I admit, my statement was a bit of a headline grabber, or clickbait as they say.
I only come to this conclusion from my own research and experience and only very recently actually. I am happy to be proved otherwise. I admit my methodology is not exactly water tight, but there is something to it and leans me to think this.
It was when I came to upgrade from my trusty and now 20 year old Cambridge audio amp setup that I delved into researching a new setup. I tested quite a number of amps and found very little difference in sound quality comparing amps from a mere £150 to those costing over a grand. Sure they sounded a bit different, but with a software equaliser these differences could be ablated. I came to the conclusion that the essential amplification part of the amp is essentially the same. The differences came from the preamplification.
I bought a really nice Cyrus 8 XPD at a bargain price, but could not tell the difference between that and my old amp. I then tried a cheap all in once 5.1 system - the type which plays DVDs and has an av amp built it - a Panasonic from Argos - and could not tell the difference.
I was quite gutted actually. It was like when my parents first broke to me that Santa does not really exist. Gutting really when I truly believed in the quality and engineering of these lauded and expensive manufacturers.
So I took to the internet to do some 'research' (I know, googling is not synonymous with reaserching) and read some interesting articles form audio engineers. I also had a look into the technical stats of these systems and even tried to find what components they actually use in their units. I found that most well built consumer units generally have very similar components, and although more expensive units often use 'higher quality' components, these are components that really add little to the performance of the unit. The heart of the units, and the things that make up 99.9% of the audio quality are the same. Sure you can put chunkier plugs with gold plating and use fancy heat sinks, but these really don't make any difference.
My gripe is really with magazines like whathifi which only perpetuate this brand snobbery and hierarchy. What I really want to see is proper blind testing and comparison of equipment between different price ranges. Instead the reviewers catagorise units in price brackets, giving us the best amps between £100 - £500, for example.
Why not just tell us the best sounding units irrespective of price?
I read auto express too as I'm a bit of a petrol head. Their reviews of car accessories disregard price when evaluating performance, and their reviewers give us their reccomendation based on performance. Very often, cheap products will be given the seal of approval over much more expensive products.