What is your upgrade philosophy?

I agree with a lot of the above post. Your system should be built around your speakers, it is better to try different equipment in your home, and the best speakers in the world wont sound that good with lousy electronics.

The key is though we all need to start somewhere and we need a reference point to compare different equipment to.

There are also drawbacks to a five year plan which is what I did. You never hear the potential of the products you do own until you are done. Manufacturers and models change as you build. Some of your equipment depreciates as you are still building although if you choose wisely its never by much. And before you are done there is a new format to compete with.

The advantages are. After five years you are further then you normally would have been. You have years to audition different products until you are ready to buy. Some of those discontinued models you originally wanted drop in price. You end up with an excellent reference point to start switching out new products.

I consider this hobby a life long adventure. I admit I enjoy the equipment almost as much as the music and I am looking forward to the next thirty or forty years of building and experimenting.

This is such a great thread I wanted to make another comment. I bought a lot of my equipment through a trusted dealer. I always got 15% off of list and although that is well above audiogon prices I feel that the money was well spent in expertise. They really understood what I liked and always had the best suggestions on what brands suit my taste.

Countless times I left their store annoyed telling them they were wrong. I would then go off and audition many many other products only to return months later to tell them they were right.

I was lucky to find them and the extra money I spent to get products through them was well worth the expense. I look back at what I originally planned to buy and I cringe. Never underestimate a good dealer.

Definitely start if possible with the that speakers you intent to keep for good. Build up the rig with the best that you can afford & don't try to cut corners / save $ by trying the cheaper stuff. I spent so much more $ by first trying to mid-fi economize, but was never satisfied until I started buying the good stuff & selling off the "bargains". If I had put more of the $ wasted into good equipment to begin with then I'd have an absolute killer rig today. It's still pretty nice now, but for the $ I spent along the way it could be that much better. Don't fall for "false ecomomy" it's much more costly in the long term.

Bob (et al),
Your last comments I have learned the hard way over the years on other pursits. Seems I am never sorry for buying QUALITY. A co-worker from long ago had two signs on the wall:
"The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is gone." and
"If you don't have time to do it right, when will you find time to do it over?"
Probably applies as well here, huh?
Tim

I think it depends on your situation - if you have a really good idea where you want to end up and a pretty good idea what your budget over a long period of time will be, then map it out and buy the pieces one at a time as you can afford it. This will cost the least and probably get you there the fastest.

If you don't know exactly what you want and aren't sure how much you're willing (able) to spend over the long haul, then I think you upgrade pieces as you go, one at a time if that makes the biggest improvement, more than one at a time (spreading the money available) if that proves more satisfactory at any given moment, but being sure that after every upgrade your system sounds significantly better. If the improvement is subtle and the equipment isn't where you want to end up, you're probably just being impatient. If the improvement is significant and the equipment isn't where you want to end up but it's going to be several years before you can have it "just so", well it's going to be somewhat more expensive but you're going to get extra years of enhanced enjoyment out of it as well.

One point from other posts that bears repeating is this - draw up your dream system today and buy it over several years without updating the dream based on all the new splashy reviews coming out of newer gear. It's amazing how the $50K dream system becomes achievable for less than 1/2 that just a few short years away. This, to me, is the biggest value of having your eyes set on something you know you can't afford for years - while you're saving and getting closer to the goal, the price is coming down and if you can resist the temptation to change your goal to the latest-and-greatest model and remember how much you wanted the now-discontinued (and heavily depreciated) model that still works every bit as good as it did when you began the dream, you're miles ahead financially. -Kirk