Having owned both Leica (M4) and Nikon (many SLR & DLSR) cameras, I can understand the attraction there because it was literally easy to SEE and anyone with good vision could confirm. Under the loupe on a light table or in the darkroom making prints, the quality of the images was easily verified.
Of course with those cameras, there were a number of owners who hung them around their necks as a statement because they clearly couldn't take a good picture and had no clue what a good print was. It's the same mindset of the Porsche 911 or Corvette ZR1 owner. There are those who buy on performance and will actually take a $100,000 car out on the track to see what it'll do. Then there's the buyer who have never gone 'round a bend with their foot off the brake pedal and hard on the throttle...but they got the car everyone recognizes.
Audio is a little different. You can have some very high end product but only another enthusiast may recognize the brand. Fewer still may recognize the performance differential of it versus a lesser-known but higher performing brand. McIntosh audio may be the more widely recognized brand among the masses as a "high end" product simply because they've endured for enough decades and their equipment is found in many an estate sale. So yes, it can be a status icon in an otherwise obscure (to the masses) passion, albeit one only seen by visitors to your home.
If you're getting the McIntosh pre-amp and power amp, yet looking at their speakers and turntables, it's an indicator that you're buying on brand alone. They make very fine amps, and even their AV processor may be pretty good. They're just not competitive in performance with those speakers or perhaps even turntables at their price levels.
