Few (if any) of us went down to the local electronics store, grabbed an off the shelf receiver and matching speakers and called it a high-end system.
In fact, for the most part, we've cobbled together actual systems based on individual choices of preferred electronics, cables, and loudspeakers.
Not that there's anything wrong with walking into the store and just purchasing what the sales clerk suggests, but I would have to point out that's the exception not the rule.
Back in the days of the high-end stereo dealer reigning on high it was a very different landscape, though we still spent a great deal of time and energy "tasting" the various hand-crafted combinations of equipment that make up our music systems.
In the end and regardless of the era, we're hand-crafters of our music systems.
