How much did your speakers cost relative to what’s driving them?

[twiiii]

Well Back in 69 when I bought the Concert Grands I got a discount at $845.00 each and I was going to bi amp them and as I worked for Mcintosh dealer I got my Two MC 275's for the price of one. $444.00.

I had been looking for a pair of XRT 28's for over two years and Steve called me this Spring and said your speakers our here. So I got a pair of $22,000 dollar pre-owned speakers for $6000.00. I was hoping my spare channels on my MC 207's would be suffucent, but they weren't. So $7000,00 dollars later I had a pair MC 830's and also a very necessary MQ 107. They are a great amp putting out ver 600 watts per channel across 4 ohms even though they are rated at 480 watts. But thats nothing new. Mcintosh mono power amps always exceed their specs by the largest margin.

Now all I need is a matching Belgium Rug and thick padding.

 

[sqlsavior]

speakers: Bronze Quads $1500
amp: was tube PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium $3200, now Chi-Fi Hood class A SS $240
preamp: was Promitheus TVC $600, now Luxman L-505u $3700
SACD player: Marantz SA15S2 $1300
turntable: Marantz TT15-S1 $1500
cartridge: London Decca Super Gold $1600
phono: Fosgate Signature $1750
subs: 2x Hsu STF-2, $350 ea.

Of these, the speakers were the bargain, babied and not even dusty - near perfect, in fact. They are on another level than my Magnepan 1.7s are.

 

[Poultrygeist]

Lowther DX3 full range drivers - $600 ( used )
Lii Audio F-15 full range drivers - $400
Eminence Alpha 15a bass woofers - $ 200

Powered by class D Aiyima A07 - $75
and class D Yung plate amp - $100

 

[melvinjames]

Recently, in preparation for the soon-to-arrive hot summer months, I decided to purchase an inexpensive cool-running balanced integrated based around dual Infineon chips. The speaker/sub combination is roughly 6 times the cost of the integrated. I couldn't be happier with the results.

SMSL AO200 - $280
Ohm MicroWalsh Tall - $900 (2004)
Omega DeepHemp 8 - $900 (2018)

 

[Dr. Ears]

Thanks for all the responses, I found this thread very interesting.

 

[DeadTrader]

Used Amps and New speakers close enough to say =
DAC 1/2 the Amps
Network player 1/3 the DAC
Speaker cables 5/8 the Network player
TT with upgrades = speaker cables

 

[2FarGone]

Khorns for free

It’s good to have friends.

My amp was 1/3 the price of the speakers, but tubes for it are pricey...

 

[Jarred555]

Wow you guys like to spend money on gear !! Pretty much everything I own besides my home and car I've bought sold traded fixed repaired wheeled and dealed for to the point , where what I've kept has either has zero cost or was bought from the proceeds of another deal , to each their own though is what I say

 

[Danathepill]

Wow you guys like to spend money on gear !! Pretty much everything I own besides my home and car I've bought sold traded fixed repaired wheeled and dealed for to the point , where what I've kept has either has zero cost or was bought from the proceeds of another deal , to each their own though is what I say

Some people have jobs that pay them six or seven figures a year. At that point it’s WAY easier to buy things than try and wheel and deal to put together a system

 

[Redtide]

My speakers and most of the components of my system are roughly the same dollar amount. I think that is an outcome of having an upper limit that I am willing to spend on a piece of audio gear. Some of the components like streamer and phono preamp are half the cost of the other components.

 

[tanker 200]

It’s good to have friends.
.

I found them on FB Marketplace listed as "free large speakers", the ad had been up for about eight hours so I didn't think they'd be still
available but the next morning I received a message back saying they could be picked up that day, I was there by 10:00.

 

[Bushikan]

This is an interesting thread, but brings up some food-for-thought issues: For instance: How does one figure out the cost of equipment (one currently owns), considering all the “upgrades” that moved sideways or down, instead of “up,” and had to be jettisoned at a huge loss before one decided on and arrived at one’s current equipment? Or the cost of overnight traveling to audition and compare and purchase said equipment? Etc. Etc.

For one example: My McIntosh amp and preamp (purchased used and new, respectively), along with my McIntosh MR78 (updated by Richard M.)—at @ $13K before all additional costs—by far cost more than my Klipschorns (purchased used for $1200). However, then there’s the cost of van rental, two days driving to pick up the speakers, and full overhaul of the speakers with expensive ALK extreme slope innards and upgraded drivers (all eventually rejected and sold at an enormous $ loss), and then replaced by Crites’s much less expensive xovers and drivers (accepted). I think my speakers sound great, but are they $1200, $2500, $6000, or $16000 speakers? It all depends on how you add up the “cost” and “value”.

