The Horror

"I think my Dennis Had SEP amp sounds better than any tube amp I've heard anywhere...cost about 1100 bucks (slightly used) back in 2017."

A friend of mine bought one of those around the same time.  It's lovely.   I think Had has a real gift for taking inexpensive components and combining them to make very musical little amps.

Seems you are a planar guy?

If so, Quad has done something I have never seen in Audio: they greatly improved their newest 2 models and cut the price by 50%! I am an almost lifetime Quad 57 guy. Never thought I would change. But my new Quad 2812X ($10K) runs circles around the 57s. Whilst retaining the Quad “magic” adding great detail and dynamics. They are not cheap but are probably the best $10K speaker made.

And for us planar guys, better than almost anything.

I like your preamp. And it is a good match with the Parasound but you can also greatly upgrade your amp with the Atma-Sphere Class D mono blocks. They are a terrific match with the 2812Xs and, as Ralph Karsten of Atma says, as good as his much pricier and highly regarded tube amps for only $5400.

Not cheap but sell your Maggies and Parasound. You don’t have to rob a bank.

I'm fortunate to report that I've had the opposite experience as the OP. I've been to three audio shows and everytime I have come home and been pleasantly surprised to hear how well my system holds up to the megabuck systems at the shows. There are a few systems that were clearly superior in one or more ways such as Von Schweikert Ultra 11's, MBL 101 E Mk II's, and large Sonus Fabers but overall even these systems didn't blow my system away. I remember hearing a pair of large six-figure YG speakers and thinking, "Gee, that sounds a lot like my system."

I'm running a somewhat vintage system of Krell KSA 300S, KRC-2, and Thiel CS6 speakers. My digital sources are newer and state of art. At the 1996 CES where the CS6 speakers were paired with a Krell KSA 300S, just like my system, the reports indicated that many felt it was the best sound at the show. I think that the state of the art from 28 years ago holds up pretty well with the state of the art today.

I'm lucky to have a large 17 x 35 listening room that I've been able to fill with furniture and tchotchkes and plenty of breathing room to bring the speakers several feet away from the front wall into the room. The audiophiles who have heard my system have been very complimentary.

A motivated audiophile could duplicate my core system (amp, preamp, speakers) for around $15,000 today which shows that you don't have to be a trust fund baby to have a world class system. I'm lucky because I never would have discovered the Thiel speakers but my best audio buddy wanted to sell his pair and after I read the reviews and realized that I had the perfect amp to drive them (they are an extremely difficult load) I drove to Georgia and got them. When he came to visit he said that if they had sounded that good in his setup he would have never sold them. Apparently my audio Karma was very good.

I don't know the age of @audiodidact but I would characterize his situation as going through an audiophile midlife crisis. We are on a journey to find the sound that appeals to us as individuals and when we are exposed to new information we may find that we want to go in a different direction.

@deep_333 wrote:

Soix & butter, the private messaging feature exists for you all to settle your differences on Boingnicke (or whatever else) over there. The middle school barnyard arguments are so meh/boring on these public threads.

I’m guessing trying to settle such arguments via private messages would have the same effect as removing the gate..