"Diminishing Returns"

I love my system and cannot see changes now. I worked my way into older used (highly reduced) Raidho D2 small floor standers (with two R.E.L. subs) and for my room, I cannot imagine anything I'd be willing to spend more money for.

I run digital (and older analog sources) into DSP and Odyssey Kismet monoblocks to the D2 speakers. The move to 'unheard' Odyssey (from a decent-sounding W4S STI-1000 integrated) was dumb luck but highly satisfying, based on a lot of reading. 

I'd probably never gamble again on unheard equipment so it solves the 'looking' problem unless you're made of money. Stores don't let you demo like they used to so I'm not sure what good they can be at higher levels of purchases. Crapshoot.

I have an Ayre qx 5 twenty and and Ax5 twenty amp.  Done for life with this  core set up, as good as anything I've owned over the years (a lot) or heard at shows and suits my sonic preferences best. Just added a new streamer and may diddle around with speakers in the future, but the dac/amp setup is staying. Updrade-itus over. It is possible to be happy with your system, took awhile to get there though and lots of green.

Kenny you've hit on one of the secrets of audio, older great sounding gear still sounds great! The only pieces younger than 10 years in my system are my streamer and my speakers. And needless to say it sounds fantastic!

I think you're talking about being completely satisfied with your system and having the sense to know it, not diminishing returns.

The Salon II is anything but simple. More engineering went into that speaker than entire speaker lines from other manufactures. 
 

But yes I agree, a lot of what people spend money on is excess and not really improving the sound much.