Threads that should be demoted to mid or even base of the mountain-fi

at least it's modified. ; )

In the absence of a rules sticky outlining the price floor for what's considered "high end", the reader is forced to assume it means high end from a sonic standpoint, which that might be.

Ic and I rarely see eye to eye but I have his back on this one. I know it will take summit-fi a while to sort out whats in and whats out, here is its first test.

nah, the reader is not forced to assume it is high end from a sonic standpoint.

how about this for a rule: if you aren't sure if something is high end, ask me. i'll tell you, and it'll be true, guaranteed.

ALL HAIL JHAT!!!

Let me explain the justification for listing the PS1:
-"Money is no object" implies, to me, no upper or lower bounds on price. It simply means that money is not a factor in the decision. Yes, the PS1 is cheaper than probably any component in this forum, but that shouldn't be factored in the decision. Especially in DIY (for $$$ reasons to be discussed), I think the definition of high-end should be based purely on sonics. Maybe I'm just not meant for this forum (fair enough), but if a $25 source performs equally to a $5000 source, that to me either makes the $25 source high-end, or the $5000 source low-end (and poorly engineered...), but they shouldn't be categorized differently IMO. But maybe the $4975 is a membership fee for summit-fi

-If you do want to factor in money, how about factoring the cost of an engineering education and bill rate? If I started a mod on a PS1 from scratch on my bill rate, the cost for R&D and implementation would eclipse half of the "high end source owners" list in a weekend. For example, I'm probably up to ~$2000+ in labor costs (soldering, spec'ing & programming a display, panel CAD drawings, auxiliary circuit designs, and mechatronics for casework) for my Opus and the case is still empty. I think cost is too much of a grey-area in DIY to be used as a criterion- you don't have the same separation of design/engineering and manufacturing, and the cost to the owner isn't a function of value-based pricing like it is with commercial audio equipment. Basically, it's apples and oranges.

-The purpose of the DIY thread was for information- you can't just look up distributors and sample DIY equipment. I haven't heard most of the equipment I listed, I tried to convey that it was a thread for DIYers looking to build equipment that will compete with commercial "summit-fi" equipment. PS1 was just a suggestion since I've heard people gushing about it, I wasn't trying to say "PS1 is summit-fi material and I stand by it 100%". If it sounded like my definitive list of top-shelf components, I apologize for my communication skills.

Excellent write-up dgbiker1! I agree that high end needs to have high sound otherwise what you wrote is valid .

We still need some clear rules regarding these guidelines -- just to keep the controversies out of here.

If it doesn't meet your definition of "High-End" don't respond to the thread.

High-End is a Philosophy not a numerical value.

But High-End also needs to be referenced to (?) known standards. If you've only heard 1 system- it was probably High-End from your point of reference.

At every meet there is a High-End System in relation to the rest of the equipment at the meet but it might not be considered High-End when viewed in context with the State of the Art as a whole.


Mitch