Do You Tell Others How Much You Have Invested in Your System?

No, but my wife seems pleased with her gifts every time a new component arrives....

Nope no way. I tell if they ask that I got it all at a pawn shop and that it is all old stuff. 

People ask "How loud will it play"? They are like the people who check

the speedo on your car to decide if it goes fast.

@jeffseight going on 30 years ago I bought an entry level tube amp & some other entry level stuff, and a friend I worked with got interested in the brochures I had on my tool-box, and he jumped in with both feet. (He was a California transplant with a lot of $.) To make this short, I turned him on to my dealer in Filthadelphia who sold him a pair of Cary 805s. a Cary SLP 94 (which was Cary’s best pre at the time), the tubed CD player Cary was making at the time, a pair of Metaphor speakers (don’t know the model) & quality interconnects & wires. The bill came to 20k or there-abouts, and as this was near 30 years ago and in the society of airline mechanics this was sheer unheard of madness,  he caught some serious abuse.

So anyway, I guess being as how this guy was my friend, someone else came up to me one night & asked me what Killer’s stereo would do for 20k. He said something to the effect of, "I can piss my neighbors off with mine, what will his do what mine can’t." I tried to give him the quick explanation, but it was a waste of time.

 It would seem crazy to anyone not in the hobby, but, to me the amount some spend on cars or other things, like a kitchen renovation strikes me as crazy.

@larryi  absolutely!

No, but my wife seems pleased with her gifts every time a new component arrives....

@jomonhifi  my first"big buy" about 30 years ago cost me a new refrigerator (we still have it, believe it or not) and an upgraded wedding ring.  (I THINK she still has that.)

In 1999 I started working overtime.