I’ve reached a point, after much tweaking in my system thanks to Audiogon, I’m moving away from the forum. I’ve gotten to a place where I’m so satisfied with my system that further improvements, while I’m sure they will work, I don’t care. I used to read with great interest the weekly listing of the most popular posts. I’m now finding it boring. I think It’s time to get off the Merry-Go-Round.
Aside from the “Music” posts” that will be it.
Congratulations. I'm getting there myself.
Stepping back, big picture, view from 30,000 feet, going back to the 1970's this is the third time I've gone through this. The first was in jr high when all my money bought JBL, Kenwood, Pioneer. That took a few years and many hours of work to assemble, after which I pretty much quit looking and just enjoyed what I had.
Until around 1990 when I remodeled and added a listening room. This time it was probably more like 5 years of searching, comparing, buying, and setting up.
The first time it was all speakers, amps, turntable. Nobody listened to wire back then, we all knew it just needs to be thick enough. The second time though was a whole different story. A huge amount of time and effort went into first learning to listen, then evaluate, and finally compare at home. This was still before the internet so print reviews and auditions were all we had.
Listening at this level got more and more intense. BDR Cones use little half inch threaded studs. I remember at one point comparing brass, stainless, and regular steel studs. When it gets to comparing the difference between the studs inside the Cones under your speakers- and actually hearing a difference- you know its time to step back and decompress.
Which I did. For probably at least a dozen years only stuff I bought was when something quit or glitched or whatever. Other than that is was pure enjoyment of music and movies.
Until about a year ago when my ARC phono stage now 20 years old was coming due. Another great thing about getting off the merry go round