IF THAT IS TRUE,the WHY do reviewers & MANY MANY repliers on this board,when quantifying a system or components sound,continue to specify,it sounds great "FOR IT’s PRICE" or "Competes with products well above it’s price point" or "punches well above it’s price point"?
"Punches well above it’s price point" has nothing to do with High-end or Ultra-high end. This is about how good the value proposition is. Schitt being one example mentioned earlier. Dan D’Agostino is another. Great products, beautiful industrial design, but expensive. Several brands compete well at half the cost or even less.
I don’t think you need to define high-end as brackets/price points to discuss audio.
No different than two guys with two different Corvettes. 1 is worth $100K the other is worth $40K. They both belong to the same club.