Easy to write off the OP as fantasy, but I have seen guys in pretty much this exact situation. The best one was a guy I hardly knew, just a regular at this brew pub. When he retired from Boeing first thing he did was drop $40k on a high end system. Knowing nothing he bought Martin Logan and a slew of other stuff he had no idea what it was. In fact the only reason I know it was Martin Logan, he told me what they look like! That is how little he knew, yet he dropped forty large.
He was real happy. Well they usually are at first, shiny and sparkly and all that.
Another guy, knew him through PCA had no idea he was into audio at all until he came over one time and went all gaga. He was pretty similar to the first guy. He knew a lot more about what he had but hadn't really much experience and so as a result had spent way more than I had in my system at the time but when he sat down and listened he was blown away. Just kept saying play another, please play another!
Music to my ears.
