Best sounding system for under $10k

I had been dreaming about acquiring a pair of mbl 116e's since I heard them last year at the expo. I knew I had a very good system but the mbl's give you that you are there feeling. Well I just made a few changes to my setup recently and things kept getting better, so much in fact that I no longer will be looking at those mbls. It was the last change I made that really was the killer. I have sims pre p-5 and power w-5 amp, I had them coupled with rca i/c's, and just yesterday I switched to balanced and WOW what a difference. I am willing to bet that there is nothing out there for under $20k (list prices of course) that can beat this sound. If you are looking for that you are there experience consider how I got there. Speakers; merlin, these are incredible and worth every penny, amp as mentioned earlier sims p-5 w-5 they too are just awesome most defenitely world class , phonostage ear834p another excellent component, tonearm: clearaudio emotion, cartridge : sumiko bluepoint amazing for the money will probably get the blackbird, turntable: vpi tnt mark I and V world class and not overpriced, cables: bluejeans xlr balanced amazing cannot believe how much better the system just got from that change, other cables my own rca interconnects, room treatment: acoustical ceiling tiles, records as in lp's, and book shelves with books on health must be on health ha-ha. And that's it, hard to believe but this was all found used here on agon for under $10k. And I have to add that rarely did I hear a system in any of the retail shops get it right like this one.