[Robert Peirce]

I cut the whole message because I would have had to quote too much. I
have a couple of observations. First, so-called "pro" gear is really
good stuff at 1/10th or even 1/100th or 1/1000th of the price of
"audiophile" products. Second, Hsu's system of two subs and a pair of
bookshelf speakers costs way less than $30K and sounds fantastic.

I spent 20 years with a pair of Apogee Divas driven by a Classe DR-6
preamp and two DR-9 amps. I finally settled on a DVD player to play CDs
and a VPI Super Scout Master with a Shelter MM cartridge for vinyl. I
could hear differences in various TTs. Not so much in various CD
players. The DR-6 had an excellent MM phono input.

For the last couple of years I have been using a TC Electronics Impact
Twin driven from a Mac Mini using iTunes, along with Pure Music and Pure
Vinyl feeding the amps of a pair of Hsu ULS-15s and one Classe DR-9
driving the Hsu bookshelf speakers. I am using cheap balanced lines in
place of expensive RCA interconnects.

I use the mic inputs on the Impact Twin along with Pure Vinyl to
digitize vinyl at very high bit rates, probably more than I need. Pure
Vinyl/Pure Music also allow for the use of computer based filters to
tune the room. Try that in analog.

I haven't added it up, but I probably have much less than $10K in this
system, not counting the VPI TT, which I still own and which cost more
than the rest of the system.

Okay, I'm old and my ears aren't what they used to be, but I can't say
the old system really sounded that much better than the new and the old
system cost five times what I paid for the new, and that was in 1990
dollars versus 2011!