High-End Audio - Obsolete?

I remember when it cost me 25c in fuel to go & buy an oz of pot.
 
And I remember when you could buy a heck of a NEW performance car for under $3700.00 in 1969. (1969 Z28, 302cu, 4 sp, pos)

I think high end audio will go Obsolete when people stop spending the money.
 
I am just discovering high end (to me) digital with the purchase of a Calyx Femto DAC. Now I am saving up for an Aurender N100H for my newly discovered hi res files and a better transport than my Oppo BDP-95 for my cd collection. Or perhaps I'll just rip them to FLAC and put them on a drive. I wish I could afford an Aurender N10 or W20 but I am going to have to win the lottery for that. Or I could sell some of the extra gear I have around.

Some people spend many thousands on vacations or many tens of thousands on a new vehicle. I would rather spend that on audio which I can enjoy every day. I have a 2006 Chevy venture van with 240,000 km on it, still runs alright. And my rusty 1996 Ram 1500 pickup has 450,000 km on it but still runs okay. I think there are enough fanatics like me out there to keep higher end audio going (even though I am peanuts by some standards).
 
Albert, for your file player look at the Bryston BDP-2. It now supports DSD, sounds great, and will work great with your DAC. Best of all, by 'high-end' standards it is dirt cheap. Before I got the all in one Lumin I was using the Bryston and Auralic DAC. Which simply moved to the HT system after the Lumin arrived.
 
I remember when the same high-end HiFi brand and model was half the price 3-4 years ago.

Some of the current pricing is spiralling into the realms of insanity. So when the second hand blue book market does not adjust itself accordingly, it shows currently that high-end demand is falling particularly in international (export) market segments.
 
Steve, I think it depends upon the vendor. I will never buy MIT cables again because of their business model. While their cables work well, they have entirely too many product lines that have little to distinguish each from the other. Even worse, their list prices are artificially inflated so that a reseller can give upwards of a 50-75% discount, and still make money.
 
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BlueFox said:
Albert, for your file player look at the Bryston BDP-2. It now supports DSD, sounds great, and will work great with your DAC. Best of all, by 'high-end' standards it is dirt cheap. Before I got the all in one Lumin I was using the Bryston and Auralic DAC. Which simply moved to the HT system after the Lumin arrived.
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I have a very low-hour Bryston BDP-2 unit if interested ??
 
Steve said:
HongKong...I agree with your statement on price also. At the turn of this century, the price/performance ratio was much lower than today.

The Madrigal made Mark Levinson of that era was the best ML product ever made IMO and offers excellent value today. Most of it needs servicing and re-capping but once you are past the repairs, are very fine collectibles. The performance characteristics of the ML33, ML33H, No.32, No.36 & No.37 rival many high end-products still to this day. I love those ML vintage numbers.
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Yes, it's the golden year of ML....I have Proceed PRE and AMP2 too...but Proceed PRE was replaced by Jeff Rowland Corus...
I don't what it is the best : Proceed or Mark Levinson ?
 
hongkong said:
Yes, it's the golden year of ML....I have Proceed PRE and AMP2 too...but Proceed PRE was replaced by Jeff Rowland Corus...
I don't what it is the best : Proceed or Mark Levinson ?
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Proceed was Madrigal's home theater line, same parent co. as Levinson. Proceed was inferior to Levinson, they really weren't in direct competition at the time.
 
Yes, I believe they designed their own card. I think it is a few hundred dollar upgrade, and is getting good press for the sound improvement. James in the Bryston forum can describe it better.
 
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