$25k vs $200k

Can any of you audiophools relate? For the longest time, (maybe 10 years), I wouldn't go to a high end audio store (living in NY, this was, at first, very hard to resist) to listen to, what I knew, would be better sounding systems. I feared that after listening to a superior system, I wouldn't be able to go back and enjoy my humble audio, after a tympanic tango with some, true, audio greatness. Well, quite the contrary, since I found out, (this is what you do on a rain delay Yankee game, with boring basketball on the Olympic station, and not a book to read in the house) that listening to systems much costlier, and better (for the most part) have given me a deeper appreciation for my system, especially related to cost vs sound quality. This was, perhaps, most reinforced, with my last go 'round at Sound by Singer. Any audiophools out there have similar experiences? peace, warren