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

gbmcleod, you must have a very sensitive system. I didn't really experiment much with isolation devices. The biggest difference for the better I heard was when I put Boston Audio graphite tuning blocks for speakers under speaker spikes, I use Polycrystal not steel spikes. Big improvement in everything. Howerver, I have free resonance speakers that do have excessive resonant energy. Another example, much smaller but still significant, is that I put one 1/2" Walker resonance control disc near turntable motor on the maple block the table sits on. The maple 3" block is in turn sits on three big Boston Audio tuneblocks. And all this construct is on a wooden floor, no rack. I tried to put the second Walker disc near tonearm on the maple block and it got a little worse. And just one disc near tonearm made no audible difference. I also put one Walker disc on top of my Nakamichi cassette player - same improvent as with the table. And my integrated solid state amp definitely sounds a little better when sitting on brass Audiopoints than on Boston Audio tuneblocks. So yes, isolation is very important, though I call it tuning. But I don't think my sysytem is as sensitive as yours.
Electricity here is terrible, just terrible. Very dirty and voltage fluctuates almost constantly. Without my PS Audio Premier regenerator the sound is unacceptable most of the time. And I mentioned power cords, older Purist Audio Dominus did wonders when was put on the integrated.
So, my advice would be to learn how to fully tune your existing good set-up before moving much higher, or it will be a waist of funds and nervewrecking experience.

Is a waist of funds kinda like a money belt?

Of course there is a curve of diminishing returns. With respect to high fidelity, it is asymptotic to the recording being played. I learned a long time ago that, for me, sound quality doesn't get better and better and better, no matter how much money is spent. Not that I would necessarily be disappointed with a much more expensive system. I'd expect a little more air than mine, and more bass definition and extension. I'd also expect it to play a lot louder. But while the ($200K?) system in the Rockport/Boulder room at RMAF 2016 sounded wonderful, it didn't sound any better than mine, to my silver ears at least. YMMV.

Sorry to be so disagreeable but I found out that all this audio stuff is actually NOT (rpt not) asymptotic. There is no glass ceiling. There is no law of diminishing returns. The reason for my statement is that real sound quality SQ, not what you THINK is SQ, is not connected at the hip to system cost. SQ is, however, connected at the hip to how well the person can locate problems that are there in the system but not obvious and fix them. Either with tweaks, aftermarket fuses, isolation, what have you. You cannot expect ANY electronic component to make up for these “hidden problems” no matter how much you spend. That’s why a well thought out inexpensive system can sometimes beat an expensive system that is simply plugged in and played. That is why a lot of folks who have 30 years of experience in this hobby still have mediocre sound. No offense to anyone living or dead. 🧟‍♂️

Almost all systems are being created by trial and error. It will never create a system what will be the most effective on all parts togheter. Pure on the fact that you cannot say why the stage and sound what comes out of your sytem is what you hear.

So we go back to where it starts. And that is music. For 100% sure you need an audio system what can reveal all the information of the recording. And even filled in the right way into the space of your room.

This never can be created by collecting any system by trial and error? How big do you think the chance is that this system owns all the parts of sound? And second it needs to be displayed as it is recorded.

We communicate a lot with many different specialists in different parts of sound&vision. When we visit new clienst often they created most things just by their own.

This proofs that people have no idea how complex sound is. And second how many parts there are you need to look after. I always say: each fault is your system is one too many.

Each mistake you make will influence different parts. That is why trial and error is extremely ineffective.

The way we work you need a lot less money to create a certain level. Tru-Fi proofs that audio created by properties makes the influence of each single part so much more effective.

This way each parts will create more quality and more properties of these parts will be used.

For example: A loudspeaker who can create a stunning 3D holographic stage and a exeptional level in layers in sound.

Most amps are 2D, like most sources have a low level in diversity in sound. So most products will not even be able to use the full potential of this loudspeaker.

This we hear and see all the time over and over again. Based on the fact that the trail and error sytems are founded on pure gambling.

When you go on this way, you can spend as much as you want. It will always be very ineffetive. That is why audio audio needs a mindset to create a much higher level in effectness.

The word highend is worth nothing. Because each single expensive audio product does not say you anything of the properties it really owns. And second it does not garantee you anything in terms of quality and endresult.

Audio is all about music. And music is all about emotion. When a system is not able to reveal all the emotion of a recording and all the details it will not make any person happy and satisfied over a long period of time.

That is why many expensive systems we hear at shows are not that impressive. Based on the fact that they all miss essential properties of sound. They cannot reveal these parts of a recording.

Pete and Repeat were riding on a horse. Pete fell off. Who was left? 🏇