Super cable

[Dcal]

I think the law of diminishing returns applies here

Kayos, No question the law of diminishing returns apply.
The trick is knowing when to stop, by listening to your ears not the BS.

I'm totally certain if you spent 10 or 100 times more "wisely" you would hear more but spent "unwisely" you could very easily hear less. If you are satisfied with what you have now why would you bother.
The speakers in my "good" system are a pair of the original Quad electrostatics from the 1960s and they sound great to me, they cost me £300 and I haven't touched them since I got them 5 years ago. But I don't listen to them much. I spend far more time listening to a cheap tuner amp in the workshop, but I do like listening to the quads when I'm in the mood.

Recorded music (and speech) is a con trick.
A wonderful con mind you and when you consider the ingenuity and engineering that went into making it all work as well as it does is truly remarkable.
The problem is the industry got really good at it very quickly (Listen to some of the recordings and kit made before the WW2 and they are still fantastic.)
This doesn't help when you are just trying to sell kit and everything needs to be better than what came before and so the BS starts.
Don't get me wrong there have been massive improvements in costs, functionality and portability but some of this comes at the cost of the sound. (Just think of MP3s and heavily compressed radio)

I think the biggest problem with some hi-fi addicts is they listen to the equipment not the music.
I used to know a guy with a pretty high end system and he only listened to half a dozen recordings and rated every component upgrade, or piece of wire, or acoustic crystals or whatever on how these few audiophile recordings sounded. Pretty sad and missed the point entirely in my opinion but shows how you can end up finding tiny differences in kit and recordings you know well.

 

[Kayos]

Kayos, No question the law of diminishing returns apply.
The trick is knowing when to stop, by listening to your ears not the BS.

I'm totally certain if you spent 10 or 100 times more "wisely" you would hear more but spent "unwisely" you could very easily hear less. If you are satisfied with what you have now why would you bother.
The speakers in my "good" system are a pair of the original Quad electrostatics from the 1960s and they sound great to me, they cost me £300 and I haven't touched them since I got them 5 years ago. But I don't listen to them much. I spend far more time listening to a cheap tuner amp in the workshop, but I do like listening to the quads when I'm in the mood.

Recorded music (and speech) is a con trick.
A wonderful con mind you and when you consider the ingenuity and engineering that went into making it all work as well as it does is truly remarkable.
The problem is the industry got really good at it very quickly (Listen to some of the recordings and kit made before the WW2 and they are still fantastic.)
This doesn't help when you are just trying to sell kit and everything needs to be better than what came before and so the BS starts.
Don't get me wrong there have been massive improvements in costs, functionality and portability but some of this comes at the cost of the sound. (Just think of MP3s and heavily compressed radio)

I think the biggest problem with some hi-fi addicts is they listen to the equipment not the music.
I used to know a guy with a pretty high end system and he only listened to half a dozen recordings and rated every component upgrade, or piece of wire, or acoustic crystals or whatever on how these few audiophile recordings sounded. Pretty sad and missed the point entirely in my opinion but shows how you can end up finding tiny differences in kit and recordings you know well.

I know a system is good when I listen to the music and not the speakers

 

[wookie]

My boss is into high-end hi fi and has recently bought a ridiculously-priced 2nd hand mains cable.
I think it was up on eBay for £750 BIN and he made an offer of £450 which was accepted.
He reckons he’s spent over £20k on his system as it stands and everything is 2nd hand!
New he reckons it would have cost him over £100k!!

You should pop around there with an Motorhead or Ozzy Osbourne CD, whack it on full volume and watch your boss cry

 

[Rig Pig]

A half decent amp and some good speakers and that's all you need really, I honestly can't hear any real difference in systems --- that may be down to spending too much time around turbines and big diesel, I love a bit of background music/noise as it drowns out my tinnitus!

 

[slim_boy_fat]

I honestly can't hear any real difference in systems

I must be the same, my ears aren't sufficiently educated to appreciate the finer nuances of high-end audio equipment.

 

[Wozzaaah]

Interconnects definitely make a difference
I’ve had an IXOS one (What HiFi budget award winner back in the 90s) on my CD player for years and it’s always sounded fine to my untrained ears but needed to buy another recently so bought a QED one (more recent What HiFi award winner)
I did a side by side comparison and the QED so much more detailed and less bassy so I’ve now bought another of the same and retired the IXOS.
They were all less than £20 each, no way would I spend several hundred quid on one.