I interpreted Jeff's essay to mean that he is going to be cashing out some of the value of his current SOTA system and replacing it with a less expensive but more value-oriented and still great-sounding system. I interpreted the essay to mean Jeff effectively is going to be moving down the diminishing returns curve.
Hi Ron,
Yes, that is how I interpret it as well. Perhaps what has been nagging Jeff (although I don't want to put words into his mouth) is that he has heard other systems that are not only just as musically satifying (or even more so) but just as "high end" sounding as his very expensive system that would cost him only a fraction of what his current system costs him. He is way out on the flat part of the curve...and that curve may actually not be so smooth afterall where lower priced gear gives greater musical satisfaction...
Jeff could replace his Magico Q7 II with the new Magico M3, replace the Solution with Spectral and get a great turntable and be done. Or does anyone think he will switch to SETs and horns or some completely different direction? I'd like to know more about why and to what. And of course, will "value components" equal the same quality sound or better.
I would be surprised if he goes away from his Cones/domes and high powered SS gear but I think he would be a lot happier when listening to music if he did...
Hmm, I wonder if Jeff ever ends up w more children he'll go to "Phase Two" of his downgrading ie turning his dedicated listening room into a nursery?
That'll be an even more significant sign of his new "less is more" ethos
I think this is the question I'd most like Jeff to answer. Tango basically raised the same question in his post #51. I admit that the proposed wholesale change leaves me scratching my head as my MO is generally try and replace the piece of gear that I perceive to be the weakest link. I would go as far as to say that's what most of us do. Inherent in that method is to acquire something that enhances the system or overcomes a liability and the cost (whether it is more or less) of doing it is always secondary. But this is not Jeff's approach. So again, I'm curious as to why the wholesale change? Put another way, was Jeff displeased in some way that drove his decision to dump and rebuild from scratch? What will he be looking for that he did not have in his last iteration? Now I admit some days I'm ready to do the same and throw out everything and buy a Bose (particularly when I return home from a concert at Carnegie Hall), but then I regain my senses just in time before my next lithium dose. But if Jeff can articulate his reasoning, I'd enjoy reading about it.
IMHO Jeff felt he got trapped as a reviewer - his system was very expensive, stable and was not flexible. The Q7 is not an easy speaker to drive, an all Solution system can be boring for most audiophiles ... Reviewers need changes to keep people reading their sites. And probably his preferences and enthusiasm also changed. This move could be foreseen since almost three years ago, when he wrote "Closing the Curtain on TWBAS".
Independently of his current thoughts the "The World’s Best Audio System" series was a real high-end epic, including all the ingredients needed for success - nicely written, covering social, musical and equipment aspects. I must say I really appreciated it.
There are many different and valid ways of living this hobby, Jeff is making a change. IMHO the high-end is a collective movement, with a social part that can not be separated from it. Let us see who are Jeff new buddies!
...He is way out on the flat part of the curve...and that curve may actually not be so smooth afterall where lower priced gear gives greater musical satisfaction...
I recon it will still be a $100k system , an obscene amount for hifi to 99.9% of the good folk out there
A clean slate is as good as a holiday .. maybe renews the vigor after being jaded
Jeff ..Good luck and enjoy the quest
Sure Rodney
But if $400k to $100k, why not to $50k or even $25k?
Unless we're saying that $100k is a baseline for sound that could emulate his Magicos/Soulutions that can't be found cheaper
And how will Jeff split the new budget?
As far as I can see he spent by far the tiniest amount on his source (not even a dedicated server), the major remainder on components upstream
Maybe this time he'll do a third/third/third split on source/amps/spkrs?
And is he going to publicly trounce the aberration that is overpriced cables? He surely should if he's going for a more Real World budget
Underlying all this is something Jeff and some of us have been saying for the longest time. Price doesn't always correlate with performance.
Unfortunately the current mentality is that it must be expensive to be perceived as good. As an example, I can remember with fondness when the Evolution Acoustics MM3 was introduced at $39,000 ... it must have good ... for its price ..How much it had to be priced to be perceived as the SOTA speakers by all opinions it seems to be??? Without googling I bet it has to be currently close to $100K... Then it can be compared to speakers in its price "class" or range
Gleaning the posts on this thread not too many seem to believe that Jeff former system can be approached at a lesser cost. I believe the contrary.
