What are your thoughts about moving up product line(s) within a Company?

Like everything else, it depends.  When I had my Naim gear, moving up the line in preamps really made a big difference and I know Transparent Cable owners are always saying how much better each upgrade was.  But speakers are different, IMO.  Sometimes a smaller, less expensive speaker sounds better to my ear than a larger one within a line.  For example, I loved the Rockport Mira speakers, but I was never crazy about their larger ones.  You really need to demo this stuff at a dealer and see what you prefer.  

I am of two minds...

1. If I were to upgrade my phono stage I would stay with Simaudio products. My Moon LP5.3 is extremely good and Simaudio’s other phono stages are exemplary - they have earned my trust & respect
2. But for anything else - I will trust my ears and upgrade to components that provides a marked improvement in sound quality regardless of brand.

Having said that there is the approach of staying with a brand for the sake of compatibility between components if you do not want to be bothered with endless auditions to see if a components "meshes" nicely with your other components. However you may find that going this route will not provide "the best" value or sound quality - but it will be very good.

As an example - many companies started by specializing in a specific product (e.g. turntables) and branched out into Phono stages, followed by amps and then speakers.

But no one company can get everything "exactly right" and so some of their other products are not quite as good as their competitors.

If I were to upgrade my amp I will probably go with a Simaudio products, because they sound exceptional - but my Bluesound streamer will be staying

So it can be a bit of a double edged sword.

My Advice - trust your ears and try to get an audition of the component connected to your main system components.

e.g. when I bought my speakers - I took my amp and speaker cables to the store and had them hook them up to the speakers and a source

Hope that helps - Steve

I have upgraded speakers from Vandersteen,Spendor and Harbeth and prefered the lesser priced ones better! You can never tell how a speaker will sound until you try it out in your own room with the gear you use with it!