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

I only tell the people that have enough money themselves to not think I'm crazy.  Or don't tell the ones that may think I may think I am better than them because I can spend that on a stereo.  Most often I just say, more than the cars I could afford in my younger days.  

I own Coda, Legacy, Marantz, Anthem, Furman, Teac.  Radio Shack 12 Ga. speaker wire. 

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It's a case by case situation based on the vibe I'm getting from them at the time.

I'll share prices with visitors. Then I say 'how much is a fishing boat? nice set of golf clubs? snowmobile? rolex? do they get asked prices? moreover: fishing? golf? yuk.' 

All part of my charm offensive. 

99% of people wouldn't care and would just think you're out of your mind spending outrageous sums of money on some archaic piece of equipment like a turntable.or, even better, power cables. Best to keep those sort of thoughts to yourself.

Also, it might not be good to share your system cost with people that know how to listen either. I remember perhaps 2 good sounding systems costing over $100k that I've heard in the past 25 years. It would be slightly embarrassing to throw out a impressive sounding price tag for your system only for your visitors to not be too impressed with the actual sound of your system. Better to let them listen for themselves and have them ask questions about your equipment choices.

A big part of that is that the listening room matters a lot. Getting that right could be far more expensive than any other part of the system.