Tier M · Reference (listening philosophy)
Voiced for even-handed, nothing favoured.
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 Costs appear only as signed percentages against each tier’s (unpublished) baseline; absolute prices are not shown.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 | Technics SL-1200G |
| Tonearm | Technics S-shape magnesium tonearm (SL-1200G) |
| Cartridge | van den Hul The Frog |
| Phono stage | Naim NVC TT MM/MC |
| Preamplifier | Exposure 3510 Preamplifier |
| Monoblocks | Exposure XM9 Biamp 2x2 (4 units) |
| Loudspeakers | Emmae Reginae (custom) |
| Whole-system cost vs tier baseline | −3.6% |
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 | 15.6% |
| Tonearm | 4.0% |
| Turntable | 21.5% |
| Phono stage | 17.0% |
| Loudspeakers | 23.6% |
| Preamplifier | 7.5% |
| Monoblocks | 10.8% |
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.