{"id":48108,"date":"2024-10-09T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-09T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/115f314b-ac6b-409d-a22f-b9be4a448923"},"modified":"2024-10-09T08:07:17","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T06:07:17","slug":"would-you-spend-a-million-pounds-on-a-hi-fi-what-if-it-sounds-like-nothing-youve-ever-experienced","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/would-you-spend-a-million-pounds-on-a-hi-fi-what-if-it-sounds-like-nothing-youve-ever-experienced\/","title":{"rendered":"Would you spend a million pounds on a hi-fi? What if it sounds like nothing you’ve ever experienced?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By <\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 09 October 2024 at 05:00 AM<\/p>

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How much do you think you\u2019ve spent on hi-fi equipment? A few hundred pounds? A few thousand? More? The average cost of a main audio system \u2013 the one typically located in the living room \u2013 is impossible to predict.<\/p>

However, just as you can buy a basic Ford Focus or luxury Aston Martin, there really is no limit to how much you can spend on creating the perfect hi-fi system. But what do you get for your money, and can you actually hear the difference?<\/p>

They look more like a Doctor Who<\/em> villain than a traditional speaker<\/h3>

To understand more, I paid a visit to audio retailer KJ West One\u2019s London showroom and listened to a system with a total value well in excess of \u00a31,000,000. At the heart of this set-up were the Wilson Audio<\/a><\/strong> Chronosonic XVX speakers. Towering over me at 6’4″ and weighing 310kgs each, they cost \u00a3395,000 per pair. Other things to note: they look more like a Doctor Who<\/em> villain than a traditional speaker. And they sound like nothing I\u2019ve ever experienced.<\/p>

‘More like a Doctor Who villain than a traditional speaker’: the \u00a3395,000 Wilson Audio Chronosonic XVX speakers<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Each of the seven drivers are precisely positioned to ensure soundwaves of varying frequency coincide at the listener\u2019s ears at exactly the right time. Sitting in the sweet spot and listening to Chopin<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Etudes in the highest definition using Qobuz<\/a><\/strong> and the Roon<\/a><\/strong> streaming platform, I was bowled over by the precision, scale and substance of the playback. Hearing the piano so viscerally, with the deftness of each keystroke and pause between notes, was simply breathtaking.<\/p>

Sitting in the sweet spot and listening to Chopin\u2019s Etudes, I was bowled over<\/h3>

Let\u2019s be clear: if you\u2019re spending \u00a3400,000 on speakers, you\u2019re not popping down to Argos for the amplifier. Powering these speakers were, among other things, two darTZeel<\/strong><\/a> NHB-468 mono power amplifiers (\u00a349,000), a Dan D\u2019Agostino<\/a><\/strong> Momentum HD Preamplifier (\u00a355,000), and dCS Vivaldi<\/strong><\/a> Apex DAC (\u00a340,500) and upsampler\/streamer (\u00a327,500). There are simply no weak links here.<\/p>