I listened to a $3 million stereo system, and I don’t know if I could hear every penny, but I definitely heard the dollars

Working in tech journalism has its perks. True, sometimes you spend a whole day staring at the battery level of earbuds with a stopwatch in-hand while they run down, but sometimes you get sent the chance to try something special.

When I saw the invitation to book in for a listening session with a $3 million hi-fi system, I took it. I mean, who wouldn't?

More specifically, the price of the system as shown was a little over €3.4 million – most of the components are from European manufacturers and are priced to order, so if you were putting this system together in the US (as I'm sure you were just about to), the exact price would vary.

That includes some of the most impressive speakers in the world, a literal metric ton of amplification power, and a speaker cable invoice that will leave you double-checking you're reading this article correctly. (You are.)

Here's the full list of the equipment in the setup:

But as much as those prices somehow make my jaw hurt, having heard the thing in action I have to say that it produced something really special.

The two Wilson Audio WAMM Master Chronosonic loudspeakers obviously dominate the stage, despite being tucked away at the edges. Well, as much as you can tuck away two seven-foot speakers that weight 900 lbs (400kg) each.

Each of the main speakers includes two low-end woofer drivers, two lower-midrange drivers, two upper-midrange drivers, a forward firing tweeter and rear-facing tweeter.

These speakers are designed so that you can make physical micro-adjustments to the positioning of each driver, moving them slightly forward or backwards to perfect the timing for your particular listening space – no 'automatic room-tuning audio processing' here, they need manual calibration to perfect their output.

Now, you might think that with one 10.5-inch bass driver and one 12.5-inch bass driver – i.e. the sizes of pretty serious subwoofers for home theater use – these speakers can handle their own bass.

Ah, what a fool you would be. Obviously you need a separate subwoofer behind each of these speakers, each of which is over five feet tall itself, and has three 12-inch drivers.

Powering these four speakers are four monoblock amplifiers, each of which is capable of outputting 1,600 watts at 8 ohms, and weighs 570 lbs (258kg). Bear in mind that for the affordable home options among the best stereo speakers, 80-150 watts per channel is generally more than sufficient.

You won't be wondering where all that effort goes, though. There was a scale to the sound produced here that just can’t be matched any other way than by throwing this much power and air movement at it.

There's so much dynamic range in each portion of the dynamic range, it feels closer to an orchestra than a set of speakers – it's as live as a recording can hope to sound.

The piercing sound sound of a woman’s wail on a track unsettled my brain in a way other speakers can’t. When bassy drums hit, they come so low, so dispersed and so resonant that they don’t feel like part of the same soundstage as the vocals, but in a good way. They sound like a different thing, as if they’re not tied together by being part of the same audio waveform. Every element is utterly its own thing, recreated wholly.

The system's ability to produce lower mids you can feel in your diaphragm was unparalleled compared to anything I’ve heard outside of an IMAX theater, and I’ve been to a lot of fancy speaker demos. It gave acoustic instruments a rawness, again lending itself to that feeling of being in front of a colossal live performance.

Similarly, I don’t know that I’ve ever heard such detail within bass before, maintaining such a delicate touch over fluctuations within the lowest frequencies – and yet at the same time as being such a thoughtful touch on bass, you could feel the bass when the track wants you to.

It has so many more gears than lesser speakers; so many different levels it can move through, to deliver just the right amount of punch – the right tools for the right job.

Sitting in that room, you knew you were listening to something special – but it did also make me think of diminishing returns, perhaps inevitably.

Once you get to a certain point in the world of hi-fi (or TVs, or anything techy really) you start having to spend a lot more just to get a 10% improvement.

Would I have been similarly impressed by a setup with Wilson Audio's own Alexxa V speakers (around $150,000 per pair), which use tech from the Chronosonic range? I suspect the difference wouldn't have been vast in most people's ears, in the right setup – but I still think you'd hear the difference.

I'm glad I got to hear one of the most elaborate, powerful and – yes – expensive hi-fi setups in the world. By hearing what's possible when you go all-out, I have an even better understanding of just how good a home setup for a tiny fraction of the price is when it comes to sound-per-pound.

It simultaneously slightly ruined my home listening experience, while also enhancing my appreciation for it. And what is a $3 million hi-fi system for if it's not for giving you mixed feelings about the whole affair?

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