I listened to a $4,000,000 Hifi System!! DISAPPOINTED...
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 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'...
Check out the other vid from Axpona 2024 ruclips.net/video/8-oLJo3lK_o/видео.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.
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. ;)
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.
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.
Must reach a point where some are no longer listening & enjoying their music but listening to their hi Fi equipment 🙄
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".
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!
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
Did you hear the Philharmonics? For a $1700 speaker, I thought they sounded fantastic.
Anyone that would buy that deserves the disappointment they would hear
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.
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
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.
Ah yes, the Mofi/HiFi Rose amp is perfect for the young beginner audiophile. Just add speakers and $10,000
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.
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.
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.
*_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..._*
🤘🏻
😉👍
More indications that we need to eat the rich.
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.
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.
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..
you'd have to get like a 10% rate to get $400,000 a year on your 4 mil
4Million$ is the combined worth of all of your viewers` systems.
$4,000,000. The perfect example of diminishing returns…..to the extreme.
fr no cap x10000
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!
I make my bed everyday (I live in Florida so sleep on top of bedding).
I bet the Sony SS CS5's are better *put affiliate link here*
thanks for reminding me. missed opportunity
For 4 mil I could hire my own live musicians every day…..
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.
Audio is audio the rest is glitz
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!
Click bait & switch once again - Basically zero info on this "$4M hifi system" - Rest of the vid is a slushfest.
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!
Intrigued by those Morel products
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
above a certain price line (which can be subjectively quite high), it's objectively not about the sound/service or long livety anymore, it's obviously about being able to buy and own something that expensive aka status. We are just boasting apes after all.
I've been on the Morel train for car audio stuff for years. Really good products.
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.
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.
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.
Diminishing returns taken to the extreme.
I’ve been to audio shows, and I’ve never liked the big rigs, because they just sound brawny. The smaller rigs always reproduce the delicate harmonics better, just my humble opinion🎼🇨🇦✌️😎
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 😂
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.
I had a comment about wood grain speakers I'm not against it I love old wood I used to be a cabinet maker I made speakers but I think in the Modern Age speakers should be high impact colors vitamin C orange banana twist yellow plum crazy purple Panther Pink wake up that speaker cabinet you know what I mean have some fun metal flake it awesome thanks great reviews
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!
*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....*
I know many of these shows are for wealthy people showing off. There are great inexpensive systems out there and you have showcased many. Of course inexpensive is relative. I prefer great sound with enough money left over for CD's, albums, streaming or whatever source you prefer. I also like to eat and travel occasionally. Keep up what you do.
Agreed on Morel. I’ve built home speakers using Morel drivers and they are excellent. The “Biggies” are great. How about Hsu? Seems ideal for the CheapAudioMan.
Maybe get a nice house for around $750,000 then spend 5-10 g's on acoustical room treatments. Then buy 10 different pairs of speakers (all under $10,000 a pair) and figure out what floats the boat going forward. Moderation in all things - lol.
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.
How much for snake oil?
Naim and focal are a bad combo IMHO
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. :)
I mean i am a big audio fan and i can understand that some products need their price to compensate for R&D and logistics etc, but come on at some point it is just a scam.
Like look at those new headphones, they are 5K. Yeah its basically the same as those cheaper ones, we just made them fancy
So many sad and envious people.
People buy ridiculously priced systems because: 1. They have a lot of money 2. There are people willing to sell them said systems.
The more one spends on a hifi, the more of a musical philistine they are.
And at that level, less of a human being.
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
I have a rule- Never buy any audio gear that was made after 1980. Problem solved!
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 think above certain price you don't have diminishing returns of sound quality but increased loss.
dude ask for the Morel bookshelves. could be Sonus Faber Lumia II's, KEF LS50 Meta competition?????
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!
You know when you see a rich persons place and they have those gold plated fixtures on their bathrooms? You look at it and you say to yourself, “that’s a gold plated pewter tap, looks like ass”. That’s what this Looney Tunes setup looks like.
Just the fact that someone spends these sums tells you all you need to know about that person, and none of it is good- they should be made to listen whilst surrounded by the starving and sick of the world, and then hear how good it sounds.
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.
Well SURPRISE! You're not a horn guy. For me that's the whole game. Even a tiny clean amp can rock some horns.
$4,000,000!!!! My PC setup with tiny little Acoustic Energy speakers probably sound better.
Desert Island Discs, would probably have to go with Joy Division - Isolation. Great tune and fits the bill perfectly.
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.
Cheapest nor most expensive isn't the answer. It's what the listener loves for their taste and the budget they can afford. I like to buy value not the cheapest. I could spend more but if I find what I love then it's pointless. Just like buying something cheap or expensive to brag about it. Compared to other brands in higher price points I love the Sonus Faber Aida 2's. That's what I run with in my system. I have a pair of the VAC 452 IQ musicblock's in mono. Started my audio journey over 30 years ago with Cerwin Vegas from Circuit City. In the cheaper price points Parasound makes some great amps. If someone like tube amps in lower price point Prima Luna makes very nice stuff for the money. You can buy vintage tubes to change out their stock ones and improve the sound even more. Biggest bang for buck to reduce noise floor is dedicated 10 gage copper romex runs for each component to the breaker box. That might cost a few k.
