Actually, IMO, "high end" has been going downhill with both ss and digital. Tapes were better than vinyl; vinyl is VASTLY superior to digital; tubes are superior to ss. The best speakers I ever heard were a double pair of KLH 9s driven by tubes. Yes, today's digital is better than the first digital ("perfect sound forever"!). Yes, today's speakers play louder. Yes, they have better high and low ends. Do they sound more realistic in the midrange? Not IMO. Do they sound more like the sound of unamplified music? Not IMO.

I'm a huge fan of blind tasting in wines. I have gone to hundreds of those tastings, and there is little connection between price and quality (of course, what is "best" varies from taster to taster). I went to a 1985 California Cab blind tasting recently, and the Benziger "Sonoma Valley" Cab (original price $10) beat out the BV private reserve and 6 other "top rated" 1985 wines. I went to a 1970 blind tasting of 4 California and 4 French wines recently. The winner: the Chateau Feytit Clinet, beating out the BV Private Reserve, The Chateau LaFite Rothschild, the Chateau Latour, the Chateau Mouton Rothschild, the Robert Mondavi unfiltered, the Inglenook Estate Cask G-8 (my favorite by far, and the group's second favorite), and the Mayacamas. Trust me, if we did blind listening of speakers or amps or cables, the results would be similar.