Law Of Diminishing Returns?

For me, diminishing returns has as much to do with my check book balance as anything.

absolutely... well said, and should never be forgotten

all things hi end hifi are luxuries in life... take care of all the basics and essentials first -- family, kids, home, education, personal and professional development, security, meet all obligations for those whom depend on us... happiness and success in life is about careful prioritization

@mulveling  Some beautiful equipment  has cycled through your virtual system. Interesting the Tannoy has remained while so much else has changed.  Strong endorsement for those speakers.

@newbee I bet not many are honest enough to admit there's no difference in gear when there is none.

For many, this whole audio thing is like living Zeno's paradox

My opinion - you need to spend $8K-$10K retail (maybe half that with smart used purchases) to get a decent sounding system.

Twice that can achieve an excellent sounding system in a decent room, but still with some compromises. 

I wouldn't go so far as to say this is 80% of the best available though. A high end system ($50K+ IMO) that is set up well in a good (well treated) room can sound very compelling and systems > $200K even more so. 

This all assumes spending the money wisely. It's easy to spend a lot of money and get mediocre sound.

There are obviously diminishing returns though. The step from $10K to $20K is more significant than the step from $20K to $40K, which again is more (probably much more) significant than the step to $80K.