kind of money then hell-mend-them.
We can think for ourselves>
@AudioMasterclass replies to @ianramsay7306: Strange as it may seem, people come to YouTube to hear topics discussed and perhaps comment themselves. But if you’ve already made your mind up on everything I don’t think YouTube is for you.
@GShockWatchFan.: At that price it needs to come with bionic ears!
@AudioMasterclass replies to @GShockWatchFan.: $3,000,000 a side.
@witeshade: Why not cryogenic or at least thermoelectric cooling for the components? Astrophotographers can do it and it makes a huge difference for them, and it's acheivable for hobbyists. For a 30k product it should be no big deal.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @witeshade: I don't think this is unreasonable if we're talking about the highest of high end and the ultimate in performance has become an end in itself.
@grahamtricker4103: Firstly, let's be clear. The Tom Evans amplifier in question is a Phono Stage, not a preamplifier. A preamplifier, or line stage as it is referred to these days is normally a control unit where a number of inputs at line level are selected and then amplified or buffered. This is then connected to a power amplifier. The Phono Stage could also be connected to an Integrated amplifier. The Tom Evans amplifier amplifies the signal from the MC cartridge so it is a Phono Stage, or phono amplifier, it is sometimes also referred to as an RIAA stage, not a preamplifier. It is even listed on Tom Evans website under "Phono Stages".
@ctrlzyx2 replies to @grahamtricker4103: All true. The sad thing is if you open up any of this high end audio stuff and you know anything about what you are looking at the cost cannot be justified. It also doesn't help the seller's cause to get silly with a physically massive power supply for a phono stage.
@IdiocracyToday: Tom doesn't waste money on swanky webdesign, that's for sure ;)
@AudioMasterclass replies to @IdiocracyToday: You wouldn't be the only one to have noticed.
@sivoltage: Is there a sales brochure for this preamp? If so I wonder what it claims. Trading standards etc etc...
@sivoltage: Well said, thank you. Thats the deposit on my new home saved ;)
@AudioMasterclass replies to @sivoltage: You're welcome. One wonders where audiophilia should fit into this... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs#/media/File:Maslow's_Hierarchy_of_Needs2.svg
@poptartmcjelly7054: for 30k i'd expect the amp to be delivered by a lady who can suck a watermelon through a coffee straw.
@rickrick1-r3q: I run my velodyne SPL-R sub with a pair of Roland d-20 powered monitors. I use a cheap ass £8 bluetooth adapter to stream my music from my mobile. Sounds great to me. Im happy 😀
@MeriaDuck: Would get a car worth $29700 and a $300 pre amp....
@henryvaneyk3769: The number one reason manufacturers remove part numbers from components is to hide the fact that they stole someone else's circuit design, not to prevent people from building their designs. There are more than enough excellent DIY designs already available that would put Tom's pre-amp to shame. Some designs provided by Nelson Pass to the DIY community comes to mind.
@SlowMenThinking: Yes I do own a $1700 preamp bought in the late 80's built in New Zealand bought in New Zealand as I live In New Zealand. This was in maybe in that company's first bankruptcy or second so it was at a reduced price, Still expensive in its day. Inside it it is a thing of beauty, outside form and function. Today this thing still works as intended and as far as I can tell in speck, Its Power Amp still a Beautiful Brute of a thing has had two major repairs done (input section and power filtering). Why back in the day I could not make something so functional and beautiful, Today I can get cloce to that quality and performance. Though these days it is bits of recording equipment (preamps mixers guitar amps and pedals) made for my use alone and made to muck up a pristine signal to add warmth and colour to the recorded part! Talk about exclusive. To me the Preamp is still loved and used every day it has been the heart of my main music playback system for 36 odd years! Now from what I have seen of the MASTER6OOVE the circuit typology and execution was on par with what one could expect even down to the shielding (internal) ground isolation except for the layout looked like the type of projects I would have made when I was 19, that case lets not talk about it except for one word "CHEEP". P.S. I am now considering myself as a recovering Audiophile.
@chrisquirk4754: Capacitors on the board should be colourful, so tantalums all round! Oh, err...
@zeroxception: yawn
@AudioMasterclass replies to @zeroxception: 1692 likes. You’re out of step mate.
@pointvector1951: If you look at power leveler and design, coupled with any type of computational use...you need only look at a normal everyday consumer computer pc motherboard. I can guarantee the power stages are the cleanest you'd ever see, in comparison to audio stuff. Add the most precise and best cpu's available by mankind and you're no where near 30k. That's my point. It isn't a comparison, its a source cost of the parts. I could buy this part and rip it apart, study the data sheet and put the same thing together for pennies on the dollar. It's not worth what it can do. DM knows this, as he's had the best of the best in the industry. This is why I love this channel.
