On another audio forum I visit, this old article was posted. From the original post: “It requires a long and patient read, but I think it is still relevant today and reflects on what many of us believe is missing from Hi Fi today’”
https://www.stereophile.com/features/203/index.html
Paul talks about emotions, music and loudspeaker in this video:
https://youtu.be/6DuXfJFvu64
I am mostly attracted to extremely high prices.
I’m attracted to sound, and sound through design that I can understand and that seems direct and “inspired.” That is what made me expore the stables of Decware and PS Audio and climb their product ladders.
I am mostly attracted by comments from others here, especially from Al and Luca for the past couple of years. Luckily, the upgrades are usually worthwhile. 
I was fortunate to find a dealer who hand picked gear he thought stood high above the rest, sound wise. I found I agreed with what he preferred. Once I was in the Gryphon, Vivid, TechDAS, Stealth Audio, My Sonic Lab camp it was hard to take other brands seriously. I introduced my dealer to Grimm.
There are a few folks around here who have followed my path. I can only think of one person who is grumpy about it. (And I could be wrong about that.)
I am also a huge fan of Estelon speakers.
Components and speakers:
Sound quality
Gimmick, bling free designs
Logical, purposeful design features
Solid, peerless reliability and customer service
Designers who mix artistry with engineering
Accesible designers
Product updates only for true enhancements
Made in the USA
Unfortunately, I discovered today that my dealer isn’t a reliable source of help when it comes to choosing the right components and cables. Anyone looking for sound advice is best served here in the PS Audio forum. There are many great people who enjoy audio and experiment a lot, and ultimately, you’ll find the best advice here in the forum. Thanks to the great community here and everyone’s comprehensive knowledge. My advice: Don’t blindly trust your dealer, get information here in the forum, and ultimately let your ears decide.
Best regards, Andreas
bling is awesome!
Although my system is humble, and I certainly do not have an unlimited budget, all new components must sound good and “musical”. Besides that, I like a modern, minimalistic design. That’s why I bought a beautiful black Stellar Strata mk2 in January 
Oh, and I almost forgot; there is the “wife-factor “ as well 
Currently all of my components, including speakers, are PSAudio. When I decided to replace my previous system, my decision on what to buy was influenced these factors especially:
not only do I dislike shopping, but my ability to travel is limited. I wanted components made by a reliable company with an excellent track record, and the synergy that would hopefully result from buying components from the same company. Although I agree that fabulous styling is seductive, I’m aware that it costs money to achieve. Replacing the glass front plate on my old McIntosh amp ran $900! And things like power meters are costly, and on and on. I wanted devote my budget to sound quality alone. After lurking in this forum for several months I concluded that PSAudio might be what I was looking for. That turned out to be correct, and here I am with all PSAudio (not power cords or interconnects which are mostly Snake River). It has worked out well, and there is nothing to prevent me from trying other components in the future, such as the Atma-Sphere Class D mono blocs I’m currently eyeing.
I used to be an all tube person from the time I heard CJ tubes with the Infinity Modulus speaker system. A person on this forum, @aangen, influenced me toward the cleaner sound of Class A solid state. Hearing the Estelon Extremes driven by Vitus amplification was an eye opener, and ear opener. That listening in April of 2024 significantly changed things. I knew I needed a new amplifier as a start. While he definitely did not influence me to get a Mark Levinson amp or a CJ tube preamp, he did influence me and others to get a Grimm MU2 and Gryphon PZ, along with influence from @straightwire and @weedeewop (after they were influenced by @aangen) by letting me borrow their MU2/PZ. But Al did influence me enough to get a MUCH cleaner (solid state) amp. I gravitated toward a Levinson 534 partly from years of influence of an audio salesman that had Levinson gear driving B&W 800D2, 800D3 & 801D4 speakers, and that run in Class A “for most listening conditions” as their slogan states, and partly because of the significant discount on the amp. My newer CJ tube preamp is also something that I have to have in my system, as I have to have tubes, but tubes that are not tubey sounding as my previous tube preamps. I had also tried multiple different solid state preamps and ultimately was not happy with the sound, though those impressions could have been influenced by cheaper interconnect and included power cables. The clean & vibrant CJ tube preamp with the clean & smooth Levinson amp, with the clean & pure MU2, along with the magic that the PZ brings, has really pushed the performance of my FR20’s to way beyond where my system was just one year ago. I still have more cable upgrades in my future and a newer subwoofer also in my future.
Edit. Also have to mention @paul172 and @luca.pelliccioli for their sonic descriptions that have been able to describe sound influence that give meaning to the various upgrades, and @RonP
's influence on me spending money on interconnect.
Don’t blame me for your decisions! Lol
We ourselves are to blame if we allow ourselves to be seduced. 
Even if some things are beyond my budget, things I would never have considered without the influence of this forum and things I didn’t know about. It’s better to invest a little more once and be satisfied with it for a long time than short-term solutions that may seem cheaper at first, but the savings are offset by repeat purchases. Buy cheap, buy twice. Whether it’s tools or audio. It’s better to buy properly once and be satisfied with it for a long time.
Wife acceptance is the most, and only, principal factor in this house! She likes the look of FR30, and they are smaller than the previous monster, Gryphon PZ replaced P 15, and it is again smaller, and MU2 replaced both BHK pre and Lumin U2 (smaller and less numbers). You got the idea on my next upgrade.
So, M1200’s replacement would be harder to stay with the trend, but the stock market took care of any urge for an upgrade on amp soon anyway. The only bad thing is that I may have to stay with a USA brand with the new tariff (it is time for PSA to come up with a Directstream Class D amp 
).
While no blame can go to you for my choice of CJ or Mark Levinson, or my 34 year-old Infinity sub, you do have some of the blame for your detailed descriptions of the PowerZone, lol. And I think you’re ok with that 
Agreed; and inconvenient complexity…these are my first three criteria when considering a new piece of kit.
Thanks to Al’s love of Gryphon I can say his enthusiasm steered me to a Diablo 300 (amp,preamp,dac) that has taken me to the best audio level yet in this crazy audio journey!
Most of my purchasing decisions are driven by a search for something that offers great value. Personally, I define great value as performance and enjoyment for the dollar. I don’t mind buying Hi-Fi kit that is expensive but it should offer disproportionate performance and enjoyment as compared to other kit at equal or greater prices for me to consider it to be of great value.
I submit this is a very subjective, personal perspective. It’s about the bang for the buck for me.
FWIW.
I’m kidding but yes imo the PowerZone is a foundational component that you can build off of. If one can afford it it’s a must have for every system.
I had bling once. But it faded with time.