Every time I eat a quality bread, I end up wondering what the next higher quality one would taste like

My hearing has diminished in direct proportion to my expendable income as i get older - frustrating

Paul. When I saw the topic, I though more in the line of how can I get 90% out of my existing system without breaking the bank. I would first start with finding the ideal postions for your speakers and where you should be sitting. Then I would treat the first reflection points with absorption panels and add bass traps in the corners. They are not hard to make and are cheap. Lowes Home Ctr sell Rockwool safe and sound for less than $60 for twelve 2'x4'x3.5" batts. I set panels 3 deep across the corners for bass traps. You can fine tune the speaker positions, toe in, your listening position, after you tame the first reflection echos and boomy bass. Not until then. I found myself tweeking the positions of panels, speakers, toe-in, subwoofer, seating position, over and over, because I could hear the difference when I made the smallest adjustment. I doubt if you can get more than 50% from your system if your speakers and listening positions are bad for your room, and you have the volume jacked up to overpower first reflections and boomy bass. You can invest in other low cost upgradings, such as a better stylus, or upgrading capacitors in old speakers, etc, after you get your positions right and tame the room acoustics. I attend AXPONA in Schaumburg every year (I live in Schaumburg). My modest equipment sounds better than a lot of the rooms at the AXPONA, because my room acoustics are so much better. (I said helo to you this year.)

I’ve just “downgraded “ my system to a Rega elex r and Yamaha streamer streaming Spotify with my Harbeth p3’s and I couldn’t be happier. Decluttered my brain as much as my system. I’m just enjoying music far more than I was listening to amps, dacs, speakers etc.

Turn it up to 9.

I was saying "Dave's bread" before you did! Speakers may be more important than the amp. I had some 301's Bose (sounded great to me), then acquired a pair of Tantal 507's (Focal). Powered through my same Adcom GFA-535 amp = WHOAAA!!!! The brightness and depth was night-and-day! An A-B switch would make a "Bose" fan-boy head spin!!!

The Strata integrated is $3,000 not $2,700, so I guess the prices in Paul's head are 90% too.

Those spending US$100,000 will say they are 90% there. Those spending US$1000 will also say they are 90% there. What is important is you enjoy what you have.

This video gave me an epiphany half way through when I realized Pauls theory here goes far beyond HiFi/Stereos. It pretty much applies to life as we know it. Sage advice Paul! Thank you!

The performance of my very modest $1,150 home sound system is dependent on what music I am playing at the time. I make my own bread

On the topic of bread, I'm from MA and in my local Whole Foods they sell great bread from a company called Seven Stars Bakery. Just a recommendation in case anyone is from a similar area looking for good bread. Also great video Paul :)

"Take my wife - Please" was a Henny Youngman reference, not Rodney Dangerfield. And Dave's Killer Bread is pretty damn good.

I believe that was Henny Youngman, not Rodney Dangerfield.

I was expecting to hear a $1000 cable sales pitch. A quality audio equipment maker that's also honest & straightforward?? 😳😮😲😱 What is the world coming to? J/k 😎 That's some really sensible advice, thanks for making these videos. I have over a decade of experience building recording studios on a shoestring budget, mostly for educational institutes & A/V startups in India. Your videos are a refreshing change from the technical jargon filled advice that many 'experts' like to throw around.

Dave’s Homicidal bread is pretty good stuff but I still have a soft spot for Wonder Bread, even though I’m pretty sure it’s would reduce my lifespan if I ate it everyday. I’m also pretty sure that Wonder Bread was reformulated sometime in the late 70’s or early 1980’s as it wasn’t as insanely soft as it was when I was a kid. It was closer to eating a cake and was super spongy and stretchy as well as having a bizarrely high moisture content.

"Take my wife, please" was Henny Youngman, not Rodney Dangerfield :-) Given your age (I'm 60), you should know that lol. Love your shows! Happy New Year, Paul!

Great video! Most people really are satisfied with the 90%. That 90% is a very nice sound.

In Paul's line of work, that line is rather high as his ear is quite well trained. My $600 system used to be my 90% but now that I know more... the line moved up on me!

I love your videos there always interesting and educational. However, it was Henny Youngman who was famous for the line “Take my wife--please”.

will ps audio ever do a budget line? good audio can be cheap, please make it happen

The bread analogy is a bit off, I would not have used that. Yes, that last 10% is elusive, even if you spend 60 times the money. Since there is no such thing as perfect in sound reproduction, I would not even worry about trying to achieve it. The secret is to find the sound signature that pleases you the most. The next trick is to do it within your budget, whatever the amount. The other point is that one can easily get to 90% for far less than $4000! I could do it for $2500 for a whole system, digital or analog. It is not that hard, do a little homework and ask questions of unbiased people to fill in any blanks.

