What is your absolute price limit for audio gear?

Speakers: $1,000

Speaker Amplifier: $500

Headphones: $300

Headphone Amp: $100

DAC: $100

Cables: $5

 

I used to have a much higher limit for how much I'm willing to spend on equipment, these days I chase getting the most for my money.

whatever my account balance is...lol~~

 

well, i've got a LCD-2 and ref8 and pending rudistor rp010b mkii(waiting AUDUSD to be 1.2!!)

 

and guess when i got rudistor, my last purchase would be LA7000

What good is a $1,500 price ceiling on headphones if you end up buying four pairs of $1,500 headphones? 

 

Anyhow, I think I'm already at my limits.

 

Headphones: $1,500

Amp: $2,500 (parts only)

Digital sources: $1,000

Turntable with arm: $5,000

Phono preamp: $1,500

Phono cartridge: $500

Speakers: $5,000 (parts only)

Cables: I'll pay for Blue Jeans, nothing more.  I still like cables that come with the gear or out of the $1 box at the swapmeet.

 

Oh, and:

 

Isolation transformer: $1,000 (I'm planning to buy a big old Xentek or Topaz from Nebraska Surplus)

Wow, very reasonable limits. I expected more crazy numbers here at Headfi, but these about match my own. Interesting on the $100 DAC. What did you find in that price range? Though I don't doubt you may be accurate about what someone should REALLY pay for a DAC.
 

Hmm. I'll put my price for my future planned home speaker rig in here too, since that seems to be the trend.

 

Shared components:

 

DAC: $600

Turntable: $1000 (I know I'll get upgradeitis on this though...)

 

Headphone rig:

 

Headphones: $800

Headphone Amp: $800

 

Speaker rig: 

 

Speakers: $4000 (I'm secretly planning several years ahead of time for a Magnepan setup)

Amp: $5000 (In this dream plan, I have a Parasound Halo A51. With some fancy switching it should be able to do double duty as the home theater amp.)

 

Home theater:

 

5.1 system: $1800

 

Total? $14000. Of course it will happen over the period of a few years. People in my major at my college have an average starting salary of around $60,000, so we'll see. Still puts me at $4000 cheaper than Uncle Erik, and I get a home theater to boot 

 

No matter what, this system is at least 5 years off for me. Silly college.

Edited by revolink24 - 10/26/10 at 9:20am

When I was single, I could get away with spending a bit more on audio equipment.  My wife cringes every time I talk about any audio equipment I'm thinking about purchasing and how much the stuff costs though, so the limits have dropped a bit.  My current limits are:

stereo speakers: $2500

receiver: $1500

CD player: $500

headphones: $500

headphone amp: $500

DAC: $300

sound card: $200

cables (purely aesthetic): $100 for interconnects, $10 for power, $0 for headphone cables, speaker wires will vary depending on length -hopefully under a hundred bucks though

 

Being married=no B&W 800 series speakers or Classe amps for me!

 

 

 

I am curious about why you put only $500 on phono cartridge to go with $5000 on turntable/arm? Most people would spend more( or spend less on the turntable).

By the way, I am reluctant to spend too much on cartridges too for probably a different reason- I have kids and the styli are not safe when they are around . I have had some painful experiences. :-(

Headphones: $1,500

Amp:            $2,000

Digital Source: $1,000

 

 

To my ears, PC sound cards sound just as good as some of the more expensive standalone DACs I've heard. I'm perfectly happy with my cheapo EMU-0404 sound card.

A cartridge is a wear item. I do not pay a premium for wear items other than tires. I figure a cartridge failure won't much affect my personal safety. So far, the Denon DL103 makes me happy (especially with the Cinemag step-ups) and I don't plan to change.

As for the setup, I'm done. Yeah, some of that stuff was pricey, but I'm not replacing things left and right. It is coming up on 18 months since I've bought anything, and now I'm working on the project backlog. After I spend some time with everything and decide what I want to keep, I'll sell off some stuff and roll that money into a new project.

Headphones: $1500

Amp:  $3500

Source: $3500

I cannot imagine spending much more on headphones than I did on the HD 650s because to me they are amazing, and I don't even have a great source yet!

 

Assuming I get a good job I'll spend maybe up to $1000 on a source in the distant future, and then call it a hobby I think.

Edited by Satellite_6 - 10/26/10 at 1:33pm

I have no absolute limit, other than what I can reasonably afford, without going into any debt over it.

Well, that's a cheapo, but a good cheapo. So I am a believer.