Number of yrs. to reach the finished line?

Gary,

That's what I think about my system too, and why I try to stay away from the Tone Studio in Indianapolis. Mark always brings me back down to reality.

Mark Maryanovshy, the owner, is a cellist in the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. When you walk into his audio store and sit down, it is like you're right there in the bar, or whereever, and in front of you is the band sounding as close to alive as I've even seen.

Mark is an expert at matching components and setting up rooms. Now I understand that I'm in a 10' x 12.5' room and that does restrict my possibilities in some areas. But it's so hard to listen to any system at Mark's without being taken in by it.

When you have someone like Mark, who will come to your home and set the system up, as long as you buy it from him, then you really know what is possible in the audio world.

I've gone down a different route where I didn't buy my components from Mark. My route is being guided by Roger (Irish65) and Peter Israelson. I'm in the process of Peter upgrading my Wadia for the final piece. Then Peter and Roger are coming in to set up my room.

There are people among us who have a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience, and are willing to help someone. Those are the people who will help someone get off of the upgrade treadmill, if they want to get off.

As long as someone is flying alone, trying this and that, going off of these forums and reviews, they're flying blind. I don't mean that in a bad way, but Audiogoners and reviewers who don't know someone personally and their musical tastes, can only offer advice based on their own experience and personal tastes. They can guess what you'd like, but it's just a guess and nothing more.

Chuck

Gary,

I want to say one more thing about this path that we are on. There's actually two paths. You're on one and I've switched over to the other about three years ago. Both paths have their merits, it's a person's choice which one that they want to travel.

Your path consists of building your system from stock components. That's good because they're known and resellable.

My path is buying components that I've found that I really like, and then having them taken beyond their stock specs through upgrades. That's good because I know that the stock sound is to my liking, and the upgrade takes it much further down the same road. That's bad because I know that I'll never be able to sell them and recoupe what I've put into them.

There's a hidden thing about my path too. By starting with components that I really like, the amount of money that I'm spending on the upgrades is less than buying, trying and then selling two, three or four stock components. That's a benefit to my path that isn't readily apparent until someone sits down and adds things up. But like I said, it's a more final path unless someone has loads of pocket money to play with.

Chuck

one of the issues of reaching the finish line, is an unrealistic criterion of trying to get a concert hall sound in your listening room. for most of us, with small to medium size rooms and other limitations, this task is impossible. being motivated to achieve it can be frustrating and causing endless adjustments to one's stereo system without reaching your goal. at some point the journey can be unpleasant.

so, having realistic expectations as to what you can accomplish within the constraints of budget and room can lead to realistic , achievable goals. when these goals have been reached, perhaps it is time to stop and listen to the music and not spend any more money , looking for "improvements", as you have reached your goal.

hopefully, one does not continually change the goal, so at some point it can never be reached.

the answer is to develop attainable goals and achieve them. get help when you think you need it.

i find some manufactureres are a good source of grounding.

As others have said, there is no finish line. I don't know about you guys but once I get a system working well, I'm ready to change something. Panels to horns, horns to dynamic, planers to electrostatics... It's a journey, not a destination.

69,

You are of that mind set but unlike you I have reached my destination and will no longer do the buy and try and sell game to find the perfect sound. Continue the journey my friend and enjoy the ride.

If I run into a big $$$ gain and a new room I might think different but new goals of travel and much skiing @ the best resorts is a new mind set. As a matter of fact audio is second to skiing all day long.