Changing to less expensive gear.

I have never done it, but I have demod some very expensive (by my standards) gear in a dealer while waiting for the stuff I had purchased to be boxed, and also because it was quiet at the time and the staff enjoyed showing it off.

I don't remember exactly what it was, but it was some Martin Logan speakers with two huge mono block amps and a big silver CD player ... again I did not look at the label. I did not ask the cost, but it was the shop's statement system.

I was shocked. The $1000 speakers I had just bought, driven by a $1000 integrated amp with a $500 CD player sounded better than this statement system. Better in EVERY way. Imaging, dynamics, treble extension. The expensive system sounded BIG, but that was about it. In every other way it failed.

For the record my own comparison system was
Heybrook Sextet 3 way (ribbon tweet) speakers ($2000 new, $1000 used)
Mission Cyrus 2 with PSX power supply ($1000 new)
Marantz CD63SE CD player. ($500 new)

"The implication is that more expensive gear does not provide better sound".

I think this is not the implication. Rather, I think that the implication is that wise choice is more important than a large wallet, and that more expensive is not necessarily better.

To use a car analogy the Cadillac Escalade is an expensive car, but I think it's a total piece of crap in terms of its engineering. The Honda Civic is much, much less expensive but I think it's a vastly superior piece of engineering. However I am prepared to believe that it is possible to spend $50k on a car and get a car that is substantially better than a civic.