The term "High End" needs to die. Long live Hi-Fidelity!

I dont like saying I am in the "High End Audio" business at all. It denotes a social location. Fook that.
So Ive been using HiFi for about 10 years now, the only thing I run into is people that use the word "HiFi" to mean sterile sounding neutered music. The lifeless crappy sound, you know ... And lemme tell ya , there is no "End" to anything we do..lol

I like the term "hifi" and use it frequently, and although I'm lucky at this stage in my life to be able to afford pricey stuff, I've always felt that there's a lot of reasonably affordable (a relative term really) brilliantly  designed components that embarrass the so called "high end" stuff and sound beautiful. Besides, it's more fun to use the experience accumulated from years of hifi fun to assemble a world class sounding gear heap from less "precious" (and sometimes "previously owned") components, and compare it to a multi buck system someplace (usually a local "audio salon") and note that, yeah man, my gear pile sounds better (with the obvious advantage of it being in my house where I can dial it in)...more fun, way more fun.

Or you can use years of experience to identify the more expensive components that are actually worthwhile and create a system that sounds sublime. Truth is that there are no "victims" in either scenario.

In general, I agree with Eric.
When I first became interested in Hi-Fi home stereo, back in the mid to late 70s, the term High End Audio was loosely used, referring to audio systems, speakers and components, that were above and beyond (in terms of sound and performance) than the common all-in-one rack systems of the day. My goal then, as it is today, was to build a musical and engaging system, synergistic with its environment and my budget. I had subscriptions to "Stereo Review", Stereophile" and The "Sensible Sound" magazines and enjoyed much, the reviews and articles, but as the reviews became more like sales pitches for ridiculously priced audio components, I gave them up.
It seems now, that "High End" applies more to the very high $$$ price affixed to audio gear than it does to its real value or performance.
When I can, I still enjoy auditioning new components and speakers and experiment with upgrades and tweaks from time to time, but, In all, I'm very pleased with my system - whether or not it qualifies as someone's idea of high end - it works for me.......Jim