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Originally Posted by jpelg /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Back in the old days (for me, that's the 70's), the usual philosophy was to create a 'balanced' system. This meant to get all of your components within the same tier, so to speak, as to avoid one being far better or worse than the others.
So, if you had $1000 to spend on your system, the 40/30/30 rule dictated that you spend $400 on speakers, $300 on an amp/receiver, and $300 on a turntable. A small variation on this might include 5-10% on cables and/or power conditioning, with small deductions taken from the other components. This way, each component performed to the best of its ability within the tier for which it was probably designed.
That worked for people who didn't plan to upgrade every few weeks. However, around here, upgrade-itus strikes at every turn. Many of us are buying one component with the probably intent of upgrading it within the next few months or year. This is where the discrepancies come in.
Some people will elect to put more into their headphones first, in hopes of building up the rest of the components later. Others will get the best source they can afford, with the (correct) mindset that it will give their source material a better platform to start. Others may prefer (or have an opportunity) to get a better amp first, and build around that.
In my opinion, neither of those approaches are wrong, per se. It's up to the individual, the circumstances, & opportunities that present themselves. But I still have to think that the old 'balanced' approach gives each component their best shot at performing to their respective potentials.
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Agreed. Best way is to keep everything within the same pricerange because then you can be pretty sure about what you get, which is why I got the Opera (and because it's good reviews) for $1100, GS1000 for $1300 (with recable) and a Linn Ikemi for $2100. Sure, the CD player deviates a bit from the others, but as mentioned earlier in the thread:
Crap in = crap out
If I have a solid base, there is vertically no limit to what my "output stage" can preform.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Asr /img/forum/go_quote.gif
And the top-tier headphones absolutely scale with high-end sources. I've been cumulatively blown away at how much more music the K701 reveals as I've upgraded my source. It's literally unbelievable - for those who've heard the K701 on lesser equipment you might think you're satisfied now, but all you need to do is hear it with a high-end amp AND a high-end source, and it'll scale right up there along with them. Same thing with the HD650 and AD2000 - these headphones are just amazing with the scaling they're capable of. I don't even know how high they scale - my wallet is too afraid to find out.
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It's amazing really. When I got my Opera and plugged it into my old Denon DCD-1520 (transport) using the Opera's DAC, I thought it sounded amazing. It was beyond anything that I had heard previously. As I got this eargasm I started feeling that "Maybe the HD600 are beginning to hit the roof now.".
However, a few weeks before I got my Opera, I auditioned a few different sources using my brothers headphone amplifier. I looked mostly at Linn CD players (the shop was a Linn retailer so they promoted their stuff heavily), but I took a few looks at Rega and some others too. Then, I saw a pile of CD players and among thoes I saw my current Linn Ikemi. I asked the shop owner how much it was and he said "$2100.". I was like "Damn, that's steep." - but I gave it a shot and WOW. Never had HD600 sounded so great. I was hooked on getting the Ikemi from that moment. So, last friday I went to the shop again and bought it after listening to a few songs using my Opera. I haven't looked back since. I mean, $2100 isn't bad for a CDP that costs $3500 new, but it's not cheap in any way either.
I later found a auction on eBay where one was sold for $1400. Did I regret my purchase? Hell no. Sure, I lost (figuratively speaking) $700, but somehow the sound delievered from the Ikemi seems to justify that.
To me, sources now have incredible value. Going from my $100, 17 year old Denon (with some mods) to a $2100 state of the art, more or less high-end CD player was all worth it. When swapping between headphones and amplifiers I've gotten the feeling that you pay way too much for what you get, but with sources you get exactly what you pay for (at least I have that feeling).
Me and a friend have something like a rule of thumb when it comes to this. If $500 (note the
if) is reference class, you will have to pay $100 more for 1% improvement in sound. So far, from my experience, it has been fairly correct. Of course, all sources are different and each have unique characteristics but the
sound improvement will only be
that big over a certain level because everything above that line is of such high quality.