What’s the Sweet Spot price point wise in your audio journey?

My daughter has a end game sounding rig for 5k, might surprise even some very nitpicky guys. But, one can keep buying different things at various pricepoints to satisfy his curiosities, depending on the size of his/her wallet, of course.

There is no sweetspot... things may sound good or bad at different prices.

a) Don't be a loser grumbling/whining about guys buying things you can't afford.

b) Don't be a jackass looking down on dudes who can't buy certain things.

Plenty of a's and b's around.....

Otherwise, it should all be fine....

For me the sweet spot is about $20K per component and $30K+ for speakers. It is the sweet spot for me, since it is the level I could afford during my last upgrade.

When you get into high end gear... there tend to be levels of products. Like $12K, $20K, $50K. Also, to make a meaningful upgrade I find 2x is the minimum to make the result strike me, "Wow, that is amazing" and feel it is well worth it. So, if I can afford it in about five years of so my next upgrade would be to the $50K level. But I am very happy at this level if I can’t upgrade. This system definitely hits my "minimum acoustic quality for satisfaction" . Typically, I am really happy for around ten years at a level before I start thinking maybe I should consider leveling up. 

@erik_squires "... I have golf clubs in my shed I never use.  I hate golf, but they were 75% off. "

That is great! You are human. Me too. While I do not have that foible, I have my own.

Audio is such a personal hobby I think this is the last place you want to try and impress people with how much you spend.  I believe, outside the few on these forums, most view spending a lot to be more foolish than impressive.!  My wife and kids included!

However, if you limit the list to the "audiophile" group I think @calvinj question is an interesting one.  I would tend to agree that a well-chosen $50K retail system is a logical sweet spot for a single analog or digital path.  If one's careful, buying used makes all the sense in the world.  Quality/$'s in this hobby is clearly an asymptotic function and spending beyond this level I believe is because you want to and can rather than obvious benefits.  As I think @mahgister points out there are so many other factors that impact the benefit of just spending dollars, especially when the incremental benefits are increasingly small.

My experiences have been a BOM between apprx'  £10K down to approx' £1K.

Casing costs and EE's design and build time are extra. 

Bigger build requirement adds up to quite different costings. 

Phonostages - DAC - Pre Amp - Power Amp are all produced using this method. Q

Real Bang for Buck is found in this method. 

A pair of Cabinet Speakers are to be purchased in the vrry near future using an almost identical approach. 

I know more about the Speakers than any other purchased item, I do not disbelieve the claims I have seen that strongly suggests that 20 - 30 x the expenditure  outlay is required to find fair competition in the  Commercial exposed Brand Speaker market.