I have been to a house in Dallas that has a separate 110v utility pole to feed a system that costs 4x the house it resides in. The center piece is a set of focal grand Utopias em (160k retail) each fed by custom made 750w mono tube amps. He has a studer 8 track reel to reel and multiple technics sp-10 and sp-15 turntables with 2 arms each and multiple 5 figure hand made cartridges.

This is a friend of my uncle. He has a record collection that DJ premier would envy. I spent 3 hours just listening to music on what was probably the best stereo I've ever heard and will ever hear. I don't know what was the halo effect and what was real but it sounded incredible. That said, the music is still the music. I am an amateur recording artist for about 20 years. I've had brushes with major releases and recorded in big studios. here is my point I think it's slightly ironic to see people spend so much money to listen to records that are sometimes recorded on awful gear or made to sound distorted on purpose.