Has anyone made the jump to $uper High end and were disappointed?

It’s true that there are a lot of variables. But variables CAN be controlled. Time of day, day of week, the weather ⛈ sunspot activity 🌞 humidity, whatever. You change ONLY ONE VARIABLE AT A TIME. Then you will know what causes the change - the one variable you changed. Hel-loo! It ain’t necessarily easy. Nobody promised you a rose garden. People climb Everest all the time. 🏔 Even though it’s not easy. Audiophiles don't even know what ALL the variables even are, for crying out loud. 😫  In order to progress you kind of have to know WHERE you are and WHERE you want to go. AND how to get there. That really is the key. 🗝 Otherwise, you’re just shooting blanks in the dark. 🔫

People don’t really seem to know where they are on the overall curve of performance or what is really possible. I know what you’re thinking: "but what about live unamplified sound?" As far as knowing where to go next they’re apparently pretty much stuck between a rock and a hard place. As I posted earlier everyone is stove piping. 🏭 Everyone reaches different conclusions. Stove piping, stove piping, stove piping, stove! Yeah!

What @geoffkait  calls "stove piping" I, and others, call trusting our ears. It's worth a try.

People with the means to afford living voice vox olympian speakers and comparable gear also have the means to discard such electronics (as a tax write off, of course) and simply buy whatever else is on their mind at any particular time. Also, not likely they contribute in writing or reading to audiogon forum posts.

jond wrote,

"What @geoffkait calls "stove piping" I, and others, call trusting our ears."

Whoa! Hey, it's not nice to put words in someone's mouth. Stove piping means nothing of the sort. Stove piping is an Intel expression that refers to the problem that arises when multiple organizations and multiple individuals/sources come to different and contradictory conclusions regarding political situations, military actions required, probable actions/motives of individuals or states, etc. Stove piping is an undesirable situation that arises because of lack of coordination and lack of oversight. This is what happens in the audio hobby, too. It's very disorganized. It then becomes a game of, who do you believe? Follow?