@olias2k979: Personally Ive worked on Amplifiers and audio equipment used by folk from Orchestra audio techs with 70 pieces of gear connected to an amplifier system listened to by people that would notice if a moth landed on a players shoulder during a performance, to 20,000 Watts fo Death Metal at Glastonbury. Ive seen the inside of this amplifier Mark worked on in the video and personally I wouldn't have forked out $500 for it, let alone the ridiculous sum.
Components unshielded and touching each other transferring the noise from one item to the next, Each Tantalum Capacitor should have an air gap around it of at least 75 thousandth of an inch or have a tube of copper around it to dissipate heat and ground any spurious emissions. As we all know any and all NPN or PNP junction transfers causing a small noise, these noises all add up. A piece of double sided circuit board wont stop an omnidirectional signal no matter how small. In the amp in question, I dont recall seeing any shielding in use other than air and space.
You sir are a good analyst and should invest time into seeing what actually causes noise in any amplification circuit. I enjoyed the video greatly.
@LOTPOR0402: What should you get for 30k , lobotomised you must be mad
@0dium.: and at the end of the chain , a mature rich man with diminished hearing ... 🤣
@Ray_of_Light62: Make no sense to use a tube preamp if it isn't followed by a tupe power amp. The true magic is with a proper 100+100 Wrms tube power amp, with oriented-grain output transformer...
@AudioMasterclass replies to @Ray_of_Light62: Some might say that tube on tube is too much. I've used tube microphones through tube preamps and it wouldn't be my personal everyday preference, but interesting on the right material.
@deskelly9313: Unfortunately, audiophile cult members are not interested in objective testing, empirical measurement, value for money or even music.. Their priests are well aware of this and milk them for every penny they can while laughing at their gullibility
@thedave1771: Well presented! Where do I get one? 😂
@AudioMasterclass replies to @thedave1771: In your imagination.
@MondstaubMusik: The only thing that wld justify to buy this Phono Preamp if it's containing at least 29K worth of Gold that is easy to retrieve. .This is the best i could come up with after having seen what a shabby piece of work this Preamp is.P.S. Shabby is a compliment
@MrMelodyCold: It is cheaper to pay a full course of physics or electronics instead of buying that crap
@1697djh: I agree audiophile mains cables are snake oil. My local dealer lent me a couple of Titan STYX mains cables to use with my Naim 250DR, and my power supply. I discarded the Naim Crabtree cable for a week while I tried the Titan cables. I thought there was little difference when I first swapped; when I swapped back, the difference was so obvious I had to make the purchase. The Naim Superline runs rings around their Stageline, but is it £2500 worth it? Maybe?
@kendom33: Many thanks for supporting Mark's channel
@Raptorace225: HAHAHAHAHA! What a joke. If someone is stupid enough to spend that on any device, I have no sympathy for them.
@falenone: For 30k I want a premium used car or a cheaper brand but new
@Popecody55: Just wanne say Merry x mas. 😂😂 love your shows 😮 love from Denmark. A small country with a lot of hi fi. Merry xmas.
Best xmas song from my country are.
Laid back with so this is xmas
@nagyandras8857: look. its a pre-amp. if it ain't running from a battery, then i consider it junk. filtering the powersupply is essential, mains noise is a thing. so ditch the mains. no mains, no noise from the mains. there are HEAPS of very good opamps out there. build the bread and butter instrumentations amplifier circuit, and yer set. that simple. won't cost 30k, and will do about the best job that can be done.
@Signal_Glow replies to @nagyandras8857: Power supply is not an issue for decades. There are many pro audio preamps that have built in ribbon mic inputs where signals levels are down there with MC, most are as silent as audiophile stuff, despite internal power transformer and the rest of the psu.
@nagyandras8857 replies to @nagyandras8857: @Signal_Glow true indeed. But supposedly assume you want the best. Just have 2 sla battery in series , regulate em to 9 volts , and have a ground point inbetween. And there you have it. No powersupply powered from the main's will ever be close to it. Surely an MC has very very small voltage... even less current to speak of.. the total stack of amplification to reach the speakers is a huge lot.
If anything sips its way into the amplifier reaponsible to have that few mV voltage pumped to line levels , it will get amplified down the road. Wanting the best and cleanest deal is justified.
But the approach of going at it whit a powersupply powered from the main's is silly. It will cost quite a lot to get the proper rails , whit sufficient filtering and dampening. The sla battery option is both simple , cheap , and unrivaled by all means.
@Signal_Glow replies to @nagyandras8857: @@nagyandras8857 Batteries would be the best choice if they were practical, unfortunately they are not yet. Getting standard voltages is easy, others like power supply for microphones (phantom power or external supply that comes with microphone) not so much, the same goes for +-18V, 300V and others because current draw can be "significant" (for a preamp). Typical solid state preamp with option for ribbon microphones with levels comparable to those of MC will have at least two power lines, tube models three or more. Using very simple discrete circuits (not chips) i get noise down to tenths of uV which is enough, good regulators with some tricks do even better. Some of the best MC preamps using tubes which don't have good power supply rejection have very rudimentary supplies, yet they perform just fine. I believe audiophiles would rethink their approach if they knew what was used to record music they like.
