Wbf best system under $30k

[Rodney Gold]

Orions need a 6 channel amp..I used an ATI when I had mine.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Mike Lavigne could you repeat your under thirty grand system here.

I posted the below response on Frantz's thread 'The State of High End Audio' here.

I think there are great opportunities for an under $30k (at retail) total high end system.

consider the Evolution Acoustics Micro Ones, $4k plus the darTZeel LHC-208 "danalog" dac-pre-amplifier; around $15k leaving $10k for any number of $3k phono stages and $7k tt/arm/carts. in a few months there will be the Micro Two's (around $10k) which will be more full range than the Micro One's.

the dart 208 hits waaay above it's price point as a dac and as an amplifier. I view it as sounding much like my 458's. this little box gets you far into the heart of high end performance yet still includes a great (darTZeel) analog preamp.

you would need your own server.

I've spent hours listening to this exact system (with a Mac Pro as the server) at multiple audio shows. it's real world right now and killer.

or you could add a JL113 or other subwoofer instead of the upgrade to the speakers.

as an alternative speaker; there are any number of $20k-$25k 'at retail' speakers one could acquire used for around $10k which one could substitute in for the Evolution MM1's. the cool part is that the darTZeel 208 has the balls and refinement to measure up to top level speakers.

 

[Gregadd]

Digital should be portable.I'll go with the Sony pha3 for$ 1k.
VPI ARIES 3 with tonearm
Sumiko Celebration $4800+ 2800
NOLA KO $10,000
MOSCODDE 402AU$6500
Allnic Audio preamp and phonograph stage
L1500&H1500 $13,000
I need to recheck model numbers.
So I am way over. I'll need a 20 to 25% discount. It's doable. ?


With RCM and cables I probably went over.

 

[Chris F]

OK, I'll play with some hypothetical money.

For 30K I think you can do excellent digital, analog and personal audio.


How about:
JBL 4367 15K
Schiit Ragnarok (speaker and headphone amp, pre-amp) 1.7K
Schiit Yggdrasil DAC 2.3K
Room treatments from GIK 2K
Calibrated dayton emm-6 from cross spectrum labs $75
Sonarworks or Accourate $200-400
VPI Classic Signature SE (classic 3 with 3D arm and SDS) $5K (music direct sale)
Ortofon Cadenza Bronze $2.3K
Lehmann Black Cube SE II $1150
Sennheiser 650 Headphones $400 (wait for a sale)

Total: $30150

I didn't include cables but you can keep it effective and budget. (mogami etc...)

 

[Gregadd]

Whew! Good choices. For a moment there I thought where Schiit-ing me.

 

[KeithR]

Zu Audio Definition IV - 13k
Jadis I35- 7k
Rega RP8- 3k
Cartridge- 1.5k
Chord Hugo- 2.5k
Aurender- 2.5k

cheap cables - or use an existing laptop/Mac Mini for now and wait on the aurender

this is a nice, balanced system.

 

[Gregadd]

OK the NOLA KO IS now NOLA KO2 at $12k. Yikes!

 

[DaveC]

as an alternative speaker; there are any number of $20k-$25k 'at retail' speakers one could acquire used for around $10k which one could substitute in for the Evolution MM1's. the cool part is that the darTZeel 208 has the balls and refinement to measure up to top level speakers.

You could find a pair of TAD Evolution Towers used, they are hard to beat at any price and are not hard to drive. It's sad the Pioneer S-1EX were discontinued.

 

[Gregadd]

This is an academic exercise. In the real world save every penny.

 

[rbbert]

I'm a little surprised there isn't more support for Magnepan, either the 3.7R or even the 20.7.

 

[Folsom]

Speakers: Piega Coax 30.2 $8.6k
Amp: Folsom Consort $3k
DAC:Bel Canto DAC 2.5: $2.5k
Transport: Oppo 103: $500
Power Conditioner:Audience ar6 $3.5k

Accessory: Furutech GTX-D(R) $160
IC: ZenWave D4 $950
DIC: VooDoo Cable Silverstream Digital $125
Speaker Cables: Analysis Plus's Solo Crystal Oval 8 (8ft) $1.7k
Power Cords: PS Audio's Perfect Wave AC-3 (3x) $390
Audiophile Fuse: on sale, for the DAC $10 at Parts-Connexion

= $19,736.7

Meh I guess I went over... even after taking lots of stuff out! Were I try to really get the price down a lot I'd swap out for Piega Premium 50.2's.

I like Piega tweeters a lot, so I decided to dive full in with a midrange by them. To save money I chose my amp even though it's limited on power I didn't want to give up any refinement or solidness. I went with the Bel Canto DAC because the volume control in it is good enough for the system; but I'd love to swap it for something else if I could figure out what (I think they're good DAC's though). The Oppo should be sufficient. And power conditioning is a must. The Furutech receptacle is important, but could be traded down for a phosphorous bronze unit. The D4's are not tradable... The digital cable is 75ohm silver. I like Analysis Plus's speaker cables they really do bring in bass (much to my dismay while swapping cables). And then I figured I'd upgrade the stock power cables.

