Tier Hi · Characterful (listening philosophy)
Voiced for colour and personality over neutrality.
One certified system per brief. Costs appear only as signed percentages against each tier’s (unpublished) baseline; absolute prices are not shown.
The certified system
| Slot | Component |
|---|---|
| Turntable | Vertere DG-X Sabre Lite Pack |
| Tonearm | Vertere Groove Runner X |
| Cartridge | van den Hul The Crimson |
| Phono stage | Musical Fidelity M8x Vinyl |
| Preamplifier | Music First Audio Baby Reference V2 |
| Monoblocks | Longdog Audio P6100M Biamp 2x2 (4 units) |
| Loudspeakers | Emmae Reginae (custom) |
| Whole-system cost vs tier baseline | −8.8% |
Amplification: preamplifier and monoblocks — an outcome of the search, not a requirement.
How the money is shaped
How the budget is shaped here — each share is the portion of the whole build this brief aims at that position. A position marked free is left to find its own level.
| Position | Share of build |
|---|---|
| Cartridge | 16.1% |
| Tonearm | 3.4% |
| Turntable | 17.1% |
| Phono stage | 14.1% |
| Loudspeakers | 28.8% |
| Preamplifier | 7.8% |
| Monoblocks | 12.7% |
Why there is no subwoofer
No subwoofer is fitted. The loudspeaker already covers nearly all of the bass that recorded music actually carries, so a bass cabinet would mostly duplicate it — the coverage arithmetic says the bottom octave left over is not worth a box at this listening level.