Has anyone made the jump to $uper High end and were disappointed?

I've been a music enthusiast for some 50+ years and an audiophile for some 35 years, with a true love for every jaundra, except, maybe, Rap and have attended many live performances, in a large variety of settings. Some of my favorite being open air concerts and street corner or small theater/night club jazz ensembles. Over the years, I've come to the conclusion that my expectations for a home audio system would not necessarily include components and speakers capable of producing rock concert level volumes in my listening room. Since my head and ears (like with many of us aging audiophiles) will no longer handle that much sound pressure (at least for long) I have scratched that needs off my list. I am most happy to have a system that, at moderate levels, creates a large, detailed and convincing stage, can re-produce the timber and ayre of real instruments and vocals and produce the dynamics needed for clean, crisp percussions. Like others here, I have a love for Quads and, in general, electrostats and ribbons. I'm pretty convinced that, regardless of your needs or expectations, unless you're trying to fill a concert hall, it shouldn't cost $100,000+ to build a very nice audio system......JMO.....Jim 

I've never been one trying to reproduce the concert hall with a home system. Outside of orchestra/classical and acoustic (non or very low amplified) in the right setting, my system sounds way better than any general concert. I'm more into trying to reproduce what the mastering engineer hears at his/her desk and let the character of my equipment and environment "color" that sound to my liking.  

@aberyclark , you've certainly sparked a debate!
I am not a golden ear but here are some observations.
I inherited a NAD 7250 PE and didn't like it for a new system I was setting up in the basement. Got a Rotel Rx-1052. Huge improvement in side by side. Eventually started looking for a better integrated because, after all, it was just a Rotel, and a receiver at that. I got a loaner Creek Classic 5250SE, which was reviewed very, very well. Should have blown the Rotel away. It did not as far as I could hear. There were differences, sure, but I had to listen hard and on some material I still preferred the Rotel, which I would still highly recommend. So I brought the Creek to my dealer and we compared it to a Belles Aria ($1500, if I recall). I thought the Creek held it's own very well. I certainly wouldn't spend $1100 for the difference, although the two guys from the dealer could hear a profound difference. I'm sure they are golden ears. I still trust their advice....mostly. Then I got a Primare I32 class D integrated. $3,000 list; I paid $1,000 - about twice as much as I'd ever paid for any component up to that time. That sweet thing was an improvement over the Creek and Rotel that was not even arguable. I bought it, happily. Conclusion, price doesn't always make a difference; but sometimes it really does!

The area, other than speakers where I think differences in SQ are not imaginary is phono cartridges. Even I can hear the difference between a Denon DL-301 III and a Hana EL and a Dynavector 10x5. Which is best? It depends on the mood I am in and what I'm playing.

Love highend audio everything i have gotten has been wonderful so far.If you know what your doing things should be a big sound improvement.

Definitely, I believe, the higher the priced component, the higher the expectations. I believe it because I’ve been there.

That said, there is usually rationale to the pricing, usually ends up with better components and build... if the price difference is relatively large.

Say $1000 amp vs a $50000 amp, for sure the $1000 does not have the parts that even come close to the $50000 amp.  That said, I doubt the difference between something $20,000 and something $35,000 is not as vast as two amps $1,000 and $15,000. 

I called Boulder Amps once, I was inquiring about the history of my 2060 (which I was purchasing at that time) as they have logged down the history of most of their equipment (turns out that Alon Wolf owned my 2060 prior).... anyway, I alerted them that there was a Boulder 1060 amp for sale for $10,000 on audiogon (retail is $25,000).

The engineer said, "Wow, that’s less than the parts cost from the supplier."

I proceeded to ask him what is the part cost for an amp - he says typically around 33% of what they are asking retail. FWIW.