What is your experience with the law of diminishing returns ?

30 years ago, I walked into a high end emporium and heard audio "holography", just recently I acquired it. This is the point of diminishing returns; it's impossible to put a dollar figure on getting where I am, that's because money and knowledge are interchangeable; I put a lot of time and study into this endeavor. Many will never get here, many more, like the fox and the grapes, will say "That's not where I want to be".

Once an audiophile gets here, the question is, how do I make it "Mo better"? And the answer is, "I need a pound of money".

No experience my returns are all great.

You have to reconcile whether to spend big bucks on new speakers et al if you're 65 years old...  

In order for a question of this nature to have any meaning, reference points will have to be established; at least one well known reference point is the "Stereophile rating". I have subscribed to "Stereophile" for years, and I consider their rating system to be valid; for example a component that's rated "Class A" will sound pretty good, that I guarantee.

I try to buy the cheapest component that's rated Class A; I believe components that cost more are entering the land of diminishing returns.

In order to confirm this, I would need to buy more expensive components; until that happens, I can only guess whether or not this is valid.

Inna, if I was rolling in dough, I wouldn't buy a 10K power cord, and since I'm scientifically inclined, I would not even buy a 1K power cord; where's the science?