I have to completely disagree with you guys on price not being a good indicator of sound quality. In general, price is a good indicator at the component level and at the system level, given an equal time and effort invested in system component selection and integration.
To get the maximum out of every component requires a lot of work and great care in selecting compatible and complementary components. So if your own time is worth nothing and you are willing to spend hundreds of hours researching and testing to assemble a system with the objective of putting together an inexpensive system with spectacular sound… you can do it. But if you put that same amount of effort into putting together a system without the cost constraints it is going to sound much better (assuming the same skill level). So the reason you are professing this specious conclusion is because you are comparing an incredibly well thought out inexpensive system with a sloppily thrown together expensive system. I was young without money once… I spent hundreds of hours on research, comparing components, identifying new companies with exceptional product that were trying to enter the market by entering cheap, tweaking what I had… etc. I achieved great levels of performance per dollar invested. But had my budget not been restricted I would have a hugely better system for the same amount of time invested.
You may not like this, but in general, if you are an informed consumer you get what you pay for.
To get the maximum out of every component requires a lot of work and great care in selecting compatible and complementary components. So if your own time is worth nothing and you are willing to spend hundreds of hours researching and testing to assemble a system with the objective of putting together an inexpensive system with spectacular sound… you can do it. But if you put that same amount of effort into putting together a system without the cost constraints it is going to sound much better (assuming the same skill level). So the reason you are professing this specious conclusion is because you are comparing an incredibly well thought out inexpensive system with a sloppily thrown together expensive system. I was young without money once… I spent hundreds of hours on research, comparing components, identifying new companies with exceptional product that were trying to enter the market by entering cheap, tweaking what I had… etc. I achieved great levels of performance per dollar invested. But had my budget not been restricted I would have a hugely better system for the same amount of time invested.
You may not like this, but in general, if you are an informed consumer you get what you pay for.