[kingtz]

By "absolute price limit", I don't mean your current budget, but rather, the price point at which you would deem spending one more dollar on a piece of audio equipment to be unreasonable or even downright crazy.
 
For me, I don't see myself spending more than $750 on a pair of headphones. Heck, even $500 is probably pushing it, but $750 just to be realistic. I personally think that the diminishing returns past that point would be much too small to warrant going from $750 to, say, $1400 for something like the HD800.
 
But yeah, budget not withstanding, I'd break it down as:
Headphones: $750  $1000
DAC: $500
Headphone amp: $700 (including tubes)
Cables: $10 (yeah, I'll never pay from anything other than the monoprice stuff)
 
 
Unless I somehow win an obscene sum of money in the next big lottery, or meet a rich, beautiful woman who insists on buying me presents, I don't see my view of what's "reasonable" really changing much even if I should finish with all of my graduate schooling and make considerably more money.
 
Currently, I've spent approximately half of my limit on each of those items.
 
 
EDIT: Expanded headphone max to $1000.

 

[XxATOLxX]

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.

 

[superjohny]

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

 

[Uncle Erik]

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)

 

[chadbang]

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.
 
Quote:

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.

 

[revolink24]

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.

 

[majestic12]

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!
 

 

[pcf]

Quote:

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)

 
 
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.

 

[tvrboy]

Headphones: $1,500
Amp:            $2,000
Digital Source: $1,000

 

[XxATOLxX]

Quote:

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.
 

 
 
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.

 

[Uncle Erik]

 
 
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.

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.

 

[PFKMan23]

Headphones: $1500
Amp:  $3500
Source: $3500

 

[Satellite_6]

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.

 

[Skylab]

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

 

[chadbang]

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

 
 
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.