Positioning/Room 100% Speakers 100% Source 90% Equipment 9% OCD/Audiophile 1% Almost there!!! 300% I hear the phantom luminescence of the event horizon cresting over the infinite plane of soundscapes, I think 🤔

Happy with your magical 90%, then it's 100% ----- enjoy the music!!! Your journey is over!!

if money is not a question for you just go ahead and get most expensive speakers you can and hope they are top notch but consider were you 'eat them' (listening), because room will make them sound in its own way. Else you can read a lot about audio and diy bread yourself (speakers). You can get those 90-95% just under 1000$. Its like food, when you put your passion to it its going to be very tasty. Bread in a store usually ain't fresh and tastes different than home made warm bread just from the oven.

The trick is to be satisfied with what you have. If you have a 90% system, it's pretty good so if you like the way it sounds, stick with it. Don't go down that rabbit hole chasing the perfect system that doesn't exist. Ignore the fact that there are 91% systems out there - they exist, sure, but they may have a sound signature you don't like as much as your 90% system.

The Strata is a really cool product. That looks like pure value.

The bread department? You mean the bakery? LOL that reminded me of Johnny Carson not knowing what a carton of eggs costs.

How about Prosciutto bread ? I want what they ate in "The Irishman". Nevermind the speakers. You need the right food to match the soundtrack.

Hi there, Paul. I like all of your videos since you explain things in very easy terms to understand, particularly, for a newbie, like myself, and which has led me to start building my system from scratch. One of the things I'm planning to build is a Transmission Line enclosure. Got a question - let's say my target frequency were 35Hz using a driver with a frequency response of 44Hz - 22000Hz. So, 35Hz is below 44Hz. Will my T-Line enclosure be able to hit the target? Or I do I need to set a new target at a point no lower than the one part of the driver's frequency response? Regards and, please, never stop making videos.

Wonder isn’t crap. It makes a great p&b.

Is the 911 Carrera 90% of the 997.1 GT3, or is the 911 in all its forms 90% of the Is the 911 Carrera 90% of the 997.1 GT3, or is the 911 in all its forms 90% of the Koenigsegg? or is the Infiniti G37, 90% of the 911 Carrera. All depends on your point of view. Same issue with audio.? or is the Infiniti G37, 90% of the 911 Carrera. All depends on what you expect from a sports car & how much you value $. Same issue with audio.

Okay; but some of us are into listening mostly to semi-traditional analogue hi fi stereo home audio which includes digital sources; turntable, a good phono cartridge, cassette deck, and CD Player. More on topic, to be more specific there is the case of loudspeakers; what about if you have Klipsch speakers? There are now the Klipsch Heresy 4 speakers, and so there you could easily get to maybe 98 percent! At least. Furthermore, Klipsch, especially the Heresy 3, 4s are made in the USA; another very good thing.

GOOD ANOLOGY😋 DAVES IS GOOD BREAD👍 Better is available ...but hard to find 😞 and not always available ( bakeries go out of business ) BUT GOOD EQUIPMENT IS THERE EVERY DAY AND LASTS FOR MANY MANY YEARS TO COME😍😍

White Bread is my favourite!

Hello sir in this video you are talking about KEF LS50 and what’s the name of amplifier you are pairing with it ?

I’m going to sit my speaker cable on top of my crusty bread! For isolation!

Experimenting with guaranteed disappointment. Excellent video Paul, great information and persona! 25+ years ago I bought Naim pre-amps, power amps and Hi Cap power supply to work with Linn LP12 (+ ARCambridge CD etc). A few months ago there was a quiet fluttering nose when powered up - and I thought about capacitors breaking down and stopped using it. For 10% of cost of servicing - I bought Chinese copies of Naim power amp and pre-amp (that won't work with moving coil) - but hey, just for now. After a think, I guessed matching components important so I bought additional blank boards and Peak DCA75 for rating components. These parts haven't turned up as yet, but while checking the speck of my stuff, realised the unused Naim DIN connectors had white corrosion within. After cleaning it sounds heavenly and suspect my plans to re-create using ebay will be disappointing - but sometimes it's the journey that's interesting. Maybe the best thing of all is I'm now aware of PS Audio and your channel. Thanks (and no intention of copying modern complicated stuff)! Mike.

