Are you ever satisfied?

Douglas - You are absolutely right. I tried to tweak my speakers by putting much better tweeter and expensive xover components. I could not properly integrate it (not easy) and gave up. I ended up buying better speakers and realized that tweeter was only part of the problem. Now I'm sorry, that I spent all this money for expensive components instead of selling speakers before any mods.

I'm surprised that people go for expensive mods to their electronics. For instance there was a company making mods to improve Benchmark DAC1 performance. Result was very good, according to testimonies, but it was completely different DAC - non jitter rejecting (non-upsampling). Why to even buy Benchmark if you want to have NOS DAC?

I agree that saving money and making big step is a way to go unless tweaking itself is a main goal.

We should distinguish between "tweaking" and careful set up. I find that most audiophiles are prone to buying new equipment rather than maximizing their present set up. Most never get the maximum out of what they have, I agree with those who think set up is 40 or 50% of your final sound. The effect of removing vibration effects has to be heard to be believed. Some degree of tweaking is necessary;that said it can get obsessive. I have heard Pierre from Mapleshade demonstrate that you get better sound by carefully separating each cable and aligning it in a unique direction. Alas, my own cable array looks like a drunken snakes convention, I lack the time and energy to set them up as he does. We all have to reach a compromise between possible improvement and expenditure of time and money. We have lost sight of the whole purpose if we spend more time fiddling than listening. Of course as the poet said " A mans reach should exceed his grasp, or what's an Audiogon for?

No, there is always something better out there. When the system sounds better than it ever has, as it currently does, I want to find some way to improve it.

This usually involves messing something up first, then getting a very small, if any, improvement after much time, effort and in most cases money.

So, I'm off to mess it up again!!!

In short, no.

I know I can never be satisfied because the stereo is just, well, a stereo. Sure, it sounds pretty good sometimes & although I haven't had every component known to man, I've had enough in my room & have listened to so many other systems that, at least IMO, all someone is doing with their system is dialing it in to what pleases them.

My system now is pretty simple really. I play around w/it & change gear, tubes, cables, etc. because I like to, meaning it is fun for me & takes my mind off whatever else is going on in my world.

As for tweaks, some work & some don't. You have to try them & decide for yourself, although I will say AC and the room rate as #1 & #2. Again, just IMO, however, I will add that I do pro sound work & the same thing applies. If you have bad AC, you're going to get noise & if the room is bad, you can't make it sound good w/o finding out what the problem is & fixing it.

I play around w/it & change gear, tubes, cables, etc. because I like to, meaning it is fun for me

Exactly!