How good is good enough?

I am married to an economist, we both believe in the concept of marginal cost versis marginal gain.  Now that I am 75 and my hearing is slowly declining I believe there is no future in upgrading my system.

It is not uber expensive, but would cost about a new Honda Civic to replace.  I am in my happy okace and spend my energies listening and no longer worry about gear changes.  Revel in the present!!

Utility functions for luxury goods are difficult to define…..Don’t let the “ dismal science “ squeeze the  joy out of that Civic sized investment….

Just an Econ dude $.02 adjusted for deflation 

My system is in the lower 5 figures (under 20K) and most of it was bought used. I got JBL XPL 140 speakers, Lexicon MC12 preamp, LX7 amp, Modwright/Oppo BDP 95, JBL 2241 Sub, Crown XLS 1500 sub amp.. I heard a 6 figure system with Wilson Sashas and It didn't grab me at all. My System murdered this high dollar big name set up. This is my end game system and I ain't worried about it. I am still doing tweaks on it, but I'm done shopping.

huh?

Appreciate the sentiment and can relate to your statement/question.

My 2-channel journey took me all the way around to the most enjoyable system I've ever experienced. And when you say "Big Fish", let me shock you with minimal system components - both of them (if you count active speakers):

1) Old Samsung Note 9 (with a broken screen) sitting on a continuousely charging DeX cradle that also has HDMI and USB outputs and a dongle that strips (S/PDIF coax) audio off the HDMI output. <-- Yes, that is the extent of the "gear".

2) Speaker system: Pair of DIY Linkwitz LXmini and pair of DIY Linkwitz Phoenix(alt) open-baffle subs with a Hypex FA123 mounted in each. These receive the digital signal with their coax inputs, provide crossover and DSP tuning duties - driving all 6 channels actively.

The HDMI is connected to a TV for displaying/selecting streaming sources, Note9 is controlled with wireless keyboard/trackpad. Turn the system on by switching on the TV, phone automatically awakens in DeX-mode by default. Soon as I begin playing something (usually AmazonMusic or YouTubeMusic), the Hypex amps signal-sense and auto powerup - all from the couch. Another beauty of the system is... there is only ONE digital-to-analog conversion, and it's at the very last stage - just before amplification (avoiding analog-to-digital conversions altogether and avoiding multiple digital-to-analog conversions) and literally in the speakers.

I've been through so much gear, so many speakers, cal mic measurements with REW, Dirac, etc. (all a great hobby experience and learned a lot) - years of that to end-up here... thoroughly enjoying the "non-system" that I built from the plans of a genius (Linkwitz).

BTW, I still have most of the gear (stacked in the basement) and some of the speakers (GoldenEar Triton One's were repurposed to HT as an example), and if I thought it would improve the 2-ch sound, would readily reinsert - but experience and measurements have shown it won't/doesn't. Also, the 2-ch room has no treatments... unecessary with OB-subs and omni/dipole cardioid speakers.

The system is essentially non-existant except for speakers, powers-up without touching a unit or warm-up time, videos or not (as wished), and excellent spacial sound without a bad seat in the room - I even moved the sweat-spot Eames chair & ottoman to the granddaughter's room (for when she visits).