I listened to a $4,000,000 Hifi System!! DISAPPOINTED...
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ส.ค. 2024
- I listened to a $4,000,000 system and was disappointed. However, there were some real gems to be found at the biggest audio show in the United States at Axpona 2024.
Check out the other vid from Axpona 2024 • Bose/Bang and Olufsen'...
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Check out the other vid from Axpona 2024 th-cam.com/video/8-oLJo3lK_o/w-d-xo.html
For that price, I'll just hire my favorite bands to play live at my place
Bingo
😂😂
@@cheapaudioman ?
I bought a $500 system and used the remaining $3,999,500 for vinyl and beer.
smart
Ya got your priorities straight, dude! 😉👍🍺🍺
Should have just bought a music subscription!
I know this breaks the club of cattle who like having secrets but vinyl is lower quality!
yes!
I just bought a mint Pioneer SX 440 receiver for $125. Actually $122 because he didn't have change for a 20.
Meh, thats just inflation, that was a $450 system 5 years ago..
I just about spit my soda out when I read this. Well done
We totally need to elect a president who can give these buyers of $4M stereo systems a tax break. Think of how tough their lives are. My heart aches for them.
Good one!
This hits a little too close to home lol
Yeah, you don't get much for 4m these days .. Solid gold power amp that's about it ..
Haha, who pays tax these days, and why?
Elect the same one who will secure the border.
Betting a 10 mill system would still sound like music coming out of speakers.
think about how many bands you could hire to come to your house for that amount of money...
A good system doesn't sound like music coming out of speakers. I guess you've never heard one...
@@Munakas-wq3gp Or he has better hearing
@@warrens.6229 Nope.
right? It's almost like musicians and producers use speakers to produce the sound for recordings. And then mix their music using not-$4M dollars speakers.
Must reach a point where some are no longer listening & enjoying their music but listening to their hi Fi equipment 🙄
I walked into a room, looked at the price list, the cheapest thing was $9900, and that was for the cables, so I walked out.
Its an audio show! just have fun geez
I guess a way to think of it is it's like going to a classic car show or classic car auction or a high-end concept car show and it's great to see such stunning design and engineering even if one cannot leave with one of those cars, so it's the same for ultra high-end stereo systems and components at audio shows that will suit a select few buyers or aficionados, but not many among the general public due to price constraints.
One can still draw inspiration from an audio show experience even if, I agree with you, prices are through the stratosphere to the point of being "unobtanium". ;)
I don't go to these shows for that reason. Most of them are just high priced Wi-Fi trolls that try to suck as much money out of the audiophile as possible. Generally, the higher in price you go, the worse it is. Sure, you have exceptions, like McIntosh, which really is good stuff, but a lot of these high priced trolls are just taking the audiophile for a ride by charging a ridiculous amount for an item and it is really (sonically) only marginally better than something that could be costing 5 to 10 times less. Its the Laws of Diminishing Returns. So, I don't go to these shows because they would probably throw me out anyway because I would have a bone to pick with a great many of them.
I meant to say hi-fi and not wi-fi. Damn auto correct!
0:01 Even if I was a billionaire, I wouldn't want a $4 million hi-fi system. The law of diminishing returns is waaaaaaaaaay into overdrive at that point.
Plus, that collection of hyped up monstrosities in that room reminds me of Homer Simpson developing an overpriced bubble dome car for his long lost brother, Herb.
I'm sure all of those components are excellent and beautifully made, but as impressive as a setup like that may appear, naturally, it's not practical for 99% of most households in terms of dedicated space alone. ;)
I’ve heard similar systems …and quite frankly..they were good ..even great ..but not worth more than my first house.
not worth more than my first 100 houses...
First house? You must be really rich
@@NordrawI have a thing where I love my audio gear …but not to the point of needing a mortgage to pay for it.
I need 4 million ears for that!
Let's get a review of the Fosi Audio ZA3 going into the Grand Utopias!
LOL!! That'll drive the upper end elitists nuts!! 🤣👍
brilliant idea. I love it!