It’s called the Pareto Principle. Feel free to do some research or consult a statistician. It’s not too hard to quantify. It would come out to about 33% of the cost of a PERFECT stereo would get you 90% of the performance.

Say that loaf costs $400 now I'm buying a half a loaf and it's still $400. ~Jack Donaghy

When that price point comes in???? Me, Around 150 bucks. About the price of 42" HDTV today.

point of diminishing returns - even that theme is probably dependant on ones overall finances.

I am sure if you look around, you will get to 90% below $1000.00, for my whole stereo stereo system it worked out to be just below $3,500.00. For the 100W stereo amp with speakers, two cassette decks (one for playback & a 3 head for record), turntable, stereo radio tuner, EQ and the CD player / recorder.

I'm more than happy with 90%-95% there.

So how does the current Strata compare to the PS Audio Elite integrated amp?

Room acoustics, speaker placement most important...

For most listeners, ignorance is bliss! If you know what 92% sounds like, you will not be content with 72%! My advice, on how to get close to the 90% is : stick to what has been proven quality over time instead of convenience ( LPs and CDs over MP3s, DVDs and Blu-Rays over Streaming, Hard Wiring over Wireless, MOSFET over simple transistors, etc. ). And don't forget to use a green Sharpie marker on the edges of your CDs!

I reckon you can get 90% with a much cheaper amp and decent speakers. I think upgrading the amp only makes sense when you are chasing that final 10%. Thoughts?

This is actually a very interesting topic but where IS your 90% mark? So I guess it is the Strada for amps and the LS50 (MK2) for speakers? (according to Paul) Then how many % is the Sprout? And a question I am interested in: How much for a turntable? I think it is the Technics SL1500 Which Cartridge? How about the Nagaoka MP110? Which RIAA amp? A Piece of Shiit? Also, to be honest that is as far as I will go.... more or less....

I'm on a super low budget I have a 750 watt Onkyo and DIY Tower three way speakers. it's great! I've never heard an "hi end system" in person.

What "law" of diminishing returns? If you want the best, it will cost you dearly, what else is new?

A good loaf of bread will generally feature sprouts. That's the other 10% that isn't Wonder.

ahhhh ! the Med Bakery ! (hi Paul)

Or else by a Peachtree Audio nova300. Add your kef ls50 or something better. Add a couple of subwoofers. Add a good turntable and streamer/DAC. Use cheap and effective cables. Add some good headphones. Add some acoustic treatment. Now you're just about done.

i wanted very certain things from my speakers and my electronics. so i made them all myself.

Did u launch your speaker?

In regards to the question, Someone please explain me what paul just said as a professional and well experienced CEO of a well known Company ? 😑 Aside from bread example which is *obvious* and that the more expensive equipment you buy, the better sound (system) you get *obviously* 😒 Any one please?! 😑

Well, i think the title should be, how to get 90% from a stereo. As it is i was thinking(when i pressed play) it should be about to get the most out of what i already have

Like GPUs right now. Going from $400 to $700 gets you 25 more frames per second. Going from $700 to $1000 gets you 10 more frames per second. Going from $1000 to $1300 gets you 5 more frames per second.

Come to Sydney Paul, we have lots of great artisan bakeries that make beautiful sourdough and spelt breads. The Australian dollars not great and with distances to transport equipment you need to spend a minimum of 10k to get your 90% system down here. Keep up the good work.

Now you're talking great bread! Been hooked on Dave's Killer, Good Seed Bread for about a year now. One bite, and you won't go back to other breads!

Getting to 90% for 4 grand seems a bit optimistic. This would mean all the money you spend on powerplants, speaker cables, power cables, interlinks, dacs, network with galvanic decoupling, etc, ect, that could pile up to a amount of many times the $4k would only give you a few percent return. I know from my own experience that it's not the case. The diminishing return is there but I think the last few expensive percentages are starting above $25k.

Not in NYC, great bread in Bronx, Brooklyn, and the other boroughs.

It’s henny youngman , not Rodney

I think it would help if in the future you explain the additional benefit as contrasted to the additional cost. that’s what you’re saying when you say you have to spend a lot more time and effort to locate that better bread. In economics we call it thinking at the margin. You’re always comparing falling or declining marginal benefits against increasing marginal costs and obviously when the cost, at the margin, exceeds the benefit, at the margin, you’ve gone too far

I'm at 91% right now. I'll be upgrading to a $1800 transport to get me to 92% soon.

