Do you listen to equipment or music.

may be a bit simplistic but don't we all do both?
Otherwise I may as well have stuck with my National Panasonic Transistor 8 from 1968.
Sometimes, like most of us I'd imagine, something might not sound quite right to me (equipment listening) but then the next album or song sounds sublime (music listening) and I know that it is more of a recording short-coming than anything.

Yes, I upgrade but tend to keep using components for years until they fail or I hear something radically better because of a known and acknowledged weak link - like replacing my PC with an Antipodes server/streamer.
Johnspain, if you have used a good set-up disc/LP to attain good stereo imaging etc and are repositioning speakers during a listening session, it is more likely a recording fault imho.

I'm a little late to the party, but I was so impressed by elizabeth's response, I had to chime in. She is absolutely correct, you have to listen to the equipment to get the system dialed in. When you catch yourself engrossed in the music, that's when you know the equipment is right.

s2000cr
I got "Bitten" in 1952, just before Stereo entered. I can recall my first
experience at Audio House (Detroit) in 1954, listening to an RCA tape
of Alzo Sprach Zarathustra on Berlant Concertone deck, 2 Mc 50w
monoblocks, an two Stentorian (west coast) speakers. We kept repeating
the 22(?) hz organ pedal intro in utter fascination.
Battle? No contest. Even mid-fi in stereo won out. As for Consoles vs.
Separates? For the expanding number of true Audiophiles, Consoles
were a commercial cop-out. 
There's this: some Consoles sounded OK by themselves, but head-to-
head with separates ...?  To Audiophiles, not radio-phono customers,
no battle whatever.
Think of the effort and design that went into a 1960 preamp: The
top-line equipment compensated for the disparate recording curves,
provide recording inputs, "loudness", etc.,etc. 
Lord, it was exciting to have lived thru all that audio emergence. Some
of that tube equipment, lovingly up-dated, is still highly prized,
and by some very critical Sound Nuts!

s2000cr
I got "Bitten" in 1952, just before Stereo entered. I can recall my first
experience at Audio House (Detroit) in 1954, listening to an RCA tape
of Alzo Sprach Zarathustra on Berlant Concertone deck, 2 Mc 50w
monoblocks, an two Stentorian (west coast) speakers. We kept repeating
the 22(?) hz organ pedal intro in utter fascination.
Battle? No contest. Even mid-fi in stereo won out. As for Consoles vs.
Separates? For the expanding number of true Audiophiles, Consoles
were a commercial cop-out. 
There's this: some Consoles sounded OK by themselves, but head-to-
head with separates ...?  To Audiophiles, not radio-phono customers,
no battle whatever.
Think of the effort and design that went into a 1960 preamp: The
top-line equipment compensated for the disparate recording curves,
provide recording inputs, "loudness", etc.,etc. 
Lord, it was exciting to have lived thru all that audio emergence. Some
of that tube equipment, lovingly up-dated, is still highly prized,
and by some very critical Sound Nuts!

O-ops - Hit the button twice.  Sorry - must be past my bed time!