That’d be awesome.
Play 320kbit mp3 files
I feel like that I was there. You saved me airfare and hotel charges. Glad you had a blast.
Dan!!!! Thanks so much. I wish you WERE there. We missed you
Did you hear the Philharmonics? For a $1700 speaker, I thought they sounded fantastic.
I would have attended Axpona, but I don't have a beard.
Ha!
Haha! I was thinking that too that Axpona is a collection of mostly men over 50, most of whom have beards. :)
I have the beard, but my glasses are too small.
Y'all forgot to specify *white* males. There's very little ethnic diversity there, especially for Chicago (though Schaumburg is not Chicago).
@@charlienyc1 Other ethnicities don't consider something audiophile unless it has a dozen subwoofers and can rattle windows three blocks away.
Great coverage of the show. There was some crazy gear there, but a few hidden gems like you said. The new tiny speakers from like Elac and Dayton Audio blew me away on how much sound they can produce.
Anyone that would buy that deserves the disappointment they would hear
When I see all these monoblocks, I just remember a very big HiFi show quite some years ago. This was in a huge hotel. There was so much power consumption by all these class A amps, the mains voltage dropped to 70% of the rated value. Everybody was upset about the poor sound quality. 😂😂
Absolutely insane.
I listened to that $4M system too and what I heard actually impressed me just a bit and here's why: there was definitely a way larger scale to what I was hearing than probably anything I've heard before and at the same time I felt myself being pulled in one direction after another as instrument positions changed. That happens on my meagar home system and other things I've heard, but not to that degree. Now, at the same time, I am completely uninterested in owning a system like that, even if I had a room for it. Probalby most of us would constantly be wondering if something was wrong with one of the many, too many, components in that monstrosity.
You spent 30 seconds on the 4,000,000 system. The title suggests this was an 8 minute video on the system. Sorry I fell for the clickbait.
He uses a ton of cheesy clickbait for being Mr. self proclaimed "Regular Joe".
One of our biggest highlights of the show was hanging with you and your Patreons- that's a solid community you got there! Wish we would have crossed paths on friday =(
Was awesome hanging with you
Love the video Randy, huge props for including me🎶👌🏽 Scotty - trickle down technology from Esoteric to TEAC.
thank you for being such a great sport about it. You were excellent!
Ah yes, the Mofi/HiFi Rose amp is perfect for the young beginner audiophile. Just add speakers and $10,000
Was at this event during the weekend, loved the Geshelli room, bought a J2 and added Sparkos from Andrew down at the headphone room. Shout out to Cambridge guys as well for the beer!
Randy how was your experience with all the people? I have never been to an event like this, I was blown away by the great experience as a hobbyist. Talk shop with all these guys, try to understand half the stuff they are explaining. Just a great time.
I heard a "million dollar" system at Capital Audiofest 2019 (VonSchweikert, VAC, etc) and it sounded pretty unimpressive, kind of like a PA system.
The auditorium setup was downright awful, essentially a worst-case acoustic scenario: the speakers were facing a glass wall at a 90 degree perpendicular angle, with the audience seating area sandwiched between them. Massive cancellation issues.
My impression is that the gear itself was performing very well, but absolutely torpedoed by the awful acoustics. If you ventured very close to the speakers, so you were getting mostly direct sound and very little reflected sound they seemed extremely impressive.
All in all, though, that weekend I heard $200 bookshelf speakers that sounded better than the "million dollar system" auditorium.
I don't envy the folks who set up the $1mil system. I'm sure they didn't have a lot of control over room acoustics. Can't really change the room just for a 3-day show. Also it's hard to experiment with speaker placement when the speakers each weigh 400 pounds or whatever.
It's almost like musicians and producers use speakers to produce the sound for recordings. And then mix their music using not-$4M dollars speakers.
Pro audio engineers spend the most (money & time perfecting) on their monitoring system including the environment itself. But none I've met 25 years in this industry have spent anywhere near that much.
