Often components that perform far better than others at a given price point do so because they are aligned to your sonic values more so than that they are actually performing out of their league. I think most often higher performing products occur in the budget categories where one company puts more thought into their components, like Schiit, or some boutique products.
I think typically for high end audio products it is usually more alignment. Since products that simply do not sound superior in any musical category get weeded out. For these products to be competitive they need to have a huge amount of design work and superior components. Although there can be companies that have lost their design expertise or are just wasting away that do not perform up to their tier.
