Are you Guys Rich or What!?

PB&J and a frequent shopper of audiogon.

...the price of the system grows from the time you've started such hobby(~$2000 "downpayment")not as fast as it seems and you do not have to be Wall-Street-like guy in audio.
The funny thing is that when you upgrade your setup every year or two, audio seems like car-loan payments and within a certain period of time its price can grow upto the cost of luxury car or more even if you're relatively low-income audio freak like I am.
I do sacrifice on car expances and buy only used and old lo-tek US made cars.

As p1s1, we too are music junkies. Also, on the long path to riches which we will have crossed by the yr. 2099. A large prtion of our money goes to music, live & s/w and the equip to listen to what we cannot hear live (Heifetz? Oistrakh? Gieseking, etc, etc).

I dare say, we're happy with what we have -- rather than coveting what we don't have.

It doesn't make us rich (but you just wait!) >)

Cheers!

I agree with Kthomas -- my system is very nice and I spent less than many people spend on a car (Sierra Denali amps, Montana KAS, MIT Oracle V2, Sierra pream, Perpetual Technologies with Wright mods, California Audio). I tell my wife that a mid-life crisis spend on audio gear will get me in a lot less trouble than spending the same money on a hot car (frankly, I'm not at all convinced that the hot car would do much better, but it makes a good story);-)

As others indicate, you can get a fine system for well under $10,000. For example, I owned a couple of Bryston 7B-ST's, the Bryston preamp and Thiel CS-6's that I'm in the process of selling to my neighbor at blue book (around $8,500 with lots of cables etc. thrown in) -- that is a very nice system! I wouldn't have parted with it unless I ran into some great deals on something far better (and more expensive). You can find great deals on Audiogon! The new systems at full price are for folks who have the money and want the help. If you know what you are doing (or are a good researcher), you can latch on to great deals.

Do some searches on Audiogon and I'm sure you'll come up with a fantastic system for not too much money. Over time, you keep upgrading and spending more, but it's a lot easier on the cash flow than doing it all at once. I'm not rich but do OK -- I guess if I made less money, I'd drive a used car and look for deals on Audiogon and elsewhere. Good luck.

I must have missed this thread, dunno how that was possible??? Well I read it all and there are a lot of good points made, I agree that most serious audiophiles will upgrade to the major's if/when they have the money to do it. I started with a system worth about 7k and now(less then 2 years) it is closer to 40k and climbing rapidly. I find a lot of improvement with my upgrades and I realize one day there will be a point when I can no longer upgrade. The only way I can justify it to myself is thinking of boats, people blow loads of money on boats and use them 6 times a year, well I spend similiar money on my stereo which I can use any day all day if I want. I don't have a wife/girlfriend to contend with so it is not a factor.....yet. Another thing I did was when I got rid of my car(cadillac=high payments) I got a cheaper car(VW=low payments) and now I now have corporate funding for my audio habit, via a monthly payment, life is grand.