$4,000,000. The perfect example of diminishing returns…..to the extreme.
fr no cap x10000
you'd have to get like a 10% rate to get $400,000 a year on your 4 mil
Just by packing $3,999,750 worth of cash bills into a $100 pair of powered bookshelves then hooking them up to a $150 streamer, you've got yourself a $4 million hi-fi system!
Diminishing returns taken to the extreme.
At $4million that thing better sound like the philharmonic right down to the bad breath from the horns and BO from the conductor.
For that much you could like get a live performance from your favourite band. LOL
Interesting vid Randy. Hope the show was a blast.
So many sad and envious people.
The mind boggles! I can't even begin to imagine $4 Million dollar systems. Lovely to see Neil and I wish him much success and happiness with his speaker endevours. Thank you for your time and efforts to share this wonderful walkabout with us all. Very entertaining. Good to see the whole team hooking up! Stay well brother.
you too, Simon!
Nice to hear Morel get a shout. I have a pair of their Hogtalere Bluetooth speakers which sound great but disappeared without a trace when it came to reviews. What you showed look like a new version. I hope they fixed the fact that a voice shouts LEFT SPEAKER!! at full volume when you put them in stereo mode, and also that you can't connect them wired in stereo mode without a great deal of hassle.
I've been on the Morel train for car audio stuff for years. Really good products.
haha, the Grateful Dead used to stack up 100's of Mac. Amps. That would be a big ouch in my banks account
Hitch-hiking through Davenport, Iowa. Yup, 1974 was a good year.
Good seeing you at the show Randy! I'm 80% sure I saw the 4M system blow 2 of their subwoofers playing a rave like presentation of Martin Garrix at rave like levels Saturday morning 😱
good seeing you too, man. Keep on cranking!
4Million$ is the combined worth of all of your viewers` systems.
The Morel line has been the best of the best for car audio. Its been deep on my wish list.
For 4 mil I could hire my own live musicians every day…..
The more one spends on a hifi, the more of a musical philistine they are.
And at that level, less of a human being.
Like I told my stepson how serious what kind of sound do you want, for myself put in 10k on my Carver Audio I myself is one percent I know when to stop..
People buy ridiculously priced systems because: 1. They have a lot of money 2. There are people willing to sell them said systems.
*As a rock and roll child of the 60's I can tell you that by 15 years of age, loud music had made it so I could never appreciate a $4M system, EVEN if I was asinine enough to buy one....*
Ok, the Alan Sorkin reference definitely made me chuckle
Excellent content thank you…. I have been a fan of morel for 40 years. Using them in Car Audio religiously. Love Their sound. I remember hearing some of their pod speakers back in the day and always wanted to hear what they could offer as a floorstand and a stand mount. I would assume they would sound similar to dynaudio.
Can’t wait for you to get a pair and post your review
Is there an active dsp to correct for time arrival for that 4 million dollar system?
*_If you have a near unlimited budget to spend on your amps and speakers, just find out what systems are used in the world class recording studios where the music you listen to was originally recorded, and get the studio monitors and amps used by them. Easy Peasy..._*
🤘🏻
😉👍
I think it's cool that there are some crazy expensive stuff out there, even if it inevitably won't be for me. I do however think it becomes a bit weird to display them at audio shows where you just won't have all that good room acoustics. Of course you need to showcase your gear to get visibility but the room is a big limiting factor for audio systems.
Highest End systems almost always have goofy looking speakers and components, like something Homer Simpson would design
AWESOME run down!! Lots of good stuff there! Great run down Randy, great to see all of you and the awesome CAM FAM!.... :)
thank you, brother! so great to see you
At that show, the SVS Ultra towers were the most exciting speakers I heard the whole day.
I have a rule- Never buy any audio gear that was made after 1980. Problem solved!
Amphion has been my Xbox gamer tag since 2002 😂 had no idea it was a speaker brand
How is it even possible that an audio system cost that much? A touring rig including the trucks to haul it probably doesn’t cost that much.
