Wolf, in the audioverse people spend large sums of money for very small differences in sound quality. From my perspective $5k buys a good system and $20k gets you into serious sound quality. People spending multiples of that amount can readily get better sonic performance, but it's a very small increase. From what I can tell these people are perfectly happy spending the money for those results. Magazines (and audiophiles mimicking the mags) resort to hyperbolic language to describe the small changes. So yes, relatively inexpensive systems can sound "SO FRIGGIN' GREAT", but it is also possible to sound slightly more FRIGGIN' GREAT if you want to spend the money.
It's also possible to spend large sums of money and get a poor performing system, but let's assume most audiophiles have a decent sense for good quality sound and know what they are doing.
It's also possible to spend large sums of money and get a poor performing system, but let's assume most audiophiles have a decent sense for good quality sound and know what they are doing.