Prudent financial allocation for audio hardware?

Grateful

Grateful

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Mar 27, 2025
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Hi,
I’m interested in building my “dream audio system” and willing to spend $250-500k in total. This does not include the room and treatment costs. All of my recordings are vinyl or digital. In your opinion, what percentage of my audio hardware budget should be allocated to speakers, amp, preamp, vinyl playback, digital playback, etc.?
 

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In decreasing $ order, IMO

Speakers
Source
Preamp
Amplifier
 
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Grateful said:
Hi,
I’m interested in building my “dream audio system” and willing to spend $250-500k in total. This does not include the room and treatment costs. All of my recordings are vinyl or digital. In your opinion, what percentage of my audio hardware budget should be allocated to speakers, amp, preamp, vinyl playback, digital playback, etc.?
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IMO this is an impossible to answer question. Your budget is high enough for a great system, but a lot depends on things that are not just brand and model. House and logistics are extremely important in creating a system, as well as your expertise and your degree of involvement in the system assembly. Beliefs and biases are also extremely important for a successful system assembly.
 
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Grateful said:
Hi,
I’m interested in building my “dream audio system” and willing to spend $250-500k in total. This does not include the room and treatment costs. All of my recordings are vinyl or digital. In your opinion, what percentage of my audio hardware budget should be allocated to speakers, amp, preamp, vinyl playback, digital playback, etc.?
Click to expand...
If you’re going to spend $500K on an audio setup but are asking people about percentage allocations for speakers, amps, turntables, etc., I think you should reconsider your approach. I’d recommend starting with a $5K system. IMO by the time you reach the point of spending $500K as you advance in the hobby, you won’t feel the need to ask.
 
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Grateful said:
Hi,
I’m interested in building my “dream audio system” and willing to spend $250-500k in total. This does not include the room and treatment costs. All of my recordings are vinyl or digital. In your opinion, what percentage of my audio hardware budget should be allocated to speakers, amp, preamp, vinyl playback, digital playback, etc.?
Click to expand...
your situation is not real world since few if any people would allocate that level of budget to start without already developed strong opinions/biases. but based upon the limited information you provide, here is what i would do....assuming zero strong biases.

do the work. great "dream" systems are labors of love.

forget about dollars. instead listen to as many systems as possible, go to a few shows, and try to find the type of speakers and sources that you prefer. try to find the private rooms with higher end horn systems, some DIY speaker systems, and large panel speakers, well set-up. then step back and assess what touched you....both speakers and sources. did the best sources stand out? or electronics in the signal path? or speakers? follow your preferences.

room size options might push you one direction or the other. large rooms need larger/more expensive speaker systems.

OTOH if you only had $50k? or $30k? i would strongly recommend that you allocate 60% to 80% of your budget on speakers as they would be the dominant performance factor at those budget levels. then most of the rest split on other pieces. but the much higher budget levels really render any generalization as mute.
 
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I agree with Mike, your dream system is YOUR dream system. Not mine, or anyone else's. putting percentages on it doesn't mean much. Like Mike mentioned, you really need to immerse yourself in different brands and types of components and rooms and formulate what does it for you.

For example, I know someone that absolutely LOVES Nordost and went for a full Nordost Gold loom. That costs 10x what his speakers did(!), but hey, he's happy. He loves it. That's all that matters, not what we think.

It's unclear to me if you already know what you like, but once that is figured out, just go for it. Your budget allows for quite a system!
 
with a large budget there is a wide range of right answers. all of which could ring the bell. but also chances to not allow each piece to be optimized.

the question would be one of avoid limiting pieces and have balance and synergy. every piece in the chain needs to be not limiting. for instance with $500k budget one could buy a $200k turntable, but then the rest of the system would need to be able to not restrict that turntable from showing what it can do. and conversely buying a $400k speaker system would then require electronics and sources that could allow that speaker to show what it can do. a tall order.

system development is all about eliminating the weakest link, so you get 100% of what the pieces can do. also, avoiding coloration and strong character is part of the picture as those require balancing pieces and loss of musical essence.
 
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