I feel the same way, Every time i get to audition a "high end" system at a audio store i always walk away thinking it sounds terrible. The most recent example is Paradigm Persona 7F. $13,500. each speaker on MAC gear. It was Sterile, Harsh and Lifeless and painful to listen to. And it was not just because they use Beryllium either. I have NS-1000 and love them.
Audio is one of the biggest diminishing returns endeavors. After a couple thousand dollars, it’s wasted on me.
Exhibitors from all price ranges are rarely able to get their room setups right due to constraints and/or intent and the conditions are usually adverse to proper listening in any case. Hifi conventions should be treated at best as window shopping and any serious listening should be attempted at the dealers. Even then, it still won't be the same as having the gear in your listening room, playing through your system, playing your music.
I listened to the $4 million system. Loud but didn’t float my boat. I too found it odd, really more of a put off, that the $1 million system room on the corner room never hit the on button once🤔
3.000.000$ extra cost is the addition of chinese lacquer , the system alone cost is only 1.2 million $
I think the room’s poor acoustics detracted from their $4M system by a lot.
To add to the crappy acoustics & lack of isolation, some of the rooms play EDM which to me doesn't show off any detail or anything but low end capability. If a room's not playing acoustic music, I keep walking. Maybe that's how I missed this room.
I have a lot of great guitar gear. I'm also getting much more into engineering and mixing. So I certainly understand the obsession over sound quality. I also love to hear a good high-end system sometimes. It can be quite magical.
However, I have some ultra cheap headphone speakers that I love to listen to music with. There isn't much clarity with them, but I just love the way a lot of music sounds with them. My buddy has the same headphones and we both agree about the enjoyment we get listening to them. "Better" isn't always easy to define.
I popped my head in that room but can honestly say I didn't see or hear anything that made me want to stay. Now, the bookshelf speakers from Aretai...I didn't want to leave the room!
I didn't get to listen to those.
@cheapaudioman I think they were spaced about 12 feet apart and the imaging was shockingly good to my ears. Neat design...woofer on the front and back with the funky horn loaded tweeter(?). Not cheap (for me)... $10,000
@cheapaudioman last thing...I really liked the speakers from Atohm... And I really appreciated that they didn't have them powered by ridiculously expensive gear. As much as I liked the speakers from Aretai, they were powering them with $150,000 dollars worth of electronics. Maybe that makes sense for a $10,000 set of bookshelf speakers, but it would have been nice to hear what they could do with something more reasonable (in my world, anyway). Can't please everybody...and I can't afford them either way!
I didn’t hear everything but the standouts for me were the Gema kit speaker from SB Acoustics and the HSU Research room. Hsu had some $800 coaxial speakers that sounded great and of course subs that went down to 16hz.
Thanks for the quality content Randy!
I got a great deal on a pair of Morel Octave 6 LE bookshelf speakers which I've been running for about a year now, which replaced my older Heco Celan 300 speakers. Could not be happier with them! Amazing details and still punchy enough.
Would be cool if you could get a pair of those in for review, very little content online to be found.
For hifi I run them with a small 2x10w Dynavox tube amp (no problem driving them at all), and for TV-duty with a Yamaha RX-V4a.
Cheers from Sweden!
All I can think of is 'diminishing returns'.
I like NB designs concept, and agree 2-5k critical hearing range, my theory is best to get get the crossover out above that range, nice going
I worked CES for a high end amp manufacturer back in the 80's. A lot of really creepy nerds for sure, but some AMAZING sound systems!
More indications that we need to eat the rich.
I saw it, I made my wife stand next to one of the horn speakers just for shits and giggles of size comparison. I sat, I listened. And yeah. I mean, it sounds good. Defintetly. But it's not the end all be all. I was honestly more impressed by the ESL Martin electrostatic speakers than this, and that's just shy of 3k.
This is AWESOME, thx for sharing. Eating cereal tonight because I must start saving monies 😢
I saw the Chinese horn system at Axpona it was fun to see . I did notice six powered subwoofers that were used to make the base audio. The giant base horns were not able to make the low frequency.
Worked in sales for years. Just love it when the bullshit starts to flow, Im suprised that some companies still do that.
