[Jack in Wilmington]

The key here is "hi end". What defines the high end? Where does it start?

My first dabble was after I got out of the Navy. My friend was working at a local hifi shop and I starting with an Akai receiver, Sansui speakers and a Garrard turntable.

That carried me through to the early 90's when I bought my first CD player and a Sony 333ES receiver. Followed shortly after by Paradigm Monitor 9 speakers. I started adding pieces to refine the sound as I knew it was missing something, but I couldn't seem to put a handle on it.

Enter the latter part of the 2000's around 2008 or 2009 and retirement was on the horizon, so I knew I better get this figured out as my ready cash was about to dry up along with my weekly paycheck. I purchased a set of Dynaudio speakers and the sound improved immensely. Then I started replacing amps and preamps and then I added a DAC and it was coming together. Where did the "hi-end" start? There are many answers to that question. My friends have different opinions when I ask them that very question.