What does a $250k stereo look like?

A while ago I visited a guy who lives not too far from me who owns a high-end stereo shop. I started this audiophile club here in Bergen, so I figured I'd take some pics.






Kevlar membrane.


Diamond tweeter. $5k to make each. Yummy.


Big. Heavy bass. Airy treble. $180k or so for a pair.


The speakers are built as a four-way construction, and this box makes sure the right frequencies go the right place. This is the first speaker I've seen with an external box for this, but four-ways are a lot more complicated than three-ways so it's understandable


The two amplifiers behind the right speakers come with the speakers and are used to drive the four 13 inch woofers.








The Conrad Johnson ACT 2 Pre-amplifier. One of the best money can buy.



The Kuzma Stabi Reference turntable. Will set you back $10k+, but looks a lot more neutral than some of the other high-end turntables.

The Edge GCD CD player. Built like a tank, and can be yours for about $12k. Awesome sounding, but had some troubles opening the trey, which is pretty lol.


Cables by Renaissance Audio, Argento, and Transparent. They cost about as much as a decent car I guess.


So how did it sound? Well awesome, heh. It's not perfect, and could be more musical at times, but if you're playing a good recording it's a really great experience. Shame he's selling the speakers though.

I find all those pretty ugly. Especially the big boxes on top. and do I spot a fake tube amp there?
i like the CD player and the idea of a tray that gets stuck is also pretty neat

So for all that money the sound isn't perfect? Hmmm, so he spend all that on boxes that look really cheap and ugly and don't even produce the result you'd expect for that money.

I like some good sound aswell but spending an amount of this kind is far far over the top. The equipment looks nice and all but it has been proven that your average person over the age of 25 has heard so many loud sounds, that his or her hearing has been damaged so much that they can't distinguish the sound of an lp or cd anymore while being blindfolded.

Far over the top, and a complete waste of money if it isn't perfect, but thanks for posting the pics there Interman!

jeah :thumbup:


is it all bought from gamershell.com money?

Nice! I'd certainly like to be able to afford all that. The main speakers are a little monstrous, but the rest of the kit is pretty refined (apart from the CD tray!). I dunno, I've been tempted before to spend huge amounts on sound, but I find myself more or less satisfied with my current 5.1 setup worth a measly £150 and £10 earbud headphones which obviously wont even compare in the slightest. :bucky!:

But if I had to choose between that setup and an aston martin vanquish, i'd probably choose the aston. You'd at least want to be completely satisfied with the sound experience for that money.

More great photography btw!

Originally posted by Gazz@Mar 18 2006, 02:13 PM
So for all that money the sound isn't perfect? Hmmm, so he spend all that on boxes that look really cheap and ugly and don't even produce the result you'd expect for that money.

I like some good sound aswell but spending an amount of this kind is far far over the top. The equipment looks nice and all but it has been proven that your average person over the age of 25 has heard so many loud sounds, that his or her hearing has been damaged so much that they can't distinguish the sound of an lp or cd anymore while being blindfolded.

Far over the top, and a complete waste of money if it isn't perfect, but thanks for posting the pics there Interman!

No stereo is perfect. I completely agree that when something costs that much it should be able to play anything perfect, but when you're at that level it's not easy or cheap to tune things the exact way. For instance, at that guy's place the biggest problem was the room. A stereo like that deserves a huge room with acoustic treatment and everything. He just had a normal T-shaped living room. The other problem is bad recordings. On a normal stereo, over PC speakers, or on your ipod it's hard to distinguish between good and bad recordings, but in high-end audio one of the big questions is: do you want your stereo to be completely transparent, meaning it'll play things exactly as they are, or do you want it to smooth over things and filter out stuff you 'probably' didn't want.

So in other words, good recordings sound extremely good, and bad recording just sound good.

Will be posting more picture threads soon though

So he would have been better off buying a better house with all that money first then, I guess. With all due respect here Interman, but this guy doesn't seem like the brighest one.

He must have realized ages ago that the bottleneck would have been his house, why did he go on? I know that a well acoustic enviroment is formed by hard reflecting walls and soft materials to create superb sound, yet the guy had almost no curtains hanging there. That doesn't make sense.

Looking forward to your next photoshoot, hope you can top this one

Well he's been selling hifi for the about 20 years, so I'm sure he knows a thing or two about acoustics. The thing is though, to sell such expensive gear you have to actually be able to demo it, and his living room works fine for that.


Anyway, the next photoshoot won't have as expensive stuff, but it does have art, single-ended tubes, and a dog that's named after a french amp manufacturer