what is a high end component ?

the term "high end" is used to connote excellence of construction and sound.

yet there is no clear description or definition of the term.

sometimes the word is used in the context of marketing, advertsing to increase the probability of a sale.

it is hard to establish a benchmark for or an objective standard for quality of construction.

i have a suggestion for evaluating the aspect of sound quality.

i believe that high end is synonymous with minimal distortion. the question is how to define distortion, as it is multi dimensional and how to measure it.

in addition, an algorithm or equation combing the types of distortion would need to be developed to arrive at a quantitative rating.

i suspect however, that listening is the key and that ultimately it would be useful for expert listeners to judge distortion by listening, or failing that to evaluate a component or stereo system and assign the label high end or not high end. yes there will be disagreement. yes this is not scientific. it would be interesting to see if say 75 % of alistening panel could agree.

otherwise what we are left with is the term being heavily influenced by price of component, manufacturer and appearance.

any ideas