 

[Gregadd]

I'm a little surprised there isn't more support for Magnepan, either the 3.7R or even the 20.7.

I might have picked the Maggie if Frantz had not beat me to it.
I think its' strong suit is it is so agreeable with solid state and digital.

 

[Al M.]

OK, I'll play with some hypothetical money.

For 30K I think you can do excellent digital, analog and personal audio.


How about:
JBL 4367 15K
Schiit Ragnarok (speaker and headphone amp, pre-amp) 1.7K
Schiit Yggdrasil DAC 2.3K
Room treatments from GIK 2K
Calibrated dayton emm-6 from cross spectrum labs $75
Sonarworks or Accourate $200-400
VPI Classic Signature SE (classic 3 with 3D arm and SDS) $5K (music direct sale)
Ortofon Cadenza Bronze $2.3K
Lehmann Black Cube SE II $1150
Sennheiser 650 Headphones $400 (wait for a sale)

Total: $30150

I didn't include cables but you can keep it effective and budget. (mogami etc...)

Great that you included room treatments. These are essential for most rooms. I would even go so far to suggest that a $ 30K system could reasonably include $ 5K worth of room treatments in order to balance equipment with necessary attention to room acoustics. I'd rather spend that money and less on the speakers; after all the speakers will only sound as good as the speaker/room interaction allows.

 

[Al M.]

Speakers: Piega Coax 30.2 $8.6k
Amp: Folsom Consort $3k
DAC:Bel Canto DAC 2.5: $2.5k
Transport: Oppo 103: $500
Power Conditioner:Audience ar6 $3.5k

Accessory: Furutech GTX-D(R) $160
IC: ZenWave D4 $950
DIC: VooDoo Cable Silverstream Digital $125
Speaker Cables: Analysis Plus's Solo Crystal Oval 8 (8ft) $1.7k
Power Cords: PS Audio's Perfect Wave AC-3 (3x) $390
Audiophile Fuse: on sale, for the DAC $10 at Parts-Connexion

= $19,736.7

Meh I guess I went over... even after taking lots of stuff out! Were I try to really get the price down a lot I'd swap out for Piega Premium 50.2's.

I like Piega tweeters a lot, so I decided to dive full in with a midrange by them. To save money I chose my amp even though it's limited on power I didn't want to give up any refinement or solidness. I went with the Bel Canto DAC because the volume control in it is good enough for the system; but I'd love to swap it for something else if I could figure out what (I think they're good DAC's though). The Oppo should be sufficient. And power conditioning is a must. The Furutech receptacle is important, but could be traded down for a phosphorous bronze unit. The D4's are not tradable... The digital cable is 75ohm silver. I like Analysis Plus's speaker cables they really do bring in bass (much to my dismay while swapping cables). And then I figured I'd upgrade the stock power cables.

I agree with you that power conditioning is a must. It shoud be included in every system, just like acoustic room treatments.

 

[FrantzM]

Another system I would like to propose. I have not heard it but some individual components, yes:

Magnepan 3.7i $6,000
Devialet 400 (used) $12,000
SVS SB2000 x4 $2800
Mini DSP $750
Blizzard's Streamer $250 (don't know if it would be necessary in a Devialet-based system )
Good TT/Arm/Cart $5-6,000
Cables if you care with whatever left . I would suggest to invest in room treatment and later in cables

There are some serious bargain on TT these days. recently found a Triplanar at a more than decent price so...

With care this system can do single digits to 40 KHz flat in a medium to large room.

 

[FrantzM]

I agree with you that power conditioning is a must. It shoud be included in every system, just like acoustic room treatments.

I am a fan of double conversion UPS. They can be had on the second-hand market in very good shape for <$1K for 3 KVA enough tp juice out many high power systems. A different but noteworthy subject. I simply can't understand why they are not more popular in the audiophile community but hey .. They carry no audiophiles creds whatsoever.. being boring units that simply provide a cleaner AC than most if not all audiophile units can claim on measurable parameters and with downright mundane price tag even new.

See this one here:

 

[Gregadd]

The term Audiophile is an expensive brand name. And so often misleading.

 

[Gregadd]

It ses to me especially with the decline of physical media an integrated amp would be a no brainer. A nice computer or music server would be the way to go.

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

It ses to me especially with the decline of physical media an integrated amp would be a no brainer. A nice computer or music server would be the way to go.

I'm not comprehending your reasoning for this?

 

[beaur]

Here's my contribution. I have heard all pieces just not in the same system. For digital I included an all in one server so no separate computer necessary and I didn't include a CD player. Get an OPPO if you want to spin discs.

Speakers; Devore O93 (friend has)
Integrated Amp; Line Magnetic 218IA (friend has)
Server; Antipodes DS (heard briefly)
DAC; Bel Canto 2.7 (own the 3.5 version)
Turntable; Analog Engineering 208 (own)
Tonearm; Abis SA1 (own)
Cartridge; Denon 103 (own)

Given the vagaries of retail and negotiation there should be $7K or so to fill in with cables, tools, power conditioning, room treatments, tweaks of your choice, just as if you were starting from scratch.