Dream vs. Reality - What have you bought?


Just curious about how Audiogoner's have gotten to where you are.  What systems have you heard that really seemed worth outrageous fortunes, vs. what did you end up with?

You wish you could buy ..... X but being more expensive than your home, you bought Y instead and feel you got close.
Is this you, or are you "I heard X and never heard better." type of listener?
Also, considering that some speaker systems are enormous, do you really think they'd work in the home you have?
erik_squires
There is this thing called lucid dreaming. Like regular dreaming only better. There's various methods. The one I like, just before going to sleep you say to yourself, "Tonight I am going to dream. In my dream I will know it is a dream. When I know it is a dream I will spin around. Then I will be able to do anything I want. Tonight I will fly." Or race. Climb a mountain. Whatever. I like fly. Like Superman fly. 

This technique actually works. A side benefit, dreams go on longer, are far more visually detailed and pleasurable. Was never really certain whether I dreamed in color or black and white before. Someone asked, can you read letters in your dreams? Didn't know. Bedtime came, "I will fly a helicopter." Sure enough, I could read the gauges!  

This lucid dreaming technique will enable you to have pretty much any dream you can imagine. You could even dream the dream you are dreaming right now.
You know what I have. See system. I'd like to try the flea-powered route with a top notch 45 SET and DHT phono amps etc.
"...What systems have you heard that really seemed worth outrageous fortunes..."

Infinity Servo Static 1A, tri-amplified system. Various others. At the time I though it was pretty good but I'm sure the Sanders Electrostats or the Sound Lab big panels would do a better job today. I can't leave out the Infinity RS1Bs because I'm still using half of the system. 
I never really envied any particular system configuration or felt I had to compromise sonically, regardless of price. As a former professional musician, my major criterion for putting a system together is whether instruments sound accurate. I’m not referring to a clinical, revealing accuracy of the recording which is bandied about regularly on this and other forums. Rather, I mean that a piano "sounds" like a piano is supposed to sound, a snare drum "sounds" like a snare drum should sound, etc. Of course, it’s only my perception of the requisite instrumental sonics, based on my professional experience, that guides me and has served me well over the years. YMMV.
I guess the question that I was trying to ask was, are there outrageous systems out there you have seen or heard or even read about which have qualities you want to have at home, and that have influenced the system you have today?  Or are these systems completely unrelated in your mind?

Or conversely, have you bought your best possible system, because you are not motivated by more expensive configurations anymore?