I liked it, although the room was pretty much a square box so the bass got out of hand. Could have used some room correction. I thought it sounded warm and vibrant. Very clear and detailed. Even though some of these things are bonkers expensive, it is fun to see them and go listen to them if you can.
Why not spend $3M to buy and furnish a beautiful home with a professionally sound-engineered room, and then spend $500k for a really really nice audio system. AND still have enough money for a bunch of vinyl records, a luxury car and college funds for the kids! Hey, if you picked a good neighborhood, the house might even pay for all that eventually.
I can’t wait to see your review of the Morel Biggie. When I was in their room I saw little speakers with buttons a thought “powered bookshelf eh”, but nice Bluetooths, definitely interested!
I'm a (classical) musician and I always find it funny hearing people seeing people talk about classical music.
People try to sound super sophisticated and praise the recording for their lyrical communication or whatever.. it's always bs.
Although I don't know nothing about it, when people praise some multi million dollar systems to the moon I get the exact same feeling. x))
So thank you very much for being honest. 😂
3:40 There's no doubt about it; those Advance Paris units are gorgeous eye candy and ear candy and they give McIntosh a good run for the money. :)
Let's be clear, it's mostly a design industry, not really sound / music. After a relatively small $$ amount.
This was my 3rd time there. I love going, but nothing ever sounds good to me. Obviously a lot that has to do with the rooms and placement, but every time I come home and fire up my Elac UniFi’s coupled to my Schiit Saga and Vidar and fed with my Wiim Pro, it sounds better to me. And not just a little. And I know what you mean when you commented on that one system that you said sounded too “forward”. I think I experienced that in every other setup there. Weird.
Hi, I always watch your videos being a cheap audiophile myself.
I got me a Chinese BRZHIFI X21 a year ago from Alibaba.
Its as 2.1 setup with 220V power, 2 x tpa 3255, comes with a remote controller and lots of input and output configurations. Running it with diy desktop 2 way 6.5" speaker system and two 8" (8ohm in parallel) subs, I'm still in love with it. Sounds good.
I didnt purchase the $4,000,000 system because No Matter what system you set up in it, my bedroom still produces a low frequency Standing Wave.
No Von Schweikert Audio? They have plus/minus 1Db in the midrange.
Thanks... now I know I've been pronouncing Gheshelli wrong this entire time.
Neil is the man! Did you get the made bed from the Navy ? My dream is to have my speakers in a show someday. I don't want to make crazy expensive speakers I just make them sound expensive that the average person can afford
I am a sucker for blue lighting so I thought that Advance Paris rack looked awesome!
I think above certain price you don't have diminishing returns of sound quality but increased loss.
More math... $15 of vinyl as the source for $4,000,000 of hardware processing. You'd think they would be using lasers & noise processing!~ $4M~! I've been coasting on my NAD's & NHT 2.5's for decades.
As a socialist I am disappointed this gear is even offered for sale. It's a sick world.
The point of diminishing returns hits really really early. Blindfold most audiophiles and you'll see that they will be impressed with a 6K system. The average person will be blown away.
Was really digging the groovy music man.
Why wasn't Zeos wearing his awesome Dyson Headphones :)
I would listen to this at the lowest level I could, call me bizarre but that’s how I can tell if it sounds good.
I bet the Sony SS CS5's are better *put affiliate link here*
thanks for reminding me. missed opportunity
For $4 million you can hire a band every night to play live music in your house, and you can do it for at least 20 years, but more if you invest the unspent funds at the beginning.
Done.
But... those bells are gorgeous
4:19 Mofi offers now their new 888 tower speakers for 5000 $ a pair!!!
Teac source equipment is the bomb for sure. The masters of their domain, just as Rotel us to amplifiers and Dynaudio is to standmount speakers.
Short of making everything out of solid gold, platinum and diamonds, how do you even get to $4M for consumer electronics?
It makes the coffee as well 😂
Hope you caught the VPE Electrodynamics room and Dr Hsu. Very impressed. Loved the Morel but my absolute favorite within reason pricing was Zu Audio.