hi John,
yes, all is good and i hope the same with you....and thanks.
agree completely that amps are a 'system synergy' type product. they can be a 'trophy' type product too. but at the top of the food chain the right better amps can make all the difference......they are the 'heart' of the system. the rationalization for investing in very expensive amplifiers requires a specific set of priorities.
OTOH there are fine sounding amps at all price points. and not all expensive amps sound that way......and many of them need very particular systems to flourish. the expensive tube amps typically need particular NOS tubes to really shine.
so this whole subject is multi-dimensional.