Another example: My current CDP cost me $500 MSRP new, but I purchased and sold six players (from $100 to $6K, at substantial financial loss) before I settled on this one. Does this make it a $500 or a $15K player? Hmmm.

Basically, no matter how you figure it, it ain’t cheap—this hobby/obsession/disease. And don’t forget…then, there’s the cost of the continued and exponential stress caused by the purchases of said equipment on your marriage…PRICELESS!

 

[sKiZo]

What's driving my speakers ... a Lincoln MTX of course? ;-}

Saying the Revel Ultima audio system is "immersive" is a major understatement ...

 

[Bone Yard]

My desk stereo AIWA 22 Mini System was cheap, maybe $90 for the full stack and the Klipsch Heresys' were $75. They came packaged with a nice Onkyo Tuner and Amp and a huge two-stage very nice Yamaha Snowblower thrown in for free cuz I had a pick up truck at the garage sale. The free snowblower is highly sought after now worth a small chunk of change but I'll never get rid of the beast. The llittle AIWA gets better sounding with better speakers, maybe I should pull out my SB-5000's?

 

[daveshel]

I've been blessed with cheap good speakers. I have a pair of Dynaco A-25s that I bought from an online friend on another forum. He had just rebuilt the crossovers. So while I could find a pair out there for $200, they likely wouldn't be is as good condition as mine. I could buy the modern equivalent as a kit for $1035. These are used with a preamp and amp I built for around $1500.

My solid state rig uses stacked Advents. The first pair are NLAs I bought new in 1980, and the second pair I added maybe 15 years ago. These are used with Van Alstine amp and preamp that were Dynaco conversions I had done maybe 17 years ago for probably somewhere north of $1500.

 

[geode]

My Monitor Audio Silver 500 speakers cost about the same money as the Parasound P5 + A21 Halos combo driving them. So,equal.

 

[Jenkster]

My speakers were $1,900 new, upstream equipment, some used some new, cables and interconnects, $3,200.

 

[Buanadha]

This is an interesting thread, but brings up some food-for-thought issues: For instance: How does one figure out the cost of equipment (one currently owns), considering all the “upgrades” that moved sideways or down, instead of “up,” and had to be jettisoned at a huge loss before one decided on and arrived at one’s current equipment? Or the cost of overnight traveling to audition and compare and purchase said equipment? Etc. Etc.

For one example: My McIntosh amp and preamp (purchased used and new, respectively), along with my McIntosh MR78 (updated by Richard M.)—at @ $13K before all additional costs—by far cost more than my Klipschorns (purchased used for $1200). However, then there’s the cost of van rental, two days driving to pick up the speakers, and full overhaul of the speakers with expensive ALK extreme slope innards and upgraded drivers (all eventually rejected and sold at an enormous $ loss), and then replaced by Crites’s much less expensive xovers and drivers (accepted). I think my speakers sound great, but are they $1200, $2500, $6000, or $16000 speakers? It all depends on how you add up the “cost” and “value”.

Another example: My current CDP cost me $500 MSRP new, but I purchased and sold six players (from $100 to $6K, at substantial financial loss) before I settled on this one. Does this make it a $500 or a $15K player? Hmmm.

Basically, no matter how you figure it, it ain’t cheap—this hobby/obsession/disease. And don’t forget…then, there’s the cost of the continued and exponential stress caused by the purchases of said equipment on your marriage…PRICELESS!

Went through the exercise and added up what my 2 main systems cost right now, and was shocked by how cheaply I got it. I'm still monitoring things and prices have gone up quite a lot in just the past couple of years for a lot of things!

That said, you're absolutely right. I took some risks to find things cheaply and was often rewarded, but not all of the time. So I had some swings and misses that rightly I should calculate as part of the costs. Even if you can find things cheaply, there's a learning curve of buying/selling to find what you like.

My wife is pretty tolerant (I don't really spend that much), but she pays attention to how much stuff arrives, so sometimes I get a reprimand even if it cost about as much as a coffee and lunch!

 

[Capitol C]

Yamaha CD 600 CD player $330 in 2015
Yamaha RS 700 Receiver $500 in 2015
Thorens TD 328 MK II Turntable $450 in 1989
Ortofon 2M Red Cartridge $100 in 2015
Topping D10s DAC $104 in 2017
Raspberry Pi Server $40 in 2021
GoldenEar Triton 2+ Speakers $3710 in 2017
TOTAL $5234, or 71% on the speakers.

I used generic cables and zip cord, so they added almost nothing to the cost. I also pay a little for a domain name and an SSL certificate, the music server is home brew.
If my speakers cost ten times as much, which they never will, I'd leave the rest of the system as it is, the speakers are what matter most.

This is an interesting post, thanks!

 

[E2]

$122 for everything.........I will add a couple pics. To lazy right now.