As others have noted, huge improvements can be had for little money at the low end. As others have also noted, there are diminishing returns as you go up the ladder. Everyone has to decide for themselves how far they want to go down that rabbit hole, and system cost is not the only consideration. For example, speakers and room design are the biggest factors in sound quality, but full-range speakers tend to get very big as you go up in sound quality and price. They may also need to be placed fairly far from walls to sound good. What do you do when the speakers that sound best are too big for your room? Buy a bigger house so that you can buy the speakers you want? I'm sure that's exactly what some people do, but that's way too far down the rabbit hole for me.

The best place to find great gear to fit any budget is The Absolute Sound's 2007 Editors' Choice Awards (www.theabsolutesound.com). Click the Buyers Guides link at top left of the page, then click the "2007" link. Once you decide what you want, you can try it with little risk by buying it from another audiophile at Audiogon.com. (If you don't like it, you can usually sell it for about the same price you paid.)

Happy listening, and let's keep the beauty of good sound alive! (P.S. My personal real-world choice is Gallo Ref. 3.1 speakers. At $3000 they ain't cheap, but they're pretty small for full-range speakers, and sound great with all kinds of music.)

That's what I did... big speakers, big loft, big sound. The room is very important, and a large room with a powerful system sounds simply amazing. Some people are into cars, others boats, some people golf and others jump out of airplanes. I like listening to good music at home and I am willing to pay extra for the privilege. I certainly wouldn't skimp on the stereo itself considering that I'm already paying more to have a nice listening room. I do know that most people do not share my passion, but they do appreciate watching a movie in my loft, better than a movie theater in many ways!

Nice! That's true commitment. And a home is an investment, so it's not a waste of money. I don't think the wife would permit that much fervor on my part, but I can certainly understand the sentiment.

It's funny, if you spend $10 - $15K (or more) on a boat, no one bats an eye, but spend anywhere close to that on something you can enjoy every day for many years, and they freak out.

I love the boat analogy, one of my buds was dissing me for spending approx 7-8K on my kit, I Had to point out to him that he spends more time hauling his boat around winterizing, getting it ready for summer, and then when he goes to the lake for 3 weeks a year, he gets to ride around in his boat for approx 4 hrs a week! I told him I get to enjoy my purchase everyday, even in the winter...that did shut him up!

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Dude, I'm glad you like them, but please don't use my thread to promote the latest tweak. And please don't use all-caps, it makes you look like a fanatic.