Really expensive systems that sounded great?

I own a $150K system

Yet the drivers used probably cost a few hundred bucks at most. Shocking isn't it. only a fool would spend so much money. The hifi companies know this and thats why they set their prices so high for people like you.
 

Some of the best sounding systems I’ve heard were pretty high dollar, some only on the "expensive" side (😁), but were assembled by extremely talented people. Understanding system synergy, acoustics, electrical interactions, and the influence of the whole chain is extremely important. You’re simply not going to drive speakers like MBLs or Magicos with your average "good" amplifier, even if it cost a lot....speakers like that tend to sort out the contenders from the pretenders and it can be a painful learning curve, or an exercise in blissful ignorance if it sounds bad and the owners love it anyway.  Good sound doesn't know whether it cost a lot or a little, and there's often not even much of a correlation.

I don’t own high dollar stuff, but the exposure to the really good systems has helped me get a taste of good sound...lack of budget just forced me to find another way.

Seeing @ghdprentice called a fool - Now I remember why I stopped posting here for many months. But since trolls need feeding, else they wither and die, I will state that not all drivers are off the shelf and cost a few hundred dollars.

While the vapor deposited beryllium coincident drivers in My TAD’s are expensive, they supposedly cost millions in R&D to develop over many years, which has to be factored into the price.

When Andrew Jones created much less expensive coincident drivers for the Elac Adante,which I use for LCR home theater, they were also bespoke, not off the shelf.

I put together a well performing $8K simple system based on a Hegel H190 when I was away from home for a year.

When I finally returned home and fired up my system that cost around 15 times as much, it was evident that one system made pleasant, enjoyable sound, and the other recreated a more than decent facsimile of live musicians playing in my home.

The other aspect of having systems that perform at this level is that small changes/upgrades (like going to Cat 8 Cable) play huge dividends, which counters the traditional thinking about the law of diminishing returns.

My reference is not other hifi rigs, but live acoustic music played in small or home venues, which I used to attend regularly, and I tuned my ears to that.

Meridien flagship speakers ($125K) with all Meridian electronics at a dealer.

If you are spending money as a hobbyist/tinkerer Meridian speakers or active speakers in general are boring. You will not be able to mix and match amps/speakers for the next 20 or so years to enjoy the adrenaline rush of banging your credit card over and over and putting multiple unboxing videos on youtube. If that is your thing I get it. But if you are of the buy once/cry once mindset a matched system using active speakers fed by quality electronics is almost impossible to beat. I find Meridian products to be among the best for those who like that type of approach.