How cheap can you go and still be happy with the sound?

There's plenty of cheap stuff out there that's good. You just have to search for it.I love it when a speaker company puts out speakers for thousands of dollars and then you read reviews that they suck and aren't worth the money. I just don't have 100,000 to spend,never did...and I won't buy new movie releases for 140 dollars. I seach and look to find cheap albums and cds...there out there....

I think probably you can get very good, if not top notch sound from a good pair of powered speakers, streaming from your favorite service.  

I think it’s impossible to get 100k, very high end system sound with 5k. But you can get maybe 75-85% of the way there. That last 15% will cost you exponentially more as you near 100%. 
 

I do think however, that  you can get 98% of 100k system sound Q  for around 25k. For example, a preowned Hegel 590/600, and preowned Perlisten S7T or Boressen X6 towers. IMO you’d need to spend a lot more to get significantly better sound. 

I have enjoyed this thread.  As it shows where different people are in this hobby.  I don't know if I would use the word cheap as my mission has not been to go cheap.  

I my younger years (60s and 70s).  I purchased and listened to many vinyl records.  One of my first high end (for me) purchases was the Thorens 160 Turntable in 1972.  Then I got married, had kids, had a demanding career, (had to start being an Adult) and vinyl started disappearing.  I packed up the vinyl and the turntable and the focus turned to AV systems and surround sound.  I still listened to music but mostly in the car.

Decades pass, kids are grown and gone, I retire, and I start cleaning out the house.  I find I have several hundred CDs, and rediscover my vinyl and turntable.  I decide I need a 2.1 stereo system.  I set up a room in my basement, repurpose one of AV receivers,  buy a couple of used speakers off Craigs List (AV123 X-Statiks), tune up my Thorens (which still works great), gather up record collections from my peers who are not listening to them anymore, etc.  

Then I start a journey to investigate getting higher end equipment.  I go to High End Audio stores and do a lot of listening.  I start lurking on the Audiogon forums.  I am blown away by how much some people are willing to spend on audio equipment, this is a totally new world to me.  But the most important part of my audio journey was discovering my own needs - fact is I don't SIT STILL and listen to music,  I don't sit in my basement room just to listen to music but I do love having music on when I am doing things.  

Yes, when I hear a high end system in the store using $80K Wilson speakers I can hear the difference - it is amazing sound.  But I realized I don't need that to be happy listening to music.  I probably spend the most time listening to music out on the deck and we know that outdoor acoustics are mostly uncontrollable.  So for me I find spending an exorbitant amount of money for small improvement just is not necessary.  

So I have upgraded my systems to improve the sound but have not spent more than ~$2K as I still get enjoyment out of listening.   I purchased a NAD 388 with Blue Sound module used and replaced the old AV receiver.  It sounds really good, IMO with the X-statiks.  Outdoors I use a Denon DRA-800H 2 channel receiver with Definitive Technologies AW6500 Outdoor speakers.  With these systems I can listen to music and be happy which is the objective for me.  

Sorry for the long post but felt this was a good thread to share my thoughts.

I think it’s impossible to get 100k, very high end system sound with 5k. But you can get maybe 75-85% of the way there. That last 15% will cost you exponentially more as you near 100%.

I do think however, that you can get 98% of 100k system sound Q for around 25k. For example, a preowned Hegel 590/600, and preowned Perlisten S7T or Boressen X6 towers. IMO you’d need to spend a lot more to get significantly better sound.

@megabyte

A Borresen, Schweikert, etc might kill a 5k or 10k rig, but, i have heard rigs in that price range, which sounded better to me than others in the high end...Mbls, Sonuses, etc.

Sure, the Sonuses or D’Agostinos look real pretty (audio jewelry and prestige pricing), but, i wouldn’t be shocked if someone preferred a rig in some lower range (5k or 10k) purely for sonic reasons over the latter. Not everything in the high end is worth its salt sonically, if the consideration of audio jewelry is discarded, imo/ime.