Amp pricing & diminishing returns / what's your take?

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  • pearsall001
    Member
    • Dec 2005
    • 77

    Amp pricing & diminishing returns / what's your take?

    I've been looking at a few amps for my system to run in both HT & 2 channel listening. My source is a Consonance Droplet5.0 tube output player, NAD T773 receiver as pre/pro, AADaudio 2001 monitors (8ohm, 86db sensitivity) The amps in question are: Mac MC252, Bryston 4BSST, NuForce ref 9, Rotel RB1090. Prices new are: Mac-$3800, Bry-$2800, NuForce-$2500, Rot-$1800. As you can see that's a pretty big pricing gap. My question is about the sonic qualities between them & if some really warrant the extra coin? For example the diff in price between the Mac & Rot is $2000. Does the Mac bring $2000 more musicality to the table than the Rot or even the others? At what point does the scale start to tip downwards in regards to cost/performance ratio? I haven't included Krell, Classe, ML because I believe the scale really starts to dip downwards with them. Maybe I'm off base here but I am open for suggestions & your comments. Warranties (although important) re-sale pricing, braging rights etc. would not be a deciding factor in my purchase. I really don't like buying used either, I prefer new.
    Thanks
  • kurtholz
    Senior Member
    • Feb 2005
    • 345

    #2
    Well, having had Rotel and Krell, which is twice the price, i think you get twice the quality, though that is just my opinion, i did upgrade pre-pro first with Krell, using Rotel 1095, then went to the krell 3250, i think it was good money spent

    probably depends a lot on your pocketbook, the McIntosh is a great sound to, i think at $2000 more and you dilute that over 8-10 years or more of listening enjoyment, it's a no brainer

    but that's me, i just like the Krell sound and quality personally

    good luck

    kurt

    Comment

    • Chris D
      Moderator Emeritus
      • Dec 2000
      • 16877

      #3
      Well, talking about it a little more abstractly, in any technology field, you'll find an exponential comparison between cost and performance.

      That is to say, that if you chart a 2-axis graph between the cost you pay for an item, and the performance it gives, the resulting line will be an exponential curve. At the low end, if you buy the cheapest product, you'll get pretty much the lowest performance. From there, if you increase even a little bit the amount you pay for a better model, you'll get a pretty decent increase in performance.

      However, like I said, the line rises exponentially, and about halfway through the curve, you reach a point where you end up spending more and more money to get just a little bit of gain in performance. Hence the "point of diminishing returns" as you put it.

      In general, the strategy I take towards buying technology items is to try to buy things just a little bit past this shift in the curve--at a point where I do start paying the bigger bucks, but I'm not throwing it away for a minor gain. I try to buy at this point with my first purchase. My own approach is to "buy it once, and buy it RIGHT." If I buy at a lower point than my usual purchase, I often end up wanting to upgrade, which if I do, ends up meaning that I end up spending at my usual point anyway, PLUS the original purchase I made.

      This ties into my approach to upgrades--if I want to upgrade, I wait until there is a QUANTUM jump in performance to make it worth the expense. Otherwise, you're paying a whole lot of new money for what you already have, plus one or two additional features. Instead, I save up, wait, and then buy when I came make a big jump up that exponential curve.

      Hey, you asked.
      CHRIS

      Well, we're safe for now. Thank goodness we're in a bowling alley.
      - Pleasantville

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