Late to the party (again).
Steven's article is a home run from a writers perspective. As a writer you want your audience to sit up and say Hmmmm. You want your readers to think something like --does this guy have a point and do I agree with it? Based on all of this discussion it looks like a success.
His points seem to be: 1. You don't have to spend more than $50K to have a system that fully delivers the musical experience. 2. Spending more that this is about vanity and status. 3. Spending more doesn't necessarily get you more, but to each his own.
By Steven's definition, I have components at an "Oligarch" level. However, I can assure you I don't spend my weekends sailing around on a 100 foot yacht. I chose the components I have based on the performance I could get for what I could spend on each of them. (Thus I don't have a Wadax DAC)
I have not heard Steven's $50K system. I am sure it sounds great and is well curated. Does it deliver the FULL musical experience? Can you fully believe there is a small chamber orchestra in the room? Can it play Jazz, Vocals, Orchestral, EDM, Rock etc. all with the scale each deserves? I don't know but I would be shocked if it could do everything without compromise for a $50K system cost. But again I don't know.
What I can say is that a $50K system can sound better than a $500K system. This is where setup comes into play. Like a lot of you (an one specfically)I have heard a lot of the top speakers XVX, M9, Stenheim, etc., setup in dealer showrooms where the musical performance was less than stellar. Is it becasue these speakers are not capable of greatness? No, the system is simply not optimized. I find it appalling to go to a dealer who is demoing a $500K+ system and it sounds bad. For that kind of money the music should be compelling. But I digress.
There are some components that offer true absolute performance and there are some that offer great price/performance. For example, I own a Simaudio Moon 740P preamp and I own a CH L10. The 740P is a good SS preamp in its price range, but in no way has the performance level of an L1/X1 let alone an L10. Can someone setup a system that has musical engagement with the 740P. Sure. But it will have certain flaws that the listener is going to have to ignore. I have an L10 because it is far more capable (with it's low noise floor, transparency, dyanmaics and adjustability) to deliver a sound that is like real musicians in my room with me. It is simply a choice I can and did make. Did I buy the L10 out for some kind of status symbol? That is laughable. Most of the people I know have never heard of CH precision nor Simaudio. In fact, they would think I lost my mind for not buying a Lexus instead of an L10. This does not mean that a certain segment of the audio equipment buying contengent doesn't do this for vanity. I think this is the point of frustration: this small, very wealthy group is percieved as driving the prices out of reach in the name of vanity.
As Steven states more expensive doesn't mean better. Where it all goes wrong is the criteria in which it is judged. If we are after a gold plated receiver then what we get is receiver sound that has enough bling to blind us from how unsoulful it sounds. We are too polite. We go somewhere and they show us a $1M speaker or system and we say "Wow that is awesome!". Then we listen to some music and we think Uggg. That is not so awesome. I can't believe that he spent $1M on that. But, what do we say? "That sounds great. Thanks for letting me listen to your system." (I am guilty of this) The poor guy thinks he has great sound becasue that is what everyone tells him. And he thinks the person was impressed by his $1M system. Maybe we are struck by the visual beauty of the system but the music it makes is dreadful. I think deep down the guy knows it really doesn't sound that great but he has no reason to believe otherwise as he keeps getting told how great it sounds. This phenomena almost got me out of audio as I will explain.
Imagine what might happen if he was told by someone, "Hey, you should go check out Steven's system." Knowing that Steven only spent $50k and it sounds better than this guy's $1M system. Please allow me a simple story: A similar thing happened to me a little over 10 years ago. At the time I had Wilson Maxx2's with Spectral amps, preamp, CD etc. So that system was already well over $100K in 2007. I met an audiophile at work and he invited me over to his place. I went into his dedicated room. It looked like a disaster of a science lab. (audio sh*t everywhere) He had horns sitting on end tables with DIY woofers. The crossover parts were out on a board. It was driven by a modified CJ tube amp direct wired to the wall. The CD player was a Marantz from the 1980's that he had heavily modified. All of this sitting on foam on the floor. I don't know if he even had $10K in that system. But, I could not believe how good that system sounded with vocals and jazz. (It could not do Orchestral or heavy rock.) But wow, could it do vocals. I still remember that sound. It was at that point I started to take a serious look at audio. My assessment was that something was seriously wrong with the way I was being programmed to think about audio. I won't mention any names but you all know who the programmers were/are.
So what about Steven's 3 points? Do you need to spend over $50K to get top tier music reproduction? I think in today's market this is the unfortunate reality. However, spending $500k doesn't even guarantee mediocre music without proper setup and optimization. Is spending over $100K on a pair of speakers or other component all aout vanity and status? Not in all cases. For some, yes. And this is having the unfortunate side effect of driving prices higher. Does spending more get you more? Definitely not. But there are plenty of examples where the more expensive product is better both objectively and subjectively.
Of course this is all just my opinion. You are free to ignore and move on with your life.
