??? Where Does "High End" Start ???

@freediver    No need to shout. Reviewers are paid to promote and sell a product, the best way to do that is convince the potential buyer their getting more for the money. One needs to be their own reviewer, the more time. effort and knowledge towards this hobby this will become a useless question(Where Does High End Start?) There are no absolutes or answers to every question is this hobby a grey area(subjective) exists. Those that accept this fact are much better off.

"Hi End" is a state of mind.

I’m thinking it’s an ever changing bullseye. For example, back in the day,  I bought Audio Research’s top of the line preamp, the SP3a for under $600. Today, I think their top of the line preamp the Ref 6SE costs like $23k. Inflation and new technology changes prices.
Boutique hifi equipment, like boutique cars will always be more expensive and their prices will always keep going up.   Like  whoever heard of buying a car that costs over $2 million?

I think freedrivers figures are accurate

Until I hit $3k to $6k per component 

that’s  where I found my sweet spot

Mid fi for sure   Also I became very satisfied at that price point 

and it was all I could afford 

Tweaks came after that and now I wouldn’t touch a thing 

Good luck Willy-T

Interesting thread. I personally think high-end is an eye-of-the-beholder assessment. How many dollars does it take to reach nirvana? Probably as many opinions as there are people to form them. I'm reminded of something the late Sir Kenneth Clark (historian, author, TV presenter, and crashing bore) once said on his series "Civilisation," (the British spelling): he couldn't exactly define civilization, but he knew when he was in its presence. That's how I feel about high-end audio--I flatter myself that I can appreciate it when I hear it, but what makes it so is not easily translatable into words. Or dollars, come to that. 

As for our opinions on the subject, let's remember this astute Will Rogers quote: "If you laid all the economists end to end, they'd face all different directions."