Wonderbread has unsubscribed.... 😛

Henny Youngman not Rodney Dangerfield.

If only the software in PS Audio Direct stream did not mess up all the time I would be glad. Turning volume down all the time.

It's a curse being aware of the 100%. Us audiophiles know it for sound, but how do you manage other areas? Food - I'm not a foodie, but I don't eat cheap crap. Car - I've an OK car, but would be nice with a '63 Porsche! Windsurf - same as with sound, I have decent stuff It's a balance. My theory is to balance work, family and "you". You can't disregard one area, then you'll eventually be out of significant other and/or job.

Americans talking about food quality 😂

I think he (may have) want to ask how to get to 90% of your existing setup. To get 100% would ofcourse mean crazy spends on room accoustics (dampeners/diffusers), crazy expensive cables and interconnects and so on. But how to get almost there, without breaking the bank. Most bang for buck

Cmon Paul.Wonder bread is tha shit! Hahahaha

Ok - I've added a loaf of bread to my system, now what? I'm confused...

Hi sir paul im chriz from philippines i just want to ask i have tower speaker whit 150watt and 8 ohms and i have harman kardon amplifier whit 375 watts whit 75watts perchannel 6 to 8 ohms can i use may pioneer speaker that have 150 watts and 8 ohms to my amplifier thnk uh

$100 dac and a $100 set of speakers got me out of wonderbread to 90% there. did i notice an improvement with $500 set of speakers? yeah... the bass was a little better and a little better sound stage. how about $800 speakers and a $500 AVR?... just a little better. its like chasing the dragon... next thing i know i'm $5k in and it's better... but do i enjoy it more than the crap to 90%? meh.... yes.. but i have to think about it.

The question is that how do you define "performance"? Is it something that can be measured or is it a more subjective estimation? And how would we even know what that actually sounds like? I would think quantifying something so interpretive as music would be a bottomless pit of interpretive nonsensicalness. But if you are measuring certain outputs against known parameters (like decibels per watt of power at a certain impedance, for example) you can certainly come to some objective conclusions about output but to measure that based on some arbitrary percentage of an unknown entity (our subjective interpretations of how and why we hear the way we do), it becomes muddled and extremely undefined. All I'm saying is that we have no way of even possibly knowing what 90% of any kind of "performance" is in this hobby, let alone 80...or 70....or even 25 percent of it. There's no way you can measure that, so we're left to "feel" what we think might be representative of such numbers. Even if it were remotely possible to know what "90% performance" sounds like AND measure it quantitatively, it certainly wouldn't be a linear relationship, especially since our own hearing mechanisms (ear and brain relationships) aren't designed that way.

shout out to the fellow audiophile slash bread snobs out there

Secondhand is even cheaper for 90% or spending the same secondhand will get you 93% lol

And there I was thinking my 500€ system was 90%

I enjoy Dave’s killer bread.

There are likely super high end speakers that can do the "100%", but would you really enjoy the sound? Can get an idea of what 100% sounds like with a very good set of headphones (and can prove it by recording and playing back sound/live music). I personally find purely neutral sounding audio equipment to be somewhat boring unless its being used for classical music.

3:23 Henny Youngman

There are diminishing returns on bread .

or free boost by cupping your ears

why someone just send a question asking when paul will stop making videos and start to launch competent speakers? xD

i remember that to get 80% good is the toyota corona rule.....to get the rest 20% you either spend astronomical or DIY...

