My motto is: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I upgrade when things fall apart, but rarely. Usually I just fix it.
The amount of time I have had the following components:
6 months - Semi-anechoic room - this is not something I set out to do. It’s a fringe benefit of putting r26 worth of insulation in the walls of and r72 worth of insulation in the studio/office of my new home, where my audio system is. I covered it with burlap instead of sheet rock.
1 year - subwoofer system
4 to 30 years - cartridges
25 years - crossovers
34 years - tonearm
34 years - turntable; upgrade 5 years ago (VPI tables are upgradeable)
32 years - CD player
30 years - preamp; upgraded with new caps 4 years ago
35 to 45 years - amps; upgraded with new caps, converted from pentode to triode 4 years ago by the same guy who built the amps
41 years - speakers
I did go through a few cartridges 30 years ago before I settled on the 4 that I have. The new one from 4 years ago was a replacement of a tired cartridge with the same brand but better model.
But as you can see, the foundation of the system has been fairly stable, or “done” for about 35 years. At 35 years, it feels like a member of the family.
The amount of time I have had the following components:
6 months - Semi-anechoic room - this is not something I set out to do. It’s a fringe benefit of putting r26 worth of insulation in the walls of and r72 worth of insulation in the studio/office of my new home, where my audio system is. I covered it with burlap instead of sheet rock.
1 year - subwoofer system
4 to 30 years - cartridges
25 years - crossovers
34 years - tonearm
34 years - turntable; upgrade 5 years ago (VPI tables are upgradeable)
32 years - CD player
30 years - preamp; upgraded with new caps 4 years ago
35 to 45 years - amps; upgraded with new caps, converted from pentode to triode 4 years ago by the same guy who built the amps
41 years - speakers
I did go through a few cartridges 30 years ago before I settled on the 4 that I have. The new one from 4 years ago was a replacement of a tired cartridge with the same brand but better model.
But as you can see, the foundation of the system has been fairly stable, or “done” for about 35 years. At 35 years, it feels like a member of the family.