How do you rationalize audio upgrades?

To my way of thinking, an upgrade has to do one of two things in order to be rationalized/justified....add an improvement compared to what you already have or eliminate a negative that is just eating away at you.  99% of the time, these will be sonic/musical in nature...but every now and then, aesthetics may come into play.

Oh...and one final thing...whatever change is being contemplated should not result in seriously reducing other important aspects of your life.

+1, celtic66

I’m not terribly surprised at some of the responses since many audiophiles seem to be under the impression they only have 5-10% of the way to go before they achieve full Audio Nirvana.

First mountain climber: Wow! Isn’t the view spectacular from on the top of the world!

Second mountain climber: Save your strength. We’re only at Base Camp.

Correct a known well understood deficiency or a broken component, in past when something fails I consider replacing it, or upgrade ( I have done both )

on tweaks, some are so low cost that the only thing one need to do is rationalize the time you spend implementing, convincing yourself it is better, and then defending them as real... not imagined, or just crazy

there is of course the best answer, “ I have seen the future, I can afford it “

enjoy the music