The term "High End" needs to die. Long live Hi-Fidelity!

jsautter...I don't think you got the gist of my post...obviously a good system can be obtained by paying for a new Boulder or D'Agostino "Relentless" amp, $40,000 cables, or any number of things in the range of precious hifi stuff...but a simple example of how not to is maybe my $1,200 Dennis Had Firebottle amp...is a Kondo Audio Note at maybe 30 grand a "better" sounding amp? Maybe to somebody it is, but based on my enjoyment of the Had amp I seriously doubt anything comparable is worth 30 times the cost, or is even "better" sounding in any way. My system does sound "sublime," and hey...I saved 400 grand!

I like the term "hifi" and use it frequently, and although I'm lucky at this stage in my life to be able to afford pricey stuff, I've always felt that there's a lot of reasonably affordable (a relative term really) brilliantly  designed components that embarrass the so called "high end" stuff and sound beautiful. Besides, it's more fun to use the experience accumulated from years of hifi fun to assemble a world class sounding gear heap from less "precious" (and sometimes "previously owned") components, and compare it to a multi buck system someplace (usually a local "audio salon") and note that, yeah man, my gear pile sounds better (with the obvious advantage of it being in my house where I can dial it in)...more fun, way more fun.