One can dream, can't they? - Audio Exotics

mhardy6647

perpetual motion.

ZLTFUL

mhardy6647 wrote: »

perpetual motion.

I think you mean "poopetual motion", Doc.

treitz3

Getting back on track, I was able to track down one of the amps in the rigs...

Zanden Kaun 12019 amps - https://www.monoandstereo.com/2017/07/new-zanden-kaum-super-tube-amplifier.html

This is a 530 pound push pull Super Tube amp. It sure didn't look that big in the first photo..





Tom

pitdogg2

BlueFox wrote: »

I could use that since I like to drink beer while enjoying the stereo.

Depends

BlueFox

pitdogg2 wrote: »

BlueFox wrote: »

I could use that since I like to drink beer while enjoying the stereo.

Depends

Yes, it depends on how much beer is consumed.

Anyway, enough of that. If the chair cost $14K then I wonder what the total cost of the stereo is. $100K? $200K? More?

treitz3

I would venture to say that you would be looking more at 2-3M for a rig like that, conservatively speaking. You and I both know someone who has spent 380K on room acousticians. To some people, money is not really that much of a bother.

There is a guy in Indonesia, Taiwan or the Philippines (can't remember at the moment) who's build I have followed and his cost - get this - Just for his stereo room to build it from the ground up was over 2M. not one piece of gear included in that cost. That was just for the room.

These guys definitely play at a level that's different from us. Still fun (to me) to live vicariously through them. Plus, one can pick up some interesting ideas along the way that you could use for your own setup.

One of my favorite things I have followed the build of was Bruce Brown's studio. (He's one of the Mastering Engineers of FIM's Drum and Track Disc I was talking about the other week). It's just - to me - Cool stuff.

Tom

ZLTFUL

treitz3 wrote: »

I would venture to say that you would be looking more at 2-3M for a rig like that, conservatively speaking. You and I both know someone who has spent 380K on room acousticians. To some people, money is not really that much of a bother.

There is a guy in Indonesia, Taiwan or the Philippines (can't remember at the moment) who's build I have followed and his cost - get this - Just for his stereo room to build it from the ground up was over 2M. not one piece of gear included in that cost. That was just for the room.

These guys definitely play at a level that's different from us. Still fun (to me) to live vicariously through them. Plus, one can pick up some interesting ideas along the way that you could use for your own setup.

One of my favorite things I have followed the build of was Bruce Brown's studio. (He's one of the Mastering Engineers of FIM's Drum and Track Disc I was talking about the other week). It's just - to me - Cool stuff.

Tom

One of the local HT guys that lives a few blocks from me spent $30k just on his theater room treatment *plan*. That was a simple measurement of the untreated room and then a cad drawing of the room treatment plan. I wouldn't even want to hazard a guess on how much more he spent on treatments even though he did that part mostly DIY.
But the room when nothing is playing is literally quiet as a tomb and there is absolutely zero sound escaping from the room.
That isn't to say the room is completely inert as there is some reflection going on but in a good way.

treitz3

Wouldn't mind sitting back and listening to this one...

Tom

delkal

BlueFox wrote: »

Anyway, enough of that. If the chair cost $14K then I wonder what the total cost of the stereo is. $100K? $200K? More?

Guess again. Just the speakers cost 400,000 euros (Goebel Divin Majestic). They probably spent well over 100k just for cables.

I could not find any mention of price on the monoblocks. But you know what they say about if you ask about the price you can't afford it!

delkal

Found it. This link has a writeup on the system. And using $28,000 per meter interconnects and a few $20,000 power cords they are way over $100K in cables. Anyone have a calculator handy?

theaudiobeat.com/visits/audio_exotics.htm

Divin Lab system

Goebel Divin Majestic loudspeakers, €400,000 per pair
Zanden Chukoh preamp, $100,000
Zanden Jinpu phono stage, $100,000
Zanden Kaun mono amps, $250,000 per pair

Hartvig Statement turntable with separate battery power supply, €80,000
Thales Statement tonearm, 20,000 CHF
Miyajima Destiny cartridge, $9500
Dalby Constellation record weight, £3500
Skogrand Beethoven phono cable, $12,000 per meter length

Wadax Atlantis Reference DAC, $130,000
Wadax Atlantis server, $22,000
Wadax Atlantis universal transport, $60,000

Silent Running Audio Craz³ rack (under turntable, pricing depends on size)
Silent Running Audio Virginia Class amp stands for Zanden amps (pricing depends on size)
FalkenOhr racks under digital and front-end electronics (pricing depends on size and finish)