This is not a very popular view but Price has become the metrics. It is the case in most Luxury market segments and it is being repeated with High End Audio. Whenever someone utters SOTA he/she truly mean priced to the Stratosphere. There is no shortage of rationales here and elsewhere for this state of affairs
Frantz, there will be no point to this exercise if when Jeff puts his new $25k/$50k/$100k/$200k system together, he doesn't declare it on a par with what he had
Frantz, there will be no point to this exercise if when Jeff puts his new $25k/$50k/$100k/$200k system together, he doesn't declare it on a par with what he had
I would say that the ONLY way that system was SOTA was in terms of price...the emperor was finally revealed to have no clothes. Heard enough Magico and Soulution together to believe that would be entirely possible.
Maybe too many people came over, heard it and left wondering what all the fuss was about rather than having a life changing "audiophile " moment?
We all know and remember those, right? Where the realism grabbed you...something a $400k system should do to a majority of people. Something LV/Kondo did to me the first time I heard it.
Unfortunately the current mentality is that it must be expensive to be perceived as good. As an example, I can remember with fondness when the Evolution Acoustics MM3 was introduced at $39,000 ... it must have good ... for its price ..How much it had to be priced to be perceived as the SOTA speakers by all opinions it seems to be??? Without googling I bet it has to be currently close to $100K... Then it can be compared to speakers in its price "class" or range
Did you ever listen to MM3's? Or are you just speculating on it? I have listened to it several times and considered it. Unfortunately I found it was not my cup of tea.
Gleaning the posts on this thread not too many seem to believe that Jeff former system can be approached at a lesser cost. I believe the contrary.
This is not a very popular view but Price has become the metrics. It is the case in most Luxury market segments and it is being repeated with High End Audio. Whenever someone utters SOTA he/she truly mean priced to the Stratosphere. There is no shortage of rationales here and elsewhere for this state of affairs
What happened to your love towards Magico? I have experience with systems using Q7's and can assure you that if it is much better than the Q5. I f someone preferences match the Q7, it is an ideal speaker ... Please suggest a system at one third the price that you think plays better, it is the interesting part of the hobby and we are all here to learn (and debate ...)
Yes, as far as I remember no one stated that price always correlates with performance. Only most of the time ...
Did you ever listen to MM3's? Or are you just speculating on it? I have listened to it several times and considered it. Unfortunately I found it was not my cup of tea.
What happened to your love towards Magico? I have experience with systems using Q7's and can assure you that if it is much better than the Q5. I f someone preferences match the Q7, it is an ideal speaker ... Please suggest a system at one third the price that you think plays better, it is the interesting part of the hobby and we are all here to learn (and debate ...)
I would be surprised if he goes away from his Cones/domes and high powered SS gear but I think he would be a lot happier when listening to music if he did...
I've noticed the cones 'n' domes seem to be converging and are sounding more and more similar over time as design improves... distortion, diffraction and other artifacts are decreasing, polar plots are looking better, etc. While voicing might be a bit different it's subtle variations on a theme and at this point most totl speakers from TAD, Magico, Wilson and on and on are all excellent speakers. I think horns and SET amps can inherently offer higher performance for many reasons. Of course there are always tradeoffs and ymmv...
Well I know one thing, I have never heard a tube amp that has the bass slam of a clean SS amp. Now maybe a large horn system narrows the gap. Maybe there are SET amps out there that excel in the lower frequencies. My 2nd system will be class A 300B amps w/horns but I will have that system for just a different sound than my DynAudio SS system.
I would say that the ONLY way that system was SOTA was in terms of price...the emperor was finally revealed to have no clothes. Heard enough Magico and Soulution together to believe that would be entirely possible.
Maybe too many people came over, heard it and left wondering what all the fuss was about rather than having a life changing "audiophile " moment?
We all know and remember those, right? Where the realism grabbed you...something a $400k system should do to a majority of people. Something LV/Kondo did to me the first time I heard it.
Jeff must have thought the components were worth buying, or he would not have written about them so positively, recommended them to his readers and then bought them for himself. Or are you saying he deluded himself, and as a reviewer who has access to all sorts of gear and time to evaluate in his own system, that he too is susceptible to price bias and assumptions like most people? I would be surprised if that were the case, but it is certainly possible. So he made a mistake with those purchases, he just wants change, he wants to create "buzz" for his readers by bucking a trend and then writing about it? Well, were are all discussing it and the speculation continues. He has succeeded in creating the buzz, at least in this tiny WBF universe.
This. To assume that someone like Jeff will necessarily prefer horns and SET's is presumptuous at best. Heck, he might end up with Magnepan 20.7's and a cheaper big SS amp, like Pass or even Bryston
The Q7 is massive. I wonder if a less expensive speaker will be similarly sized and appropriate for his room. Perhaps he will not buy anything and just rotate review gear for a while.
