Qualities Of An End-game System

End Game System:

- System is paid for

- Music room is paid for

- No desire or need for approval/disapproval of the system or how time/money is/was allocated to the hobby

- modest investment in streaming services

- still puts a smile on your face

The need to reproduce the musical venue is one function of a system. I like to call it the "Disney World" function, because it produces the kind of illusions which trick and delight children of all ages.

Other musical pieces are masterpieces of collage -- multi-tracked. Think of Dark Side of the Moon. It is immersive but it is not "realistic" in that simplistic Disney way. Others are electronic. They, too, lack "realism," but a good system will produce tonalities which are arguably more important than spatial simulations. 

I know people for whom the gear is the endgame. I do not just them as being wrong. Let 1000 flowers bloom.

I’m there with a modest system. Don’t have the bass extension, but what’s there sounds very real. Excellent room helps. Believe it or not, my stereo rack (2 inch oak shelves, each layer isolated, stillpoints under critical gear) with associated vibration control made a critical difference in the sense of realism, especially spatially.

Compared to the other high end system i put in my post above this one is so fatiguing for my ears , as i can hear it through my own low cost well balanced system i would keep mine over this one in this non acoustically controlled room😁 :

Go to 21 minute and listen to it if you can :

And end game system is a system/room/ears which is balanced when we take into account all acoustics concepts and factors and parameters into account with none of them being too much or lacking...

All acoustics factors contribute anyway to any audiophile experience aspects...

What we call simply "imaging" in audiophile vocabulary is a way more complex set of factors added together than the simple word "imaging" can convey or could suggest...

These factors are mechanical factors , electrical factors and acoustical factors even psychoacoustical factors...

This is why "end game " system is not about the gear pieces separately and their price tags but it is related to the way we are able to put them together in an optimal way using basic knowledge or refined acoustics knowledge if we go for the best possible experience with a relatively low cost system as it is the case for most of us...

"High end" or audiophile experience as said very wisely mike lavigne is a way of thinking ...