One of the problems I have found, in my own experience, is that some audiophiles do not look to try to maximize their existing components performance. For example, looking for better ways to isolate their turntable vs. spending 10k more to buy an existing turntable that has a built in isolation and suspension in the design. There is no doubt the law of diminishing returns is alive and well in HIFI. Not to mention ridiculous snake oil claims such as 10k interconnects and 20k speaker wire. Just throwing this out there but maybe the reason the dealers mega system sounds so much better is simply because they treated the room properly. How would the modest system perform in the same room? You cant really measure thatÂ… This is just my experience yours may differ
Revelation
So I was down at the local hifi dealer, its been a while, and I decided to listen to a LP in the store that I heard many many times on my own system and you know what my modest system relatively speaking, sounded similar if not better then the mega show room system with the 10k arm and the 30k preamp and 50k speakers. I was in disbelif. In my opinion there is not need to spend buckets of money to achieve the last 5 or 10%. Of this this is bad news for hifi dealers but I suspect they realize this too.