“…Since there was no huge difference in sound quality between two setups, I recommend not to let the price tags drive your choice when you shop for your gears.,,,”
Ignoring the obvious exclusion for $$ spent stupidly by the arrogantly vane and still uniformed …
“ no huge difference “ is an undefined, widely variable, and highly biased personal value judgement . Another listener would ( and likely will …) have a polar opposite assessment of your bespoke take on it,
Audio forum parties accept the prevailing basic tenet of “You get what you pay for “ as they move into higher $$$$ strata equipment
Intuitively, It’s never been a $$$ automatically drives audio satisfaction, but as we upgrade, we do pay $$$ for that ethereal greater audio satisfaction from a better sound performance quality. Otherwise, why upgrade?
I have 4 systems … $1500 - $50,000. All are satisfying, but they do not compare as equivalents / peers in any Head to head … , Yes, there is a huge progressive difference in sound quality between them empirically.