Ok, I'm new here & I understand our ears can only hear so much & electricity is electricity. I'm trying to figure out what "snake oil" your referring too. I'm in the market for a new amp & speakers, budget is 5K. Am I wasting my money, maybe head over to Costco/Target/BestBuy & spend 500 bucks ?
I know (at least I think I know) a 5K system is going kick butt on a 500 system. Does the proverbial "snake oil" come into play the higher the cost ? Are you guys talking about components that measure almost the same but for some reason one cost substantially more by using a badge or some snake oil to insure the buyer is getting something special ?
I'm going to spend more for my amp than if you went spec. to spec. It's going to a Marantz same with speakers there going to be JBL's. Probably in my price range the snake oil guys don't bother !
Good question to ask in your current situation.
Things that are *definately* snake oil - things sold as offering improvements in sound quality that they technically *cannot* deliver - starting with magic crystals, moving through cable risers - on to interconnects and other cables - speaker cables after a certain minimum guage. And so on.
I would also include expensive components made of (admittedly) expensive construction with all sorts of stories told about how that construction improves the sound. Think multiple K+ streamers which output a digitial signal to a DAC. They might be beautiful, they might be heavy and constructed from machined billets of aluminium but they perform audibly no better than my £100 raspberry pi streamer. Include "audiophile" network switches and the like here.
Similar for very expensive devices - amplifiers/dacs - sold on the basis of improved sound - whose measurements show they are no better (or much worse) than much lower priced variants from less "boutique" manufacturers. Generally price is a very poor indicator of sound quality.
So where does that leave you.
Your budget of 5000 doesn't go into the "stupid" expensive region - and can definatley buy you a *very* nice sounding system if you pay attention to what really matters. Move from the end of the system closest to your ears.
1 - Spend a large proportion on speakers. I'd say at least half. Choose something that measures well here (recommended)
2 - Amplifier - it is worth paying for power headroom. You can't do much better than the purify eigentakt class D, or the Hypex Ncore as a close substitute. If you really don't want class D, then consider the benchmark AHB2 - but that will take a larger chunk of your budget than makes sense. Consider also powered/active speakers. You may well end up with equivalent sound at a lower cost level.
3 - Dac/streamers/source - choose devices that score in the blue green parts of the sinad charts that have the features and build quality that you like. Don't think you will get better sound by spending more. If you use a CD player with digital out (if you are going CD you should) - similarly you'll not get better sound for more money.
4 - Budget something for DSP/room correction. This along with speaker choice will make the biggest impact in sound quality.
5 - Don't spend any significant money on cables and interconnect. Just basic good build quality is all that is needed here.