High End System Building. How important is the matching, cabling and room? Thoughts ?

@mahgister, I certainly see the wisdom and truth of your statement below…

“But this truth of mine is not a "good news" for most people ... Because most will never enjoy this fact ...Then it is not an appealing truth ...It is better to believe the marketing appeal to upgrade and pay for 200, 000 bucks gear system in a living room because marketing assure us that this is way "better" than a 100,000 bucks one in the same living room ... Suffice to read any audio forum to observe this "faith" reflecting the underestimation of acoustics....😊”

There are many ways to get where you want to be! Find your way but don’t criticize mines. 

@calvinj

Absolutely understand your perspective and personal experience. Well matched gear, including cabling, is another key to sonic bliss. It’s so interesting to me how a well chosen cable, in a position or two, can help snap a system into a subjective rightness. Goodness it all matters!

There many ways to walk the road, related to tastes, gear design, budget constraint, trade-off choices related to the gear and trade-off choices related to the embeddings controls choices but there is only one road through acoustics concepts and experiments...

Acoustics define sounds experience parameters, nevermind the other factors and choices...

And acoustics here is not mere few panels on the walls, and it is not even mere physical complete acoustic room controls for a system , it is more , it includes psychoacoustics basic concepts too ...

We cannot experience something we do not even imagine, and we cannot experience something we then cannot understand at all ...

Buying any piece of gear does not give us experience ... Only by luck and money it may and only may in some cases give  a relatively good system at relatively high price...

Try to build one very good under 1000 bucks...Good luck! 😁 This is my bench test for knowledge ...

It is impossible without basic real knowledge in acoustics and in others aspects mechanical and electrical ....

And anyway some with very costlier one will say it is impossible period ! So much they vouch for gear design upgrades and price tag investment  and nothing much else...😊

I vouch for acoustics concepts and the way to experience them by experimenting ...

It could be the room speakers relation , but it could be also with it speakers design or headphones acoustic improvements and modifications , it could be on top of that acoustics modifications of stereo system basic flaws ( BACCH filters and crosstalk etc ) ...

Then compared to that, gear upgrade are most of the times MINOR improvement ... It is the opposite in audio threads where upgrades are presentend ALWAYS as MAJOR improvement at very high cost... It is NOT EVEN WRONG ... Thats my point ...

Well @mahgister I agree with many of your points, but I sense you take your perspective too far and diminish other experiences and audio realities to severely.