This is my man cave audio set-up. I bought the M&K S-1B speakers and V-1B sub around 1986 or so ($850?), thinking they d be the “entry level” speaker to start building an audiophile system. Twenty six years later, they’re still the best-sounding speakers I’ve ever heard. I’ve had them in itty bitty closet-sized apartments, larger living rooms, and now in my office, and I’ve always been able to locate them in a way that optimizes the room. And honestly, I just haven’t been able to justify spending thousands of dollars on an “upgrade” (even though I could afford to now and am frequently tempted). Just brilliant soundstage, very transparent, accurate without being jerks about it. Me and my S-1B’s have been together longer than me and my wife, but I’d never tell her they sound better . . .

When I designed my current office and the furniture, I designed it around operation of the stereo system. I had challenges. Hard floor, furniture blocking every line of sight, no “empty” walls. The size of the room (10’ x 13’) also posed some challenges, but once again, after a little tweaking with the placement, the M&K speakers sound fantastic. I built some traps for the corners behind the speakers and they made a huge positive difference. Two 8’ lengths of 6” PVC pipe, wrapped in egg crate acoustic foam. Total cost of the traps was $70 or so.

I seldom use any analog sources anymore, even though I retain an old turntable (junk--could stand to upgrade that), and an old Marantz DL 3507 cassette player ($400 20 years ago).

For the past 5 years or so, I’ve played all my music through iTunes on my Mac. No iTunes EQ or other fancy stuff hanging off iTunes--did you know you can spend thousands on upsampling and similar software that runs on your Mac? If you dig that kind of thing, it’s all good with me, but I just didn’t want to interrupt that nice clean digital path with unnecessary processing. The music files are served to the Mac by a Western Digital 3TB disk drive (located in a purpose-designed shelf system below the desk) attached via firewire. All Apple lossless files. I can’t hear the difference between lossy and lossless on my iPod, but lossless makes a big difference to my ears in this system.

The rest of the system includes a Harman Kardon HK 3490 receiver ($400?). I bought that a few years ago (replacing a 20 year old Denon receiver) when I learned I could send a digital optical signal out through a toslink plugged directly into the headphone jack on the Mac (!). The HK has a direct optical-in. Digital signal direct out of Mac=>direct in to HK. Beautiful. Could’ve spent a bunch of money on a D/A converter and other bells and whistles but why? I don’t have the room for a bunch of component gear and the minimalist setup produces an unbelievably clear, sweet signal that’s even somewhat warm to my ears. The toslink cable was $25 or something.

Rounding out the system is a Sony C601ES CD changer ($450 or so back in the day), that I seldom use anymore, and a BSR EQ-3000 ($200 in 1986 or so) which I use every time I turn on the system. It’s cheesy-looking and obviously “budget conscious” but over the years, I’ve just grown to love that thing. It has a nice pink noise generator and mic system to tune the room and help me find the most pleasing placement of the speakers. And it just adds a lot of life and interest to the music (and satisfies my need to continue to tinker around with the sound).

So after 25 years or so, I’m into this system (including components that I’ve replaced over the years; but not including the computer--which I bought for computing, not to be a part of my stereo; but if the shoe fits . . .) Maybe $2000-$2500?