What is $5,000 worth today, and is it better than 1,600 in the 80's?

Given the advances in audio tech, I would be surprised if you had to spend much more than $2000 to equal the 1980 $1600 system. Not necessarily in size and number of components but for sound quality. The caveat is that if your into vinyl it’s another story as decent turntables have gotten a lot pricier. As far as the gold bug discussion, it’s conspiracy theory. The values of gold and silver have no relationship to their utility. If the world economies all collapsed a box of .22 shells or a can of soup would be worth more than an ounce of gold. It’s almost as arbitrary as paper currency and harder to carry around. Currencies don’t have intrinsic value and gold or silver don’t really have much either. They are a method of exchanging what I can do for what someone else or a group of people can do without having to negotiate a complex series of barters every time I need a screw, a banana, or a bag of beans.  Controlling the money supply with excavators is just as nonsensical as controlling it with server farms "mining" for make believe coins that only exist in computers.  I have heard just about every moral ill of the modern world blamed on fiat currency. MEGO.