High Performance Audio - The End?

Thank you cd318 and mahgister for your kind coments.

I have listened to a pair of Magnepans (I believe 1.7) only once and they didnt convince me much. They sounded a litlle bit harsh even that they were driven by a tube amp (Primaluna integrated EL34 don't remember the model) and in a pretty well treated room. Maybe it was the source (digital directly from the CD player with out any DAC or digital interface whatsoever), but I can perfectly imagine they must be hard on bad recordings.
If I recall it correctly, the soundstage was wide (maybe bigger than it should), but not much deep and with out good layering.

I agree, it must be resolution with balance, but if your speakers and electronics are good, tweaking and voicing properly should do more good than bad to the reproduction of music, any song considered.

Warm regards

I don’t have tons of experience, but I believe that a properly setted up and voiced system, with carefully selected gear (with great price to perfomance ratio and good synergy) can easily outperform another system costing many times more, but with all of those variables incorrect.

A very very good sounding system is very expensive as there are so many variables/parts to take care of (AC conditioning, source quality, amplification, speakers, subwoofers, acoustics, cabling, vibrations, etc). All of them are important and all of them are costly and time consuming. Not to mention the cost and time of the mistakes during the journey to this audio nirvana!

Well, here are my thought on the subjetc:

1- The better your system sounds, the more enjoyable the musical experience and the better ALL songs sound, no matter the recording quality.
In fact, at least in my case, bad recordings sounded easier to listen as my system sound quality improved. Of course, the recording's flaws are more evident, but the overall presentation becomes FAR more enhoyable. 

2- When you get more resolution, my experience tells me that you just don't get more detail, you also should get better tone, dynamics, holographic 3D sound, etc. In two words, more realism and fun, not just details in a clinical way. Otherwise, something it's wrong.

3- Most audiophiles (I put my self in the first place) must learn to relax and not do upgrades too often.
Otherwise, we end up listening the same tracks over and over to judge every upgrade and not to other tracks that also move us. 
I know, it's VERY rewarding and exciting everytime we get better sound, but IMHO it's not sane to do it constantly. Not to mention the high cost of doing it often. 
My system sometimes moves me deeply with music, but that happens when I'm not judging the sound of my last upgrade and sometimes, when I'm cooking, or doing something else on the house, and my mp3 is playing, I find my self dancing, singing and enjoying music more! 
IMHO, getting this audio nervosa on high-end is a dangerous game and we must be aware of it. It shouldn't overcome our passion for music. 

4- I've heard some multithosand systems (+100k) on dealers and my relatively modest system (about 25k) sounded MUCH MUCH better. 
We don't have to spend three figures to have great sound.
Voicing, positioning and tweaking system and room is crucial!

Happy listening!