Thanks Ron.
FWIW, this launched by accident way to soon so my thoughts are not complete.
I like how you in a way support the Steven Stone philosophy. Expense does not equal perfomance or enjoyment.
Al made the first comment that to me is aligned with assembling a high end system. Assembling a high end system is not the same as making any system perform to its highest potential. People go running around buying band aids and slapping them all over the wounds, never adressing the underlying issues. Its a simplistic set of process but difficult and expensive, so people seem to opt for easy and expensive. In my opinion, if your going to assemble a system, you can support it properly or not. Its up to you. If you don't, spending more will never reach the full potential of what you buy. People should also be very aware of the following. Maybe it can end up in your video over time.
1. You need a room. I mean a real room. One built to react properly to loading of sound waves.
2. You have to have good power. I mean all of it. The line voltage and low voltage.
3. You have to use tools to measure frequency reaponse. You have to know how the room is loading and get to a "Flattish " reaponse.
4. You have to use vibration sensores to know if your injecting vibration into your equipment and creating distortions.
5. You need to follow some basic principles of cabling. Appropriate sized and type of cables for the demand and lengths to be run.
All the rest of buying gear to me is personal taste. Being an audiophile has 0 to do with Natural Sound or recreating a live event. That is a subjective measure a few people ascribe too. That objective will impact the type of equipment you purchase. And it will impact the room you build. But if you leave out the 5 steps, you will never achieve high end playback. Like the Oligarchs Audio author was saying, you can throw hundreds of thousands of dollars at equipment, but you will get higher playback performance at a fraction of the cost if you set the foundation propper to support the gear.