Dear Al M,
$3,500 for an arm is no lower end. Which end a product lie to depends on one’s perspective. My rich wife thinks my Bose Lifestyle is expensive. As I said before I do like expensive exclusive audio products and I have been trying many until I found ones that sound best to my ears. The 3012R is cheap comparing to other gears I own but I like the sound so I keep in my system that’s all there is to it. Not everything has to be super expensive for me. One things people with great opportunity like to do is to “been there and done that” to experience things in what they like, to make their dream real, to do whatever they are interest in even when it is extreme, and then they come back to earth.
I would also like to point out one thing. And This is not addressing to you Al M. I don’t see people with super expensive system like MikeL, AudioCrack, Steve, Christian, etc, go around saying 99% of systems at lower price point sound like crap. Somehow I hear more of the opposite. It almost sounds like if you own an expensive system but not super expensive one you are in a “cool” “sensible” “smart” system builder status who even have more golden ears than those who stupidly spend on much more expensive gears. Please, before going around saying 99% of systems regardless of price is crap, look at your own system first. Other but yourself might also say you are one of the 99%. For me I just don’t go around saying other people’s systems, the 99%, sound like crap, because to those systems owners they are very proud of what they have and like how their systems sound. Who is it to judge when super experience audiophiles like ddk and MikeL and PeterA, etc, and famous audio designers even disagree to what they hear.
Kind regards,
Tang
Yes if a 20k system sounds better than a 200k system, the 20k owner is indeed better at set up, has better ears, or the 200k one lacks in those compartments. Same if one 200k system sucks compared to another 200k system
Alternative is the 20k owner is just a more sensible balanced audiophile personality than the 200k one
Why do you think the SME 3012r made so much waves? Heck, most people who are interested or buying it haven’t even been to your place, DDK’s, or Steve’s. They took the fact that because it went up against much costlier arms, showed either better ears, better research, better set up skills, or a combination of the three. Optimising value is always appreciated. Marty that day mentioned on another thread how the importance of value is being understated. For me this hobby is definitely more about getting more for less... And yes, Mike too is getting more for less. Am not defining what the cost of "less" should be... Just make the cost seem like a bargain relative to the sound. This hobby becomes much richer when we look at value (again, value does not imply cheap, but is certainly the opposite of wastage).
There is a third possibility, which is that the 200k owner likes buying gear more, but then he should simply state that he is a gear head and not doing this for sonic upgrades. That is fine too. And not pretend that he did this because despite not having done any research, obviously a 200k components/system should sound much better than the 20k one. While the people you mention above don't do this, there are people who do. And there are people who might not state it, but think to themselves, without so stating, that the 200k system is obviously better. I have often on this forum defended the gear hobby...i just don't get it when people pretend they do it for more musical realism instead of simply stating they want to try out stuff.
