Can anyone tell me where the progress in audio went?

+1 theaudioamp exactly

The quality of digital audio improves every day.

The quality of budget gear improves every day.

The quality of uber expensive gear like Boulder or Magico improves every day.

The only category that is stagnant is midfi analog lol.

look at the specs of the purify amp or any of the recent topping chifi

@kairosman  -- Uber expensive speakers maybe, and even upper mid-end speakers. Most of the electronics tapped out ages ago. It is just marketing now.

@theaudioamp sorry I guess I misunderstood the thrust of your post. IME there has never been a better time to be into hifi whether you want to spend $1K or $1M.

Vu has very specific ideas. His equipment is lovingly built and modified and has superb dynamics. I have had him get mad at me, perhaps not undeservedly, for pointing out shortcomings that my ears told me. They sound like horns, with a reduced but still there horn edge. To say things haven’t advanced is silly. I think simply of how capacitor technology has advanced.