(...) In particular, it would be interesting to see what happens when an item half the price of another goes toe to toe or even wins the dogfight. No doubt there ARE some expensive items that are just awesome. (...)
Well, we have been waiting for this precious information for a long time. IMHO there are no miracles in this industry. It is now fashionable to write against high price gear, lots of people do it. Surely there are a
few overpriced items, that do not represent decent value, have poor reliability and are not worth their cost. Exposing them and explaining why we should avoid them would be a good service to the high-end.
IMHO this hobby is mainly the art of matching - equipment, room and owner preference. It is in this optimization we can get real gains in high-end. But in my experience,
wisely used with expertise, more expensive gear gives overall better sound.
Some people will tell us that the more efficient gain is this hobby would be changing the user preference - perhaps they are correct, but it is not my current perspective! Perhaps some day I will also find another use for my hobby budgets, but I do not hope that my system will improve with such decision.