I like Paul but IMO, his response is way off base here and potentially demonstrates what's wrong with mainstream high-end audio. The focus of the question and response is cost-oriented and that's just BS. Yes, there are inferior and superior products that make a difference but to put it plainly, Jonathan Valin of The Absolute Sound said circa 2008, "We are lucky if even our very best SOTA-level systems are able to capture even 15% of the magic of the live performance." I know of a few who even said 15% is pushing it. I presume the so-called "magic" that Valin mentions really translates to "believability" but I could be wrong. Anyway, that said, there are two primary reasons that money / cost is almost irrelevant. The reality is that attaining a 90% performance ratio from even today's best "state-of-the-art" (SOTA) is near impossible as things stand today. Why? Because there are two primary noise floors for which every last playback system is victim of. First is the playback system's much raised electrical-energy-induced noise floor. This is a universal issue plaguing everly last playback system in existence. In fact, it's so significant that this much-raised noise floor acts as the most serious performance-limiting governor to one great extent or another. IOW, this universal governor ensures components will perform far closer to their base performance levels rather than their true optimal performance levels. Paul makes no mention of it because he (like others) most likely has little awareness of how serious the problem is. To confirm the reality of this plague, I remember dialoguing with a well-known well-respected component designer who eventually admitted that every last one of his designs as well as all others' designs contained at least one unknown serious flaw for which his professionally-calibrated measuring instruments were of no value. Having never listened to any of his designs, I suggested his designs contained no such serious unknown flaws but rather were simply incomplete. For which he had no interest in - I suspect because he was too enamored with his press clippings. Nevertheless, when poorly addressed, this electrical-energy-induced noise floor will render high percentages of the music info read from the recording and processed as inaudible at the speaker. As the story goes, that music info processed that remains above the playback system's noise floor at the speaker will remain audible at the speaker. And vice versa for that music info processed remaining below the noise floor. It's a percentage thing. 100% of the music info embedded in a given recording can be read and processed. However, due to this noise floor that music info remaining audible at the speaker will be significantly less than 100%. Secondarily, there exists an acoustic noise-floor that has to do primarily with the bass regions and has to do with full-range speakers and/or subwoofers. Move speakers around a bit or tune the subwoofer a bit and new bass notes may become audible and bass notes that were previously audible will now be far more musical and well-defined. Move the speakers around again or tune the subwoofer differently and you may notice that some bass notes become inaudible. I call this an acoustic noise floor which has nothing to do with a playback system's electrically-induced noise floor. The two noise floors are almost completely independent of one another. An acoustic noise floor has zero direct impact on the playback system's noise floor but a playback system's noise floor when positively addressed will impact the bass regions of the acoustic noise floor. Get both of these noise floor addressed in a superior way is the only way I know of to acheive a 90% or better of a playback system's true potential. IMO, this is the primary reason why high-end audio has made very few signficant advancements from a performance perspective. And it's rather absurd for both the question and the answer to spend any time focused on cost. Unless of course one is limited to experiencing somewhat insignificant performance gains. Insigificant performance gains of any kind are still worth something but pale in comparison to very signicant gains when realizing and then addressing the causes rather than their effects. And the real absurdity is their discussion of 90% when in reality they're most likely referring to maybe 50% or so.

My question is unless you were actually present in the studio at the time of recording, how can you ever be certain that what you are listening to is 90% of the intended original sound or even 10% of the intended original sound for that matter??

Pour le pain c est en France ! C est tout !😉

You can always add to your bread with toppings, condiments and other ingredients. I guess this analogy would be modifying your system with slightly better internal components (or external - dacs, phono preamps) It won't be the equivalent of a high-end system ( or high-end bread) but it will become a lot tastier! ....and it won't cost you alot of dough! ;-) -Chris K

I prefer orowheat.

The problem with the analogy is that in fact all bread is bad for you ! Hi carb grains are not a natural food , having been created by selective breading since the advent of farming . It's a major cause of obesity and poor metabolic health.

There is not a good answer because the proposition of a theoretical 100% doesn’t exist. Value is where it is at. Dave’s bread is good value. A 10k two level metal rack that looks like an eye sore box... not so much. Value in general is universal and we could all agree on it at a certain level. But when this highly technological instruments mix with luxury then it becomes blurry to me. The price tag now doesn’t only mean performance. Then that 90% might be strikingly different to different individuals. 4K for Paul (for amp and speakers only), less for me, likely more for the next guy.

To get 90% performance from your stereo, you must use records and tapes to listen to music. Simple

I love you, Paul, however, please don't diss my Wonderbread. That's all that I can afford.

oh boy.... quite a hard sell here...!

Seeded wholemeal bread by reputable baker, over fresh plain white. Go figure!

Not caring about bread.

I'm sorry, Paul but KEF LS-50s are way overrated. The top end is lacking air. Much more hype than actual impressive sound. Maybe I have discerning taste, but to me I was left unimpressed. I would argue that those speakers could in no way take anyone 90% of the way. I can think of other speakers that are much more impressive. Vivid, TAD, Gamut, Cabasse, Wilson Sabrina, and even Focus Audio FC6 SE at $1400 a pair to my ears are a better choice.

I get 100% performance out of my system... who wants to aim for 90%??? but yes, law of diminishing returns is how you get to things like a Porsche 911, or a Leica 0.95 50mm Nochtlux lens, or a Patek Philipe watch for that matter...