Fess Up How much have you spent on this Hobby??

"The responsible thing is buy more stuff (Ohlala, 2015)." I agree, life is to short. If you manage your purchases in anything and are also planning for the future sensibly, then how much it costs over the years is not an issue. The same analogy can be applied to automobile racing and modding your car. The brakes, suspension, tires, etc.....let's see, the power regenerators, the dedicated power lines, or how about the new house in some cases, I am sure their may be people who have moved in order to get a nice listening room. I like response above, it depends..the wife price, the friends and neighbors price, and how about the contractors who come into the house price? I avoid letting contractors in the room, even the pest control company.

I think I would, and perhaps my wife, have a heart attack if we tallied it all up. Source material, mostly LP"s, has recently surpassed 6,500...new and old, and consists of those pesky limited edition box sets which have appreciated in value over the years, better than any of my investments. I told the wife, this row of LP's will be a nice cans out when I am gone...she says, never, they are your memories....I had nothing to say to respond to that except that "I love you". Like I said, life is too short and if you ever experience something that is a life changing event, than you really start to discount the costs of doing things, and simply live within your means to the maximum extent possible.

Ciao,
Nico

I refuse to answer on the grounds it may incriminate me.

Gross or net?
Back in the day, I would buy to try. Of course, many here remember that, back then, it was a lot easier to sell gear that didn't work out. Sometimes you could even sell for more than you paid. I am thrilled with the sound of my current system and am pretty much "done for now" with respect to new gear and upgrades.
Honestly, even though it has been fun, I would rather have the time back that I have invested, than the money.

Spent 5K last week but it was a slow week.

To hard to recall, been purchasing gear since the early seventies, but a guess would be between $250,000 and $350,000, not including music.