Tripoint Troy Elite NG, $75,000
Tripoint Empress (on speakers), $45,000 per pair
Dalby Kyoku Reference ground wire on Zanden preamp, £16,000
Dalby Ode Grande Ground wire on everything else, £4,500

Vertere HB Ethernet cable, £1350 per meter length
JMF Audio 1M DP5-B digital AES/EBU digital cable, €2900
Goebel Statement USB cable, €4000 per meter length
La Sound Corium interconnects, €4000 per meter pair
Skogrand Stravinsky interconnects, $28,000 per meter pair
Skogrand Stravinsky speaker cables, $30,000 per eight-foot pair

Vertere Electrical Phase Management AC center, £9000
Dalby Eddie power cords, £3300 each
Argento FMR EE power cords, €16,000 each
Dalby Kyoku power cords, £20,000 each
Skogrand Stravinsky power cords, $20,000 each

treitz3

Chump change man. Chump change.

Tom

vmaxer

treitz3 wrote: »

Chump change man. Chump change.

Tom

Yep, ok for a bedroom system.

Joey_V

Yeah, while impressive, I bet only a small percentage actually make use of the room they spent all that money on.

treitz3

I'd bet you are incorrect in that assumption. I only have a very small fraction of the amount of money spent and my rig is on every chance I get.

Why does it seem that you don't like folks who are able to have such a system? I may be correct in my assumption here but looking back at your posts on this thread, it sure does seem like it. It seems as if you don't like people who have a better system than you?

Am I correct in this assumption?

I, for one, can appreciate folks who go to extraordinary lengths to achieve their own personal audio bliss. The fact that some folks have more money than others does not bother me one bit. To each their own. I'm happy for them. Heck, I'm even happy for people who have lesser systems than many on this forum (including you). We are all in this hobby together.

Tom

maxward

I don’t want to read too much into Joey’s post, but I can understand how the few people who can afford such toys might be spending a lot of their time working at their chosen professions (surgeons, lawyers, actors, etc.) and not playing with the toys they own.

Joey_V

treitz3 wrote: »

I'd bet you are incorrect in that assumption. I only have a very small fraction of the amount of money spent and my rig is on every chance I get.

Why does it seem that you don't like folks who are able to have such a system? I may be correct in my assumption here but looking back at your posts on this thread, it sure does seem like it. It seems as if you don't like people who have a better system than you?

Am I correct in this assumption?

I, for one, can appreciate folks who go to extraordinary lengths to achieve their own personal audio bliss. The fact that some folks have more money than others does not bother me one bit. To each their own. I'm happy for them. Heck, I'm even happy for people who have lesser systems than many on this forum (including you). We are all in this hobby together.

Tom

Exceptions for every rule exist.

I have met way too many with highly intricate audio systems in stand alone rooms with $200,000 speakers etc, and the only times it gets turned on is when the audiophile group comes by.

Usually for these guys, it’s the chase to build something that fuels their audiophilia.

PS
Definitely not hating on anyone with better gear than me. I run the local Dallas audiophile club of 30 members. If I hated on people with better systems than me, then I wouldn’t be setting up meetings. I am happy for people who are more successful than I am, life’s a game, so they know how to play it better. Maybe I’ll learn a thing or two.

My point on this thread and how it starts as wow on my first post and ends on “they probably don’t listen every night” is based on experience and how a lot of these highly successful people function. I just wanted to acknowledge that form doesn’t always follow function.

My experience with people with better or lesser systems, the cost of the product does not correlate with the amount of time spent actually using it.

But there are always exceptions.

I would love for those audiophiles to spend every night with these hyper systems and rooms!

Joey_V

maxward wrote: »

I don’t want to read too much into Joey’s post, but I can understand how the few people who can afford such toys might be spending a lot of their time working at their chosen professions (surgeons, lawyers, actors, etc.) and not playing with the toys they own.

Definitely.

Usually these highly successful next level 0.1% guys (and gals?) are supremely busy. They go on binges. Spend months building the audio temple and then get distracted for months with work until Techdas releases a new turntable for $145,000 aka Airforce One Premium and then they get the upgrade bug and slide back into audio for a few and then the cycle starts over again.

Not all obviously, but I have met so many with ridiculous systems and I’m like what?? You listen only once a month?

I’d be in there every night.

Viking64

If I Can Dream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-pP_dCenJA

vmaxer

Great performance by Elvis.

treitz3

Joey, I guess you hang around a different crowd than I do. Most of the folks I chat with and know listen as much as they can. Folks with systems that range from a few thousand all in to systems and rooms that cost 9 times the amount of my house and more. It sounds like some of the folks you know are simply gear heads. I ain't in the hobby for that and could really care less about the gear.

