$80,000 to spend on audio equipment SUGGESTIONS PLEASE (1 Viewer)

[Geoff MK]

Hi,

My friend is building a new home. He is going to build a dedicated HT. He now has $80,000 to spend on audio equipments(speakers, pre/pro, amp, cables, etc..). Please give me a list of recommended components that fits his budget thanks.

Geoff

 

[Evan S]

You're kidding, right?
I wouldn't even know where to start.
Amps
Accuphase DX-600 amp ($10,500) or..
Krell Theater Amp ($7,500) or...
Theta Dreadnaught ($6,000) or...
Three Mark Levinson 336's ($30,000)
Processors
Lexicon MC-12B ($9000)
Meridian 861 ($13,000)
Proceed AVP2 ($6,500)
Loudspeakers
Aerial 10-T ($7,000/pr)
Dynaudio Confidence 5 ($10,000/pr)
Dynaudio Evidence Temptation ($30,000/pr)
JM Labs Utopia ($30,000/pr)
JM Labs Mezzo Utopia ($14,000/pr)
Kef Reference 4-2 ($7,500/pr)
Legacy Audio Whisper ($14,500/pr)
Linn Komri ($40,000/pr)
Anything by Meridian
Martin Logan Prodigy ($11,000/pr)
Revel Salon's ($19,000/pr)
Sonus Faber Guarneri Homage ($10,000/pr)
Thiel CS7.2 ($13,500/pr)
Wilson Watt/Puppy's ($20,000/pr)
God, the list goes on and on...not even getting into CD players and other good stuff (subs), etc.
Lucky friend you've got there.:frowning:

 

[Chu Gai]

Have him hire a sound professional and an acoustics expert. I like this forum and others, but with that kind of cash, assuming this is for real, you call in experts.

 

[Keith Mickunas]

I saw this and figured this was a play off all those threads titled "What speakers for $2000" and such. Seriously, what kind of responses are you looking for? There are so many different possibilities for that kind of money its not even funny. If the guy knows so little about what he wants that you are asking here for advice, he should spend a few months (or even years) getting to know about all the different stuff out there and trying out all the different types of equipment (planar vs. cones, tubes vs. solid-state, crt vs. lcd vs. dsp vs. plasma) before spending that kind of money.

 

[Chas_T]

Geoff,
I am sure you will receive lots of suggestions on how to spend this amount of money. It's over my head, but Evan did a pretty good job.
I agree with Chu. Hire a contractor to give you some professional advice, unless you think you have the expertise to do so.
Another comment is to get more then one opinion, bargin with them and make sure you can return the equipment if not satisfied. An friend did something similar and after a few contractors gave him estimates, he was able to get some serious discounts.
Good Luck... "Sounds" like a lot of fun....

 

[Dustin B]

If he is going to drop that kind of cash he should also make sure the room is built to sound good. Doesn't matter how much money he spends if he gets a poor room built for it in the new house. And you don't want your standard contractor designing that room, you want someone with extensive room acoustics knowledge designing that room.
Someone posted a link to this site in another thread. I think they might be good people to get in touch with about the design of the room.
http://www.auralex.com/
I also think a lot of the stuff Evan listed is out of an 80k budgets range, unless none of the room design and construction is in that budget. Even then it would be tight, when you start dropping 10k on individual items 80k will disappear really fast.

 

[Brandon Blair]

He needs to check out Moon by Simaudio for his electronics; processor, amps, CD, DVD, etc... (www.simaudio.com)
I'd go with JMLabs Utopia line for all the speakers and sub. (Link Removed)
Other VERY high end electronics to look at are Boulder and YBA. (www.boulderamp.com)
There are others too, but these are in my opinion the best companies out there reguardless of cost!
Good Luck I'm envious!
Brandon

 

[Dustin B]

I wouldn't go with the Utopia sub. Could do much better there. Considering the room is being built I'd look into building it so that it had an adjacent space appropriate for an infinite baffel sub. Stick a bunch of Adire Tempests or the new Uber15 (still a few month away and that's just what the people on this forum are calling it) in the manifold and you'll have one hell of a sub.
Link Removed

 

[Justin Doring]

$80,000 for a home theater system sounds like a lot of money, which it is, but good components can eat up that budget fast. I'd recommend www.avsforum.com for more in-depth video advice.
I'm assuming your friend is investing a considerable amount of coin into the room itself, as the room plays a huge role in the overall sound. Consulting a good professional is key here. The user, however, should select the gear. I'd encourage your friend to visit some high-end audio and video stores and do a lot of looking and especially listening.
For video, I would forget about a CRT projector, as they're large, noisy, expensive, and they require extensive setup and maintenance; they're on their way out. Instead, I'd recommend the Sharp 9000 DLP, a Stewart 16:9 Grayhawk screen, and a decent progressive scan DVD player. This video combination should be around $15,000 list.
That leaves the bulk of you budget for audio. Personal preference comes more into play here, but I'd recommend a separate amp and pre/pro instead of a receiver, and full range towers, at least for the fronts, instead of mini monitors. For electronics, I'd look at Theta, Krell, Classe', and Proceed. Revel, Dynaudio, Dunlavy, B&W, JM Labs, Wilson, Thiel, Martin Logan, Vienna Acoustics, and Aerial Acoustics all make excellent, high-end speakers. Revel, Aerial Acoustics, REL, and Velodyne all make excellent subwoofers.

 

[Martin Rendall]

I've got some great, er, Energy speakers which I'd let go for, say, $20,000... No taxes!

Martin.

 

[Brian Bunge]

I agree with Dustin concerning the sub. If you've got $80K to spend, by all means don't buy a retail sub(s). Spending a few grand on a custom built subwoofer will destroy anything commercially available.

Brian

 

[John Royster]

Have him hire a sound professional and an acoustics expert

That kind of budget must, dare I say MUST be designed by professionals. For that kind of dough the gear should be second to the room design and treatments. You can spend 80 grand on gear and still have it sound like poo. I'd spend about 10-20K of it on construction and design of the room leaving 60-70K for plenty of goodies.

Of course the room and the setup go hand in hand, that's what the consulting is for. Research and get hands on experiences/opinions, see their work. Then pick a suitable consultant.

A budget like that would truly be wasted without first and foremost attention to the room/house upon which it would be placed.

 

[KeithH]

Geoff said:

Please give me a list of recommended components that fits his budget thanks.

Let's be honest. Does he really have a budget?

 

[Cameron Garrett]

Buy Bose, by far the best systems money can buy!
j/k

 

[Mark Fitzsimmons]

Am I the only one curious of what this guy does for a living to be able to spend $80,000 on theater?

 

[Adil M]

Ummm... ask Dennis Erskine.

 

[Ken Custodio]

I would buy a Hometheater in a Box and spend the rest on a Porsche

 

[Eric_M]

With that money you might as well hire the actors or musicians and have them play at the house.

 

[Steve_Tk]

CC has the Venture HTiB on sale for 149. I would buy 500 of these, would be good.

I wish I had just 10,000 to spend on a house/car/vacation, let alone a hobby.

 

[Josh Lowe]

If Geoff MK is really from the neighborhood listed in his location (PV), and there's no reason to doubt it, then I'd bet the post is legit. $80k for a home theater begs for professional design, otherwise you risk blowing your investment on something that sounds atrocious.
If your friend specifically wants to do this on his own, then he should start with a -much- smaller figure and work up from there. Start big, crash big. You don't just hop into a Formula 1 car the first time you want to race around a track.. start with the Miata, first.