I’m there with a modest system. Don’t have the bass extension, but what’s there sounds very real. Excellent room helps. Believe it or not, my stereo rack (2 inch oak shelves, each layer isolated, stillpoints under critical gear) with associated vibration control made a critical difference in the sense of realism, especially spatially.
Qualities Of An End-game System
Qualities of an end game system:
- Speakers disappear
- The room disappears
- The listener disappears, his mind is shut down/gone.
- There is nothing left but the perception of falling into an abyss filled with music.
- The listener doesn't know where any of the music came from, but, it is all inside of him. Sex, drugs, etc can't come even remotely close to such an experience of pure audio nirvana.
If your system can't do that (whatever it may be), you have no end game.