Hence “snake oil” — gold plated digital cables are an unfortunately huge market for people with too much money and too little sense.

I’ve listened to a bunch of these “audiophile” setups (usually owned by retired boomers with bad hearing in untreated rooms) and while 60k of amps does look good i really struggle to believe that anything other than the speakers makes much difference.

Having done that, my opinions are simple;

A good set of floor standers connected to pretty much anything will sound good.

Basic room treatment will go far enough for everyone unless you’re running a sfx studio or something and even then…

Anything over 320 mp3 is basically pointless, but the better masters you get on some of these 24/96 platforms make it probably worth the subscription (sometimes).

I prefer good headphones.

And this is how i’ve avoided spending 6 figures on audio gear :)