??? Where Does "High End" Start ???

ASR: "All amps sound the same, just get the one with the best SINAD. Ditch your preamp, it only adds distortion. 192 Kbps is all the digital resolution anyone ever needs. Just buy whatever that’s rated Golfing Panther and you’ll do just fine".

Audiogon: "My $3000 network switch sounds stunning. You need to invest at least 30% of the cost of your system in cables. A good USB cable costs $1500, but some $500 ones are said to sound decent. Caelin personally recommended these speaker cables and they are such game changers that I will never need new speakers again! Best $15,000 I’ve ever spent! You get what you pay for!".

Both of the above are attempts by people unable to decide for themselves what sounds good from what doesn’t, to quantify the value of hifi gear through criteria unrelated to sound quality.

My two cents here is that both extremes are doing the community a disservice.

 You are completely right in my book ....I repeated this here for years...

Subjectivist audiophiles and objectivist  few specs measuring  obsession are focussed as twin brothers are  on the "Gear piece" specs for one group or taste for the other group...Not on the system/room/ears-brain ...

The two group ignore the optimization process of their system/room especially the acoustics and psycho-acoustics part...

ASR: "All amps sound the same, just get the one with the best SINAD. Ditch your preamp, it only adds distortion. 192 Kbps is all the digital resolution anyone ever needs. Just buy whatever that’s rated Golfing Panther and you’ll do just fine".

Audiogon: "My $3000 network switch sounds stunning. You need to invest at least 30% of the cost of your system in cables. A good USB cable costs $1500, but some $500 ones are said to sound decent. Caelin personally recommended these speaker cables and they are such game changers that I will never need new speakers again! Best $15,000 I’ve ever spent! You get what you pay for!".

Both of the above are attempts by people unable to decide for themselves what sounds good from what doesn’t, to quantify the value of hifi gear through criteria unrelated to sound quality.

My two cents here is that both extremes are doing the community a disservice.

Where Does "High End" Start?  Like @wsrrsw mentioned, it's a state of mind, but it might start at the point where you consider yourself an Audiophile and realize a whole other world of audio equipment.  I don't remember the term High-End used growing up.  It's when I learned that shops like Victor's Stereo, Paul Heath, Audio Consultants, and Quintessence Audio existed beyond Pacific Stereo, Playback, Musicraft, Midwest Hifi, and their ilk.

@devinplombier wrote:

ASR: "All amps sound the same, just get the one with the best SINAD. Ditch your preamp, it only adds distortion. 192 Kbps is all the digital resolution anyone ever needs. Just buy whatever that’s rated Golfing Panther and you’ll do just fine".

Audiogon: "My $3000 network switch sounds stunning. You need to invest at least 30% of the cost of your system in cables. A good USB cable costs $1500, but some $500 ones are said to sound decent. Caelin personally recommended these speaker cables and they are such game changers that I will never need new speakers again! Best $15,000 I’ve ever spent! You get what you pay for!".

Both of the above are attempts by people unable to decide for themselves what sounds good from what doesn’t, to quantify the value of hifi gear through criteria unrelated to sound quality.

My two cents here is that both extremes are doing the community a disservice.

+1

I think it’s a tremendous service to the community to provide diligent measurements of gear that point to the most accurate reproduction capabilities! The additional angle that arises is, of course, how to effectively integrate those systems into rooms using DSP, room treatments, good speaker choices, REW, Dirac, and so forth.

That’s real hi-end stuff when you get to the point that you feel confident about your frequency response curves into Dirac from your calibrated microphone, the entire chain is sublime, and the sound is delicious!