Whether the amount to spend is $7500, $10,000 or $12,500, it is clear that these amounts can bring you a lot of system, which, if selected carefully and bought used at a healthy discount, can compete with systems in the 50k and up category. A $100,000 system bought at retail with poorly matched components and with more attention paid to the price tag rather than the sound quality of the components will almost assuredly return less satisfaction than the system carefully bought at $7500, $10,000 or $12,500. In fact, I would cast a skeptical eye on any product which is priced ridiculously (20k amp, 15k preamp, 15k CD player, 30k speakers). Products like these are priced similar to a car. Think about the complexity of a car as compared to these products and tell me how they justify such a price. And although these products are usually very good, usually I have found they are not the best. Sometimes they aren't even good.
Are you Guys Rich or What!?
I have an old system, nothing special, Adcom, Vandersteens etc and I recently set foot for the first time in a "high end" shop, hoping to get to the next level of audio nirvana. When I saw some of the prices for monoblock amplifiers, cables, the latest speakers etc, I practically fell off my chair when I realized that I could blow $50-100K pretty easily on this stuff. I am not rich. Do you big budget system guys all work on Wall Street or something or do you eat macaroni and cheese most nights to put a few bucks away for CDs and your next upgrade?