Pro vs. Consumer Equipment

One of the best set-ups I ever heard was a Crown preamp feeding a McIntosh amp driving a custom built cabinet featuring JBL professional speakers. I've also read quite a bit about professional cables being a lot less expensive and just as good as consumer cables. Earlier today, D911 posted a thread on the professional ART SL-1 power amp.

Across the board, these professional solutions seem to be very high quality at a much lower price point than the consumer equipment. So what's your experience? How many of you are running professional equipment in your set-ups? What are some great recommendations? Does this work better with some kinds of music than with others? Thanks in advance.