"The Law of Diminishing Returns"???

I think the same thing is true about audio addiction as the thing I observed with some of my friends dependence on weekly sessions with their shrinks, "Everyone is as crazy as they can afford to be."

Used Gear:
Passive Preamps: $1000
Active Preamps: $3000
SS amps: $3500
PP Tube amps: $3500
SET amps: $3000
Monitor speakers: $2500
Floor Standing Speakers: $3500
Planar Speakers: $5000
Cables: $300
Interconnects: $100
"Shitaki" stones :$1.00 each

New Gear:
Add 40% to 60% to the above numbers!

take care & good luck!

I nominate Slappy as Audiogon "Jester in house". He's too entertaining to go without recognition.

Any backers?

My experience has been somewhat different. I should mention that I believe there are exactly 6 ingredients that make for outstanding sonics:

1. A certain caliber of equipment including a full range pair of speakers. Certainly need not be expensive.

2. Properly addressing the electrical AC via dedicated circuits/lines, cryo-treating, grounding (or not), etc., and line-conditioning.

3. Properly addressing (at the components, rack, and speakers) the air-borne and floor-borne vibrations captured by the components as well as any internally generated resonance.

4. Speaker placement.

5. Finding the right amplifier.

6. Selection of ics and speaker cables.

And yes, I realize that room acoustics is not in this list as I believe speaker placement can cover a multitude of room deficiencies.

Now with that said, I believe that each of these categories when properly addressed (whatever that means), can make nearly every subsequent and appropriate tweak or upgrade potentially produce some fantastic improvements.

I know others talk about diminishing returns, but I think it's just the opposite. Each of the categories I list above represents potentially serious to very serious performance bottlenecks in any system.

Eliminating just one of those 6 bottlenecks often times can make a night and day difference. Eliminate most/all of those bottlenecks, and you've got a musical presentation that is perhaps unlike most any other system (regardless of MSRP) so long as that other system falls short in one or more of the above categories.

At the very least, without properly addressing each of these categories, it is perhaps impossible to realize a system's full potential no matter how much one spends on upgrades.

I guess what I'm trying to say, Rpatrick, is that if per chance your friend(s) had a well-heeled system that properly addressed all (or improperly addressed most/all) of these 6 categories, and one good component is subsequently swapped out for another, then what your friends have been telling you is probably fairly accurate.

-IMO

My take is a bit different. First, I think the most important thing si to get the best possible source - and an ic which allows it to transmit its sonic might to the amplifier. Second, is the right loudspeaker, whose sonic signature and size fits best to your music taste and the room you plan to put into. Than come the amplifier, which is able to drive that speaker and a right speaker cable. Finally you tune the system with right ac treatment gears, power cables, isolation devices, and acoustic treatments. If you reach a kind of synergy whic you like, when all is at place - comes the issue whether any change would really represent a diminishing return. But than, when you put everything in place, you thought you have found the sonic nirvana at home - comes an outstanding gear which you just take home for audition - and that shows the weaknesses of your system . and you begin again the system upgrade process until you dont reach the new synergy - at a higher level. And than ...