I recently heard a system with huge Pass mono blocks, Magico M3 speakers, Techdas tt, ARC preamp and ARC phono amp. High end cabling and lots of room treatments. It sounded pretty darn impressive. But, it wasn't "tuned" to my taste. The bass was overpowering. My point is, it's all subjective. Ultimately, I liked my comparatively low priced system better than the hugely expensive one even though the expensive one was surely better by most audiophile criteria.
When someone tells you it's a $40,000 amp, does it sound better?
I've always been a little bit suspicious when gear costs more than $25,000 . At $25,000 all the components should be the finest, and allow room for designer Builder and the dealer to make some money.
I mean that seems fair, these boxes are not volume sellers no one's making a ton of money selling the stuff.
But if I'm listening to a $40,000 amplifier I imagine me Liking it a whole lot more just because it costs $40,000. How many people have actually experienced listening to a $40,000 amplifier. It doesn't happen that often and usually when you do there's nothing else around to compare it to.
I'm just saying expensive gear is absolutely ridiculous. It's more of a head game I'm afraid. Some how if you have the money to spend, and a lot of people do, these individuals feel a lot better spending more money for something. Now you own it, and while listening to it you will always be saying to yourself that thing cost $40,000 and somehow you'll enjoy it more.