I'll be exhibiting the world's best sounding under-$400 sytem, featuring the Parts Express BR-1 Reference monitor speakers ($195 assembled with much-needed additional enclosure bracing and upgraded internal wiring, the $99 Best Buy Insignia two channel receiver, and a $45 Phillips DVD player from Wal Mart. For the audiophile with deep pockets I'll also be exhibiting the world's best under-$700 system using the BR-1's with the $260 Virtue Audio Virtue One class T integrated amplifier and the $160 Oppo DV-980H universal player.

I'm not in the speaker business, and I have no desire to enter that snake pit, but I will build a pair of BR-1's with the extra enclosure bracing for anybody who asks for $195, which is my cost with the extras I put into them.

While this may all seem like a joke, the purpose is to demonstrate to non-audiphiles that you don't have to spend a fortune to have good sound in your home. Everybody listens to music, and most do it on equipment that doesn't approach the cabability of even a mid fi system. Most music lovers would like to hear better sound, and many can afford a really good system, but there's a big psylogical barrier to spending even as little as $1K on a complete system if you've never thought about it before. My under $400 system is accessible to almost everyone, and it's likely if they build mine, next year they will return to some others LSAF commercial exhibitors for better equipment. It's like giving away dime bags of crack cocaine.

No experienced listener will confuse either of these systems with high end, but even the under-$400 version sounds amazingly coherent and involving. Adding the Virtue One and the Oppo takes the system to a level that rivals most $1K to $1.5K systems I've heard.

Convincing them requires that somebody actually visit their store and talk this up with the owner. Ideally it would be somebody who already knows the owner. If this were in Houston it would be very easy because we have a viable audio society and the owners of the local high end stores know our leaders very well.