I love my Livingroom system and consider it my end game done system. However, I had a friend who is a musician and audio hardware vendor come over to listen. His hearing ability was written up on 6moons.com and I had also noticed the same genius when I was discussing audio gear with him in the past. He told me that the Livingroom system, which cost me about $20k and is rather simple was the 3rd best system he had ever heard. The other 2 costing close to a million.
He was not a SS fan and likes vinyl and tubes the most. My setup was a SS Benchmark LA4 preamp and SS amp. I remember telling him before he came over that my setup was something me may not like but I loved it.
If it was anyone else, I really would not have paid too much mind to the feedback but coming from someone who knows so much about audio made me convinced not to ever touch this system. I did do one upgrade, but only because the speakers were scratching the floor. I got the Townsend Audio Platforms and there was an improvement in the sound (especially the bass).
BTW - I have received a lot of negative feedback from my friend in the past. I can remember 3 pieces of gear that he told me were not good. I ended up selling them.