Why I sold my $50,000 DAC ...

Having owned a audio store , Synergy is far more important then the cost .

$300k for a dac  a total rip off ,and even half off foolish to spend that you can get over 95% that for a 1/3 rd that. Price

Your writings seem to have realized the value of competent room treatments. 

There is also something else that you probably didn't realize about your pro audio friend.

Higher end pro audio speakers can kick some serious hiny and walk all over most home audio speakers. A lot of engineering goes into them.

TAD, Meyer Sound, etc pro monitors are no joke. Higher end PA speakers can blow your socks off. They will sound good with anything.

I have different audiophile speakers, but, my favorite are a pair of  PA horns that run around 10 to 12k a pair, not that much compared to the world of audiophilia. I keep them in my modest lake cabin. When the weather's good, i roll them outside and party outdoors. They make me not wanna go back home and deal with the spouse,  regular life, etc.

Hopefully you find it entertaining and/or relatable.

Feedback, comments, brickbats, bouquets and anything in between most welcome.

Acoustics rules audio engineering...

Synergy matter if you dont have synergy you dont have anything to optimize...

But when the gear parts are bought, synergetically, the real work begins...

Mechanical,electrical,and acoustical optimization, will also implicate tweaking optimization even modification of gear (especially in low cost system, nobody modify in a homemade style a 100,000 bucks speakers) ..

Now think about that :  there is no relation between a system/room  S.Q. BEFORE versus AFTER well done optimization. It is like day and night.

This illustrate why price paid means not as much as people think... 

For those who need precision, my axiom did not imply that a low cost system/room will rival a much costlier system. It could be possible though when a relatively low cost system is very well optimized versus a very costly system but not optimized at all ...

But  if optimization make a system /room to reach is peak working level it cannot change the basic design constraints...

Thanks to the OP for the interesting article 

@ Deep_333 lets not forget D&B also as i have worked with all the major line array systems

being  a sound person in professional Concert  P.A Systems, also anyone  else that has been there a while remembers the Old S4 speakers at aprox 425 lbs ea. not to mention the new sttyle Digital Mixing boards and amp racks that are adjusted just by changing the IP addressing in unnder 10 minutes.

Room treatments, set up and synergy, the 3 main ingredients necessary for good sound IMO.