Downgrading

I agree with Onhwy61 and Nonoise. The more enthusiastic you become the more infantile mistakes you make. Your strive for better performance and sound builds your addiction and leads you to an unjustified expenses that are very similar to Gambling Compulsive Disorder and once you're there, it's hard to convince You, the victim.
I would certainly recommend to use term Rebudgeting instead of Downgrading.

...we all make good statements here and not only about donwgrading. educating mass that goes after advices of certain dealers to spend 5 figures for home audio can bring the prices of equipment down for all so that is of an importance to bring this kind of propaganda to the public through the forum and chat media as a matter of fact.

All to say that it is possible that $18k system is just as good as $100k is very easy:
$30 cable can be as good as $3000 one and no blind test will be precise to describe difference.
Yugo $12 tubes are just as good as $120 Mullards
Digital amp can be just as good as $10,000 Rowland and $500 DAC can be just as good as $5000 dac or player.
You can also get arround without feet under your components that may run upto $200/piece...

Ways to downgrade without loosing performance are so many that it's hard to even list, but at the end you could be turned out to spend 10x less vs. what you used to have before.