Only the end result as to what hits these ears.

BTW, I have met folks who are what I would consider "gear heads" that only buy things for the prestige or to have the latest and greatest. You couldn't pay me to listen to their system because they know nothing of true audiophilia, system synergy or what a world class rig actually sounds like or can sound like. It's all about the gear to them and those are the folks I do NOT associate with in this hobby. I simply don't have the time nor the patience to deal with them.

Tom

Joey_V

Most of who I hang out with are true audiophiles. Some listen more than I do simply because I don’t have the time (wife, 5yo, 3yo, 2yo)... but I have been astonished by some extremely successful people who have shrines and temples for audio but they go unused.

It’s not that they don’t enjoy audio or music, but they are leveraged by their work and drive to earn more money that affords them such an extreme budget to begin with.

Example:
Close friend requested that I build his system for him. Budget was minimally restrictive. I would buy the equipment and he would reimburse me a few weeks later. We were buying into the 6 figures.

We built the system then work for him got really busy. He was more successful than me, on a typical April he would get a bonus of $600,000.

His system would sit unused for weeks as he traveled to NYC and back for work for days straight.

All I’m saying is that a lot of times it’s not all sunshine and butterflies with guys with these hyper systems. They have costs that are associated with them. And some of those costs include the cost of having your time leveraged to earn that level of money means that even if you are a true hobbiest (and not a gear head), sometimes your schedule doesn’t allow you to be infront of your stereo every night and would be lucky if the systems got turned on once every few weeks.

I look at these pictures and I think wow, those are amazing. The room is amazing. I wish I had that kind of next level budget and I would really do some damage.

... but in the back of my head, I know there’s a cost to that budget. Nothing in this world comes without strings attached unfortunately.

treitz3

Why work if you can't even enjoy what you are working for?

Tom

mhardy6647

treitz3 wrote: »

Why work if you can't even enjoy what you are working for?

Tom

This is very profound -- although there are certainly folks who love their work to an extent that makes the work itself fully rewarding to them.

I was never one of those folks (probably to my wife's chagrin).

Joey_V

treitz3 wrote: »

Why work if you can't even enjoy what you are working for?

Tom

Tom,

I thought about it some more... there is actually more than I posted now that I think about it.

1. Exotic audio is high budget, these guys are not earning $500-600K per year. We are talking atleast $2-3M/year to budget $500K for a room and equipment. I have talked to a lot of these guys, life and money to them is a game. It's about how much they can earn, no longer a way to pay for bills. It's a very interesting outlook.

So while you say "why work if you can't enjoy it", they would argue that they work because they like to win.

2. Now, the good majority of these guys with exotic systems probably don't listen to their system on a regular basis (not because simply they are gear heads) because of time constraints... there are others with exotic systems who do listen to them on a regular basis (again, exceptions to perhaps the rule)... maybe these are the guys you have met Tom, I would wager to say that a good portion of them are likely towards retirement or retired. Some retirees really go all out with their audio systems knowing time is limited (hearing is limited) and they seem to really enjoy it.

Anyway, that's just my 2 cents from my experience.

Others may see different.

But yes, I believe that there's always a catch to a lot of these systems. If they're not retired, 7x out of 10, those systems just sit there (sadly).

Joey_V

treitz3 wrote: »

Wouldn't mind sitting back and listening to this one...

Tom

You know you're a serious audiophile when you have a piece of tape down the midline of your room (so you know where your head is supposed to be).

(I do too)

treitz3

Alright, back to business....





Without a doubt, one of the absolute sexiest rigs I have laid my eyes upon! Hubba, hubba...

Tom

mhardy6647

. . . .

Joey_V

treitz3 wrote: »

Alright, back to business....





Without a doubt, one of the absolute sexiest rigs I have laid my eyes upon! Hubba, hubba...

Tom

Holy moly.

Jaw to floor.

maxward

The Wilsons look like something that a James Bond villain might use as an instrument of torture. “If you don’t tell me where she is, I will turn your brain to jelly with sound waves!”

treitz3

Wilson Ng's system...and yes. He listens to it everyday. He's currently listening to classical LP's

I have heard the speakers he has between the JBL's. One of the best sounding speakers I have heard to date. FYI, the sub modules that are taller than I am are located behind the Genesis mid and ribbon module. They are flanking each speaker about 6-7 feet behind.

Tom