How far away is your Nirvana

I am of course referring to audio Nirvana not world peace.
I have found it.
It was not long ago that I was in despair over never having the kind of money needed to build the type of systems I admired at the "Shows" nor anything I really liked that I listened to in my area. Nevertheless I needed to try.
I finally made some major chamges not just a tweak here or there. One was moving away from monster SS power amps (400wpc monoblocks but inexpensive for that much power) to tube powered monoblock amps. That made such a tremendous change I thought I was done nothing else was needed. Thanks to my friend Joe.
Then one more change and...
I really found it!
It took all of $300 to buy a used AE-3 preamp. I only wanted it because it used 6SN7s and no other tubes. I needed a way check the sonics of a fairly large collection of 6SN7s. I bought them initially for an amp I no longer used. They were the driver tubes in that circuit -
certainly not in the most sensitive place for critical listening and evaluation.
Wow!!
I couldn't believe it. I suddenly had a system that I liked as much as any I had ever encountered regardless of price or rarity. I mean it really as good or better than any I had ever heard.
I thought I was a million dollars and years of experimenting away. All it took were these two steps. So you just never know.

My question is how far away do you think your Nirvana is?

p.s.
There is a downside to the story. Many of my 6SN7s were actually not very good at all. At least not for use in a critical gain stage even though they worked just fine as drivers and made a big impact on the overall sound. None of them honestly seem to have issues despite a circuit sensitive enough to allow you to easily discern what made the different types, vintage and brands distinctive.