I'm a 39 year old residential real estate broker. I have a 15K HT system (at retail). I got into HT by chance recently and love it, when really just wanting a McIntosh preamp with a tuner, the type of system my parents wouldn't buy me in high school. May upgrade the preamp in the future, but very content. Go with your ears, not the pricetag. I'm not sure a few of my less audiophile enlightened friends even hear the difference. But I have a little music in my background.
What's your profession? Age?
Just thought after the "how much is your system worth" post that it would be nice to see what all these people do to get $80K systems, and perhaps how long it takes. I'm a 29-year old economist for the gov., just completeed my Ph.D. last month, and my system is at about $10K. Just a pup hoping to keep upgrading...