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Don c55,

i agree with you 100%.

"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."

Bad assumption knowing Big Buck posters IMO!

"Does anybody sit in front of their relatively inexpensive but carefully assembled rig in an "active listening" session and think, "Damn, this sounds SO FRIGGIN' GREAT?" 

Yes, I do.

"......I often think…hmmm…my stuff sounds better…and, interestingly, it actually does."

So does mine. :)

+1, wolf_garcia.

J.

Risking redundancy, I’ll say my point (shared by some) is that more money does not necessarily get you into "serious" sound quality, or I what I assume onhwy61 means is "higher" sound quality, just more expensive high quality if set up properly.  I, of course, have no idea exactly what other people’s ears are hearing, but often I disagree with what others think is good sound  especially in high end stores where somebody is trying to make a case that what they’re selling is great. I recently mixed a Julian Lage concert in a 350 or so seat concert venue (Scott Colley and Kenny Wolleson bass and drums) where I miked Julian’s 2 ancient and dissimilar tube amps and that’s it. Talk back mic…off when they were playing…I did have mikes on everything else (looks more professional and hey…I get slightly overpaid for this stuff) but at the band’s suggestion left ’em off. That’s the kind of sound that influences my home rig taste, and my home rig sounds nothing like that show. Was it high quality? NO CLUE…it was simply great sound. To me…and the stunned crowd. I’ve made a clean high (supposedly) resolution recording of myself playing a great acoustic guitar with a great mic, and played it on my personally tweaked listening (as opposed to my recording) rig, and then played the same thing on the same guitar live as a demonstration for some friends (you can’t really hear what others hear while you’re playing the damn thing yourself)…the results were interesting, and that sort of thing can show you realities of reproduced sound that maybe some people (audiophiles mostly) are possibly better off not knowing. 

One big difference between the ultra-expensive supercars and the audio component equivalents is that VERY few of the owners of such cars will ever actually drive the cars to the limit of their capability and actually "use" all that technology and expensive construction.  All it takes for a lazy audiophile to fully utilize the capability of his system is to flip a switch and sit down in a comfortable chair.  Every day, under any and all conditions the performance of the gear can be appreciated.

Whether the small increment of difference  between good gear and ultra high end gear justifies the price difference is really up to the buyer.  If the buyer is not necessarily "hearing" better sound but it deluding himself, he is still getting something for HIS money.  

Yes, Absolute Sound, and the like, do a lot of reviews of very expensive equipment; that is because a lot of the readership is entertained by reading about such gear.  In a perverse way, a review of "real world" gear that is  intended to help real someone decide on what to buy, actually is a disservice.  Purchases should rarely be based on a review, at best, reviews are an introduction to possible candidates--describe basic features, point out possible areas of concern--and whether or not the gear might fit one's personal taste can only be hinted at by knowing what the reviewer tends to favor.  It is unfortunate that a lot of gear IS sold largely on reviews and reputation.