You are perfectly right... If i was in your shoes and situation i would have act exactly as you did...And i will own the audio system you painstakingly assemble over decades which is a high end top one ...😊

But I had no money and some time to spend in audio studies after retirement...It was a luck too...my luck... Then i faced this hobby more from the bottom up than from top products upside down , by the fate of  my situation and limits in money..

But many people are very limited in their budget as i was and had time to do research in audio and acoustics etc .. I spoke for them...

i never claimed that my satisfying audio systems compare in actual  quality to yours...I only claimed that mechanical, electrical, and acoustical embeddings control put a relatively low cost well chosen system on a level of minimal satisfaction which would have been impossible with only these low cost components without their optimization... Your high cost system also as you already know had benefit from acoustical, mechanical and electrical embeddings control  in a huge way if you had done your job right ...I think you had reading your posts..

For me musical and acoustical satisfaction is possible passed some minimal or optimal threshold...After that exist different quality levels of experience for sure but at very high cost compared to the minimal acoustic satisfaction threshold with a specific system of relatively low cost or the optimal one with any system at any cost ...

Here 2 videos which perfectly explain my position and experience:

High end audio, is it really better ? Steve Huff opinion and experience

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMO-rZUUq7Q&t=962s

Why Steve Huff sold his end games audio components ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDUQaqZRpnU

@mahgister ”…It is generally way less costlier to learn acoustic and mechanical and electrical embeddings than to purchase an upgrade ...”.

Sure… but It really depends on your lifestyle. When I was working I typically worked more than sixty hours a week for the half time I was not out of the country. I made good money in my career… what I did not have was time. So, while I enjoyed extensive research while traveling… there was simply no reason not to buy good quality equipment.

@mahgister 

👍

My wife and I were supposed to be in Cape Cod visiting her mother this week, but my wife caught COVID on the plane coming back from Europe.  The weather here in the Midwest is glorious right now.  I had already taken the week off, so I am hanging outside on the back deck to get away from her and catching upon on some work on the laptop.  I have a Sony Bluetooth Speaker that cost around $250 that picked up for less than half of that at one of the online discount sites.  It blows the pants off the ancient B&W Patio speakers.  I played a couple of different versions of Beethoven Pastoral Symphony yesterday, just perfect music to accompany the day, and it was heavenly.  So yes, one can achieve Audio Nirvana on the cheap if all the stars are aligned 

Thanks for the beautiful and moving  story...

My very best to you...

My wife and I were supposed to be in Cape Cod visiting her mother this week, but my wife caught COVID on the plane coming back from Europe.  The weather here in the Midwest is glorious right now.  I had already taken the week off, so I am hanging outside on the back deck to get away from her and catching upon on some work on the laptop.  I have a Sony Bluetooth Speaker that cost around $250 that picked up for less than half of that at one of the online discount sites.  It blows the pants off the ancient B&W Patio speakers.  I played a couple of different versions of Beethoven Pastoral Symphony yesterday, just perfect music to accompany the day, and it was heavenly.  So yes, one can achieve Audio Nirvana on the cheap if all the stars are aligned

My recommendation for all is to be as open minded and receptive as possible when looking at all the different relatively cost-effective ways one might satisfy their hifi music yearnings these days,

It’s not like the old glory days of analog 2-channel hifi, like back in the 1960s and 1970s, anymore. If one thinks only in terms that defined things 50 years ago there is much one may miss out on in regards to maximizing one’s investment in good music. Technology has come a long way, opened up many new doors, and taken on many different forms. It just has! Don’t miss out!