Over the years, there's always been a theme running through this hobby of continuous 'upgrades', continuous improvements. That was perfectly valid in the 1950s and '60s, when amplifier, loudspeakers and sources were very imperfect, and unless already at the 'millionaire' level, there was always something both objectively and subjectively better, at a higher price. Whether more power, lower distortion, lower rumble, more extended bass, cleaner treble or whatever.
However, all that pretty much ended by the 1970s, when amplifiers and turntables were sonically as good as they could get, only loudspeakers remained to be significantly improved. That too ended pretty much by the 1980s, when the advent of CD improved the source to well beyond audibility and even loudspeakers became excellent, as witnessed by the KEF 104.2, 107, B&W 801 and many more at that time.
Since then, it's been substantially a marketing exercise rather than a technical one. More facilities, more convenience, higher power, unnecessarily lower noise and distortion, such that today's SOTA won't necessarily sound better than a 1980s SOTA, but may go a LOT louder and will certainly cost a LOT more, taking inflation into account.
What has changed is that there's a lot of completely transparent equipment now available at what is considered budget priced that performs as well or in many cases better than the flagship stuff, but lacks the kudos and bragging rights of the expensive stuff.
S.
