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

Audiophiles enjoy the sound as much as music.
$10k new will not get you anywhere close to great sound even in a small room and one source. $50k new is possible in small and medium size room but tough. That said, $10k system with one source can sound pretty good in smaller room. Great means great in my vocabulary.

Strange thread topic.  Has anyone made the drop to entry level cheap made in China budget crap and been ambivalent about it?

I totally agree with Pokey 77 and bmontani.
Through the years i haved been climbing up the ladder. Had some nice equipment that i traded in, with some cash added and got a even better equipment/sound. Always tried to find the weak spot in the chain and the best gear for the money awailebel.
About 20 years ago the cabels became real components and the level raised substancial, then the decoupling and all the room treatments etcappeared. The tweaks have raised the bar so high that i often think its much better in my musicroom, than real concerts (not acoustical ones).
In the beginning i was analysing the soundstage but at a point it became much more emotional and here is is were the ultra highend stuff really makes sence to me. 
I can also lisen to a low level system but at a very low volume and not for so long time. In order to get a ultra highend system where you have a concert in front of you, there are so many things( in fact everything) you need to adress.
 Its my expirience that you never get a superb sound at a show because there are so many thing you cannot control. It takes years of hard work to reach a ultra high level and today i would say the tweaks is 50% of the result. The rest is split between the music material and the hardware.
Beleave your ears and emotions or ask your wife.
I have never regreat using a huge sum on my audio/music life but i almost only buy used gear as my budget is limited. If a component dosent perform well, try another. Nice designd and handmade gear can always sold again.
Worst deal ever: was a pair of Halcro DM 68 amps, they arent making music in my ears. I tried them and sold them quickly again but they thought me a lot about musical feeling. 
Best deal are the 2LP 45RPM's from the late 50's. 
Biggest problem, is the lack of posibillityes to try equipment before buying it. Dealers are worth giving a higher price if they give a proper service. 

Happy lisining.

I've heard a couple of so called super high end systems and I didn't like most of them. The biggest sin was bloated soundstage,  bloated images, singers 3m (10 ft) high and so on. No sense of realism at all. I liked MBL systems. I have a modest system and enjoy it better then most of the super systems. 

I don’t want to hijack this thread, but I have a question about what type of music folks listen to on their high end systems. Here is the basis of that question: with just a few limited exceptions, rock music is already amplified through electronics and speakers even when you hear it live. So what is the goal with audiophile gear if rock music is your primary choice for music? I mean, is it to reproduce the electronics at the venue? The electronics in the studio?

This all makes more sense to me when one is a fan of classical, jazz, acoustic, other forms of music where striving for realistic electronic reproduction at least has a theoretically reachable objective of reproducing the sound of a live non-electronic instrument.

I listen to enough jazz and other forms of music where there is an acoustic or at least not re-reproduced and re-amplified element that choosing and upgrading gear has some relevance to trying to reproduce the sound of an instrument.

But I still mostly listen to rock, and for me, with rock music, the objective is detail, combined either with a sweet or pretty sound or a powerful, slam sound, depending on the type of rock. I want it to move me emotionally, and the choice of what direction it should move me depends on the mix of mood and choice of rock music style.

The point is, yes, I get that whatever sounds good to someone is valid because there is no objective standard here whatsoever. But I would posit that diminishing marginal returns probably hit much lower in price point if rock is your music of choice, or at least you are chasing after tiny little tweaks, relative to types of music where reproducing the sound of an instrument, rather than reproducing the sound of an electronic pickup and a Marshall stack, is the goal.