DIY. I went thru the merry go round you're on right now. I worked in film. Long days, big $$$. I was making avg. $80k a year and my system changed so much it wasn't funny.
Then I began pursuing another career and money got tight for awhile.
I started reading about gizmo rosenberg. Thorsten loesch, and learned about the men who had been in this hobby for fifty years finding the magic of SET amps, horns, sut's moving coils and vinyl.
This stuff was SERIOUS $$$. The curiosity piqued, I ordered a cheap Chinese tube amp from eBay. And thus began the journey.
I found a Lenco, a DIY horn speaker site, and bottlehead kits.
The system I have now has cost me less than $6 k to build/ put together, but it is by FAR the best sound I have EVER had!!!
I had a guy over who was purchasing a DAC from me, we did some listening, a/b'd some dacs, and he told me that my system was killing his friends mark levinson 33's and Wilson watt puppies....
I've never heard that stuff, and I don't want to, I've got a modest system now, half DIY, and it's evolved slowly to where it is now. Synergy.
I'm making more money now than at any other point in my life ( I'm 39 now) and im content with my system, period.
There may be changes coming soon, but only cartridges/tonearms, and tubes. That's been the answer for me.
When you find your system constantly gives you joy, leave it alone.
Something as simple as changing interconnects can send you on a years long goosechase, trying to find the synergy you had.
It's one of those things, ever evolving.
Then I began pursuing another career and money got tight for awhile.
I started reading about gizmo rosenberg. Thorsten loesch, and learned about the men who had been in this hobby for fifty years finding the magic of SET amps, horns, sut's moving coils and vinyl.
This stuff was SERIOUS $$$. The curiosity piqued, I ordered a cheap Chinese tube amp from eBay. And thus began the journey.
I found a Lenco, a DIY horn speaker site, and bottlehead kits.
The system I have now has cost me less than $6 k to build/ put together, but it is by FAR the best sound I have EVER had!!!
I had a guy over who was purchasing a DAC from me, we did some listening, a/b'd some dacs, and he told me that my system was killing his friends mark levinson 33's and Wilson watt puppies....
I've never heard that stuff, and I don't want to, I've got a modest system now, half DIY, and it's evolved slowly to where it is now. Synergy.
I'm making more money now than at any other point in my life ( I'm 39 now) and im content with my system, period.
There may be changes coming soon, but only cartridges/tonearms, and tubes. That's been the answer for me.
When you find your system constantly gives you joy, leave it alone.
Something as simple as changing interconnects can send you on a years long goosechase, trying to find the synergy you had.
It's one of those things, ever evolving.