How much are you worth ?

Yes, Gregm, the "1438" factor is really important, given that "from ashes to ashes, dust to dust, etc." is all that we are here for, besides listening to music, that is. This morning at 3.50am (on CHUM 104.5, of course) I caught a song "Babylon" on my Ford Clubwagon's FM sucky radio and had a great time with the volume UP as far as distortion would allow! I still have to find out who the artist is. But Sdcampbell to the rescue AGAIN...this guy has insight that Albert P. will never have...the ability to wring out the last drop of potential from a system...be it a used up Porsche 911 or a Dynaco ST70...brings a joy to US that those who "buy a ride" will NEVER understand. N'est ce pas?

I judge Value in Audio by asking myself 'Can I afford this piece and at the same time get the performance that is advertised?

Is there a similar piece of gear but at a smaller price that can provide similar performance and build quality?

Does the build quality surpass what you would normally get at the price paid? In other words? Do you find yourself asking 'how did they manage to build this thing at such a high level of performance and build and keep the price this low.

Can it be modded or is it upgradable?

Warranty?

Does it hurt to listen to my favorite songs?

I follow these questions and I usually come away feeling satisfied with my purchases and except for a recent experimentation with tubed pre amps (still not sure on SS or tubes) my system hasn't changed very often over a couple of years.

*** Good sound is addictive and if you hear good comfortable music once it will be hard to go back to the mass consumer products that we once thought were the end all be all. However, when do you say that the music sounds good enough to you and stop letting these magazines tell you that you need to upgrade?

My wife and I are nuts about music. When my we got out of grad school we had good jobs but we lived in a dump, ate noodles and spent 50-60% of our income on live music(classical), audio equipment and LP's. We spend more now in absolute terms and adjusted for inflation. However that was over 25 years and about 10,000 LP's ago. With no kids and two very successful careers the percentage is much lower. We evenviewed our house purchase as an audio system upgrade since the primary factor was a better listening room.

My system is worth 10% of the worth my home, 20% of my yearly income, and 100% of the worth my car.

Well I guess I live in a dump,dont own a home,pay rent,buy used,drive a 1991 2 seater,not MERCEDES,worked for over 21 years listening to a supervisor who was at one time the lousiest worker at one time,I was blessed not to be involved with the recent stock market crash,blew my loot when I was younger,dug high end,and blew a ton on it.In new value,the system i have now is worth over 25K,but the effects of depreciation,like used cars is worth now about 10K,so thats about 20% of my yearly gross income plus the losses i incure when i trade in stuff to the high end dealer plus add when I sell my stuff on e-bay and use the end result to get other high end stuff,and you see how the cycle goes,wear a Rolex because it maintains it's value better that stocks for now.Drive the wife crazy every time I get something new to the point that I sneak it in and hpoes it blends in with the system until she notices OH that a nice looking piece is it new??,and then laments about her expenses.So right now I'm probably worth nothing but fully loaded with a system that sounds great.So i'm worth my weight in audio until i see something that I think might sound better to throw me off unti