I've recently been through this myself.
For his high school graduation a few years back, I got my son his own system. It took about 6-9 months to fall into all the components. that takes some discipline when you have some big speakers--infinity qls--but cannot play them for awhile.
At any rate, he has a bi-amped audio research setup. Tube amp d76 on top. We have tried multiple tubes and finally figured out the ideal sound. And that meant things like the vintage telefunken 12ax7's were not the best sounding. Nor were some others thought to be good vintage one's.
SS amp for the bass. LS-1 as the pre-amp. That was another one hard to get the perfect 6922 for. Tried 70's telefunken. Philips. Sylvania. finally got a Mullard and that was the guy.
To illustrate my son's dedication--he recently sent the pre-amp in for updates to mk 3 status. Not too many 22 year old's do that, do they?
Oh yeah---MIT interconnects and Shunyata power cords on everything. I'd go half on those purchases and he'd chip in the rest.
The fallout is the source. Like Anton mentioned earlier, My son also likes the Tool stuff. Les Claypool. Chemical Brothers. So now he knows the differences and advantages of getting imports. Or even better, cd singles.
The surprise is how expensive Tool cd singles of "sober" are. My guess is not too many were ever made and there is a real shortage of folks selling that kind of thing. Same to a lesser degree with Claypool.
This ends up being a chip off the old block because I have scoured for best vinyl since 1975. And it sure does get pricey. My son and his system do the same thing---with cd's.
A funny world sometimes, but an interesting journey.
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