Wow. This thread amazes me. The idea of owning thousands of $$$ worth of equipment and not being happy with the sound appears strange — and a bit sad — to me. To be sure, I'm not making this comment to voice criticism in any way, and I hope people won't take it that way.
Reading this thread merely prompted me to take stock of my own situation. I don't call myself an "audiophile," but as a musician who regularly plays with other musicians, I do think I have some kind of idea of what instruments are supposed to sound like, and whether a recording sounds good or bad. My equipment (all used vintage gear that I partially bought new as a teenager or acquired more recently) cost a combined amount of ~ $1,500, and when I play my favorite music on it, it sounds so awesome it brings tears to my eyes.
Sometimes I do wonder if I'm settling for less. Recently, when I visited my local "Stereo Hospital" to buy a $100 vintage equalizer, I noticed some kind of vintage tube amp sitting on the shelf (I forget the brand, maybe a McIntosh?), and the price tag of $999 prevented me from taking a closer look. I did catch myself, however, wondering, "Hm, maybe I should look into this whole tube thing sometime." I'm mostly just curious.
But reading this thread makes me wonder if embarking on the "quest to audio nirvana" might be more like entering the "gate to purgatory?" As long as my music sounds awesome and fulfilling to me, maybe I should just stay where I am (?).
Anyway, just musings, nothing more.
There is a saying ignorance is bliss - and it's not an insult here it's that you don't know what you miss if you don't try it. Like Sushi - back in the 70s it was not popular because the idea of eating uncooked fish would make the average western person puke in their mouth - now Sushi restaurants are on every block practically. Well in cities because people in cities tend to be exposed to more food, culture, art, ideas etc that people who live in the middle of nowhere.
But let's also be clear that you don't NEED sushi and you may not even like sushi. And with music - I can be perfectly happy to listen to a $1500 stereo for the rest of my years - but exposure does have an impact. I have usually always bought $10 watches. Moving to Hong Kong the watch capital of the world has me walking by watch shop after watch shop and finally after 5 years living here I broke down and bought a $400 watch. Chances are had I not lived here and seen them all the darn time I would not have bought one.
As an audio reviewer I have spent more on audio than I would have if I were not a reviewer largely due to exposure to more and more equipment to the point where I have heard most all of the top brands and their top of the line components. I could be happy with a $1500 system - but it gets under your skin a bit and the more you hear the more it tends to pry open the wallet.
And being a musician sort of depends on what sort of musician - most musicians play in bands with amplified instruments. So a rock musician has a different perspective on sound than a concert oboist. If you are a rock musician and you love Guns and Roses - well as a kid you hear Guns and Roses at a rock concert - amplified LOUD music - you decide to play an electric guitar because Slash is cool and you get the equipment that makes you resemble Slash - amplified music.
And what sorts of speakers do rock really well - big big BIG horn speakers -- vintage Altec and Khorns. And if you want to recreate AC/DC in your house those speakers will bring the Shake in Shook Me all Night Long. That's why I would recommend such speakers over almost any new $1500 speaker (maybe all new $1500 speakers) because most of the new ones really can't rock worth crap all.
Having said that - we go back to the acoustic unamplified and vocal music. And some systems really bring out a level of subtlety that Altec and Khorns lack - they go big and loud and thump but where most horns run into trouble is wind instruments unamplified music and vocals. It's also where SS, IME, fails miserably. But again you don't know it fails miserably until you hear product X and then go back to your amp. I owned arguably the best reviewed "budget" $1300 integrated amplifier SS(Solid State) in the 1990s from Arcam. Then I heard a SET amplifier which relegated that Arcam to dog poo status. I couldn't sell it fast enough.
Now this isn't to say that high end equipment can't play AC/DC either but in order to do all genres well the prices start to rise. SET amplifiers sound beautiful but at typically under 10 watts - they need High Efficient speakers and that costs money to do well these days.
My speakers are geared for classical music aficionados. As you can see here - when they are at audio shows they often have Vincent Belanger play in front of a version of my speakers.
But luckily they can rock and the owner of the company at audio shows will typically use Split the Atom, Rage Against the Machine, DIO, Nightwish, and the like running from an 8 watt amplifier to illustrate what it can do - and usually it out pounds most of the stuff at these audio shows. It takes a big horn speaker to beat em.
It's rarely about the price you pay in the end - I own an Audio Note AX Two speaker that sells for $850 that can bring a tear to my eye listening to Eva Cassidy and I can listen to my AN E/Spx Alnico at more than 25 times the price. The latter is better - but it's not needed for me to be happy - the $850 speaker makes me happy. Perhaps it's like finding a beautiful, funny, caring woman to marry - The $850 speaker. The idiot priced one is then finding out she's kinky in the best way - woo ha. Your happy life with happy wife just became ecstatic life.