The 4 mil system just exemplifies the Law of Diminishing returns to the extreme. @Randy. I did a ROTFLMAO when I read your description and said you were disappointed by the sound of the 4 mil sound system. You were expecting the sound of the band to "be there" huh? Expectations run VERY high with a price like this. Bottom line though, this is hi fi manufacturing trolling at it's finest. I mean really, no one (who is of sane mind) would buy this thing. I mean just look at it. You have to buy a house with a room as big as a house to put this thing in. With all those huge horns, which belong in a theater or a stadium, is it any wonder that it sounds too forward. Looking at this reminds me of those cartoon sound systems when you turn the volume up and the horn speaker gets bigger. Really, this thing is a huge farce and a joke. Even as it stands, I bet it cost the company less than 500k to make this system. The rest is troll money...greedy bastards. Stuff like this really disgusts me about the hi-fi audio industry. BUT they will learn quickly when no one buys it. (Okay, maybe Bill Gates could buy it, but I don't think he would be stupid enough to do so). I mean really, you probably can get the same results with a nice set of Altec Voice of The Theater speakers, and for much less too. Other points. I was surprised that Advance Paris actually had one of their units open and you can see the boards inside. From what I see from the layout, it doesn't look like anything too special. It is nice, but no McIntosh. Definitely not worth the asking price. Most of the stuff at that show is just overpriced stuff that the average hi-fi enthusiast cannot afford. That is a reason why I don't go to them. They would probably throw me out as I would be calling out all those trolls and how they are overcharging people. 7:19 $180k...You know where they can shove that, right? Yeah, straight up the wazoo! I think it was the representative for Elac (same show, but different clip) that said they would rather make speakers for the masses then high priced crap that only a few can afford, so this way they can bring good sound to everyone. I like that philosophy. I like Geshelli too. I definitely have to get one of their DACs!
I'm new to this and similar to the title, I recently bought modi, Loki, magni, and senheiser HD 660S2 and felt a bit underwhelmed by them for the price all together. I use the Apple lossless music from my PC and I thought i was going to have this amazing musical experience. Don't get me wrong, music is much cleaner and there is no distortion. I can definitely tell the staging or imaging (not sure which it is) on Thriller by MJ, The openness of certain music, and small details that i don't think I've heard in air pods pro, Sony XM5, or the 1more triple drivers. Is it cool, yeah sure. However, i have to sit there just listening to music and paying attention or listen to specific music where the producer had specific intentions. I normally listen to music as i work throughout the day but not exactly paying attention. It is pretty cool I'll admit it but i don't think it's this amazing experience for the price. Maybe I'm doing something wrong or my hearing?
I can say with all confidence that even if I had unlimited funds, you know like Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk money I wouldn’t spend 4 million or 2 million or even $100,000 on an audio system.
First, I have no interest what so ever in surround-sound so 2 channels are just fine thank you and second, by the nature of diminishing returns I guarantee you that I can put together a rockin’ 2 channel system for less than $100,000 that blindfolded will rival anything at any higher price point. Of course, the speaker cabinets won’t be made out of unicorn horn and the amplifiers won’t be cooled by leprechaun tears so there is that…
Receiver's speakers are very subjective!! I think you can great sound from 1k to 2k and im talking good used equipment yamaha aventage 3080 Receiver and def tech D17s D11s you get the drift, even yamaha rxa 3060 Denon although i prefer yamaha sound.
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 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🤔
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.
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 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.
I know this is a stupid reason to discount an entire brand, but feel like l'd have a better perception of Advance Paris if they had a different name. Might as well have called themselves Prestige Worldwide. It sounds cheesy.
Spent a million on hifi ....but it sounds really crap in my shed 😂😂😂
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.
The ESD horn system was not good at all. I listened and it was highly dynamic but that is the best of it. The highs were sibilant and rolled off in some ranges at the same time. The midrange was shouty and also boxy, closed in, and voices were overly chesty. The low end was very bloated and boomy.
The system sounded very poor and was not impressive in the least.
4:19 Mofi offers now their new 888 tower speakers for 5000 $ a pair!!!
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
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.
im sorry guys these Monstrosity systems that people are making are not what a system should look like.and as far that goes👎👎👎.ive got a hell of a ear foe music i like clean clarity crisp sound.and thats how i learned to play my guitar..
Weird , I didn't see Eric from tekton there....he's probably too busy bringing lawsuits against reviewers
The Morel line has been the best of the best for car audio. Its been deep on my wish list.
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
👍🏻,🤔after seeing you seeing expensive Hifi. I think its time to change the name of your channel, you are not a cheapaudio man anymore😊…
I saw you walking around but never had a chance to say hi to you. I can fully agree that the $4,000,000 system was terrible. I could tell they weren’t accurate at all when AC/DC’s Highway to Hell was played and the vocals sounded muffled and nasally compared to how it normally sounds on other system.
In regards to the Morel room, I was very impressed with how those speakers performed and was blown away by the low end extension without distorting or chuffing. WITH THAT SAID, they were running those off of a $70,000 Hegel integrated and were using $50,000 Nordost speaker wire to run them. They also had a very extreme EQ running that was insanely bass boosted. Another thing I noticed is that they would only play one song on the Biggie bluetooth speakers. (I spent around an hour in their room and only ever heard 4 songs played). If you listen to the song Fading Sun on one of your personal setups you’ll find that even a system with a sub on with a flat EQ will fall short of what they were trying to sell people with in that room.
I’m also sad to share that I strongly suspect that SVS was also running a rather bass boosted EQ when playing music in their room.
tackle me next time. I would have loved to meet you
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. 😂