One Million Dollar Hi-Fi Sound System

[Masterlu]

One Million Dollar Hi-Fi Sound System; is it worth the price?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ydRetDfgICg

[Vintage Pete]

Gawd....

[kd4ylq]

As Don McLean sang long ago,"The more you pay, the more it's worth". And if you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you.

[Charles]

I'm really appreciative of this thread. I went and read the Mono & Stereo review of the Peak Dragon Legend (PDL) speaker. It received a great review. It is highly efficient with an easy impedance. I ordered the Wilson Audiophile recording "Music for Discovery and Christmas" from eBay and Sondra Bratland's "Rosa Fra Betlehem" from Discogs. I'm looking forward to receiving these CD's.

I thought it was interesting that the preferred amps were a MC3500 or a MC2KW with the MC3500 winning out. I have found that my MC3500 is the best amp that I have had in my system or heard. When my 1.2KW's are driving my Chronosonics I find a slight discontinuity between them and my Thor also driven by a 1.25KW. There is simply no question that the 3500 has a fatter bass than my 1.25KW's and the blend therefore between my Chronosonics and Thor is perfect, when I use the 3500 for the XVX and the 1.25KW with my Thor. My Thor has a slightly less damped bass than my XVX.

Regarding the million dollar system for me personally I have some questions concerning it. Look as I might I did not see the ARC DAC or a CD transport. The gear between and behind the PDL's is at floor level. This includes the Tape Deck. As one who has personally threaded and played numerous analog tapes for practicality, doing this at floor level is quite impractical. Look as I might I could not find the CD transport at waist level near his turntable. Again, if it was between his Dragons, it was at floor level and therefore quite inconvenient.

I'm not into vinyl. For me the lack of SACD capability is significant. I have many SACD's. The McIntosh chairs were odd. I would have preferred a stack of Rel no. 32's with their 15" long throw woofers. The Carbons don't go as deep as the PDL's and I wonder if the Carbons can keep up with the PDL's. For a paltry 33.6K more you could have the Rel reference 32 subwoofers. The PDL's are roughly 200K/speaker.

Best

Charles

[aclearspot]

Someone needs help with cable management in a big way.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by aclearspot

Someone needs help with cable management in a big way.

I completely agree and I was hoping someone would point this out. There is obviously no CD/SACD transport. I was able to spot the ARC DAC in the far left corner almost behind the left speaker. For this system to make sense to me the pre/tape deck/streamer/DAC with a transport ought to be next to the turntable. Then long balanced IC's from the pre to the ARC power amps. This system can't play CD's and the tape deck is impractical to use or clean the heads. This would necessitate a total cable and gear rearrangement. I can understand some folks preferring vinyl but the lack of CD/SACD capability in an "million dollar" system is idiosyncratic in the extreme to me. It is not even debatable that CD's and SACD's played through a top line transport and DAC sound really really good through a super speaker with tube ARC amplification like this system has.

In addition, the REL Carbon Special subs will not be able to keep up with the PDL's, IMO. Speakers of this caliber need reference subwoofer's like the REL 32's. My humble XVX will do 110 dB at 24Hz with total 1.5% harmonic distortion (inaudible) and are -3 db at 15Hz, -6 dB at 11 Hz. It will produce over 114 dB of clean sound. I personally have never seen the woofers move even one foot away from them with very heavy bass. There is no way the subs in this system could keep up with my XVX.

Best

Charles

[PeterMusic]

Originally Posted by Charles

I completely agree and I was hoping someone would point this out. There is obviously no CD/SACD transport. I was able to spot the ARC DAC in the far left corner almost behind the left speaker. For this system to make sense to me the pre/tape deck/streamer/DAC with a transport ought to be next to the turntable. Then long balanced IC's from the pre to the ARC power amps. This system can't play CD's and the tape deck is impractical to use or clean the heads. This would necessitate a total cable and gear rearrangement. I can understand some folks preferring vinyl but the lack of CD/SACD capability in an "million dollar" system is idiosyncratic in the extreme to me. It is not even debatable that CD's and SACD's played through a top line transport and DAC sound really really good through a super speaker with tube ARC amplification like this system has.

In addition, the REL Carbon Special subs will not be able to keep up with the PDL's, IMO. Speakers of this caliber need reference subwoofer's like the REL 32's. My humble XVX will do 110 dB at 24Hz with total 1.5% harmonic distortion (inaudible) and are -3 db at 15Hz, -6 dB at 11 Hz. It will produce over 114 dB of clean sound. I personally have never seen the woofers move even one foot away from them with very heavy bass. There is no way the subs in this system could keep up with my XVX.

Best

Charles

There's a difference between systems set up by music lovers who will spare no expense and systems set up by people who have other motives. You've identified the clearest sign that this system belongs to someone in the second group. I don't say that judgmentally (OK, maybe a little, haha), only to note that this person has different priorities. Kind of like a guy who collects cars but doesn't love to drive them.

[Charles]

Peter, when I bought my XVX I tried my best to purchase a Master Chronosonic sub woofer, but to no avail. Wilson recommended the Thor because it had more output than a Subsonic. Take the Magico M9. How would you interface it with any subwoofer on the market? I would want to hear those beautiful 15" built in subs. I would feel the same way about the PDL's. It would make no sense to roll the PDL's off below 30 Hz. My Thor works well to 10HZ. It goes substantially lower than my XVX. This would not be the case with the REL Carbons, so this is a mystery. If you took the money spent on the REL's and bought a really nice CD transport and rearranged the gear so that all sources are over by the turntable and easily accessible, now that would be a system for the ages.

Best

Charles

[Masterlu]

Originally Posted by Charles

Peter, when I bought my XVX I tried my best to purchase a Master Chronosonic sub woofer, but to no avail. Wilson recommended the Thor because it had more output than a Subsonic. Take the Magico M9. How would you interface it with any subwoofer on the market? I would want to hear those beautiful 15" built in subs. I would feel the same way about the PDL's. It would make no sense to roll the PDL's off below 30 Hz. My Thor works well to 10HZ. It goes substantially lower than my XVX. This would not be the case with the REL Carbons, so this is a mystery. If you took the money spent on the REL's and bought a really nice CD transport and rearranged the gear so that all sources are over by the turntable and easily accessible, now that would be a system for the ages.

Best

Charles

An Audiophile’s work is never done.

[clpetersen]

A picture of the sound system mentioned above. Washington Post.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style...-auction-cost/