@raycochrane3971: The move from obscured criticism/sarcasm/satire to a straight out critique/compare/contrast is, nevertheless, a little jarring. Teenage Fanclub's third album comes to mind.
@shaunclarke94: How about warranty. 🤣🤣🤣
@dustinblack-e3f: for $30,000 I could build rack mount audio studio ,,,, sounds overpriced to me
@Signal_Glow replies to @dustinblack-e3f: Sure, you could even afford a couple of high quality pro audio preamps that deal with ribbon signals in milivolt range, just like MC preamps. Even tube designs with poor PSRR (require better power supply) can do it easily, often with better sound and longer service life.
@Gin-toki: well, 1 grand in cocobolo wood would certainly add 1 grand in worth to the item, given the wood is not used and can still be sold for the original price :P
@marcussvensor: There is so much BS in the Hi-fi market, many things totally ridicules, such as high grade digital cables, power cables and power conditioners. In reality, 30,000$ is a shit load of money and what do you really get over a 300$ preamp, maybe 0.001% improvement - listening to vinyl, a medium, that is by no means perfect and with substantial variation in quality between records (even if the mastering and cutting were originally perfect). And of course, any improvement you might get, is instantly undone, if the acoustics of the room and many others factors are not also perfect - and that includes your ears. Many audiophiles, don't forget, are not exactly young, the reggaeton listening granddaughter will certainly have better sonic range than they do.
@daniel_steinmann: If I had 30k bucks to spend on audio gear t would likely be 27k in a pair of loudspeakers and 3k in electronics. But I don't have that money and assumably not the ears to distinguish from my current $2000 system. My record collection might be worth 30 grand though, but I still fondly listen to them via a moving magnet setup.
On the other hand if anything justifies a 30 grand price tag then I would expect a gold plated cast metal cabinet that needs two people to lift off the shelf; containing a studio grade rack-and-cards layout and comes with a gloss printed 500 page manual to have it serviced even in case the builder deceases early....
@ugh-yes-its-me: I have a 90s Kenwood amplifier and other components, all bought at flea markets for less than €50 each, and cannot tell the difference between what I have and a high-end system that was shown to me the other day.
@barlow2976 replies to @ugh-yes-its-me: My collection of vintage stuff cost little more than £1200, and sounds equal to 'high end' sytems I've heard, at least to my sixty year-old ears. I take pleasure in boasting how little I've paid, unlike the buyers of top-end gear, where half their pleasure comes from boasting how much they have spent.
@MrBrianms: So you may suggest A DC battery. Titanium shell with Gemstones for colour LEDs. Have a manual for a 1970s DIY power amp. There are so many silicon chips in audio production. plug in analogue instruments to be sure.
@robertoney5665: You audiophiles are insane! How do you squeeze more sound from sound?? 😅 Explain it not with your opinion but with TRUE FACTS. 😅
@pedrosmith4529: A manual with all the schematics would add value...
@BrunodeSouzaLino: I know something great you should get for 30k which would suit that budget better: Therapy. The most expensive audiophile equipment doesn't even come close to the precision or quality of top end measuring equipment, like some high end digital oscilloscopes that take billions of samples per second and measure in the Gigahertz range. Those often cost 500k.
@karldegroot3131: ...diminishing marginal utility...as I recall. And a high negative slope, after a point.
@marstedt: How much of the top performing pro-audio gear is made using acrylic plastic enclosures? What magic has The Genius, Tom Evans, discovered?!?
@olafzijnbuis: Why bother. As long as people pay tax over their overpriced equipment it is just taxation of stupidity.
I have seen high-end valve amplifiers with the coupling capacitors the wrong way around.
When I pointed it out I was told there was no + or - side on the capacitors.
That's correct, but the internal construction is important. The outer layer must be on the low-impedance (driving) side. The seller then just ignored me...
@jackcole3146: There's lots of audiophools around willing to pay what normal people would pay for a house.
@ebb2421: for 30K, it better have the quality of premium HP test gear...
@erwintimmerman6466: "If you ever looked at mains on an oscilloscope... you'll be shocked" 😆
@aubattler: Nothing
@mxmmlsk: buy a used kondo pre and u are good
@stevendog510: I would suggest a US 10 treasury Bond at 4.5%, you get $1350 back every year! With that money you can play pocket pool...
@JordonBeal: Ahh, Audiophiles. Spending tens of thousands of dollars on a playback system to listen to something probably mixed on an $800 set of NS10's from the 80's.
@Teslamaniac: These are made for people with too much money and think it`s cool to to go and buy a new Hi Fi.