It's attention, not money, we should budget

I’ve found wise application of Room Correction or application of DSP in general also throws any prior assumptions out the door. The end result literally transforms a system of cost X into a totally different sounding one with the ultimate flexibility for tweaking at your fingertips. Big time game changer!  My mindset these days is if someone is not applying  modern digital signal processing to their poor system that is always subject to the room it must play in, then they have missed the boat and the journey to that desired perfect sound will take way longer and cost way more, that is if ever even achieved. 

The problem with cost is X dollars buys you different things in different product lines. It may be true that more $$$s typically buys you more within a particular product line, though often with diminishing returns, but all bets are off comparing different product lines based primarily on cost. Especially if components in the system are mismatched as can easily happen between amp and speakers and room quite commonly. Source components require careful matching as well, for example phono components in particular. A well executed integrated design end to end always wins regardless of cost.