Is upgrading worth it?

I used to feel similar - that it was necessary to have two systems: one warm system for rock and electric blues; and one revealing system for jazz, acoustic, vocals, etc. I was fortunate enough to find a gear combination which is both revealing (not THE most bloody revealing, but still very satisfying), yet retains the fullness necessary for less than stellar recorded rock (not THE best sound for rock, but satisfying enough to allow me to play nearly all of my rock collection). So it IS possible to cobble a very good system for all genre, but playback gear are always a compromise anyway. You just have to choose which attribute of sound to compromise more than the others.

For the high quality stuff I am right here in the sweet spot relishing all the details, venue ambience etc. For 50's and 60's rock I move way (open floor plan) and play while doing dishes in the other room or dancing (if no one is around) to the music. Here I concentrate on the lyrics and beat of my favorite songs rather than audiophile details. I find that this way I still enjoy my old rock stuff.

I own a 1970's receiver and found that the only music that sounds good on it is 70's music, weird. Seriously though, I can take equipment upgrades that offer higher resolution as long as it is refined, transparent, and above all musical. You can't imagine what your missing until you put together quality sounding components that have magical synergy and produce that wonderful sound that most audiophiles seek. And you don't have to get a second mortgage to accomplish this.

I agree with all those who propose a second system for older recorded music. To me, listening to music often includes a nostalgic factor that brings more of the good memories when the music sounds as it was then.

But when it comes to modern recordings, considering the amount of info they carry and the sounding performance they can throw in terms of dynamics and soundstaging, a top notch sounding equipment is the priority to me.

70s music sounds fine on my system. I like to use bad recordings to test my gear- it should not editorialize if the recording is messed up. I have found that a lot of equipment *will* get upset when you play a bad recording, and make it worse, even though the same equipment will play good recordings OK.

However I don't think of 70s recordings as being particularly bad, although some are lacking bass and are over-produced. But that's been an on-going problem.

I listen to rock, folk, classical, jazz; whatever appeals. The decade IMO has nothing to do with it being a good or bad recording, although I don't like the increase in digtaliss that occurred in the later decades.

Overall, the more I have improved my system, the better all of my recordings have become. My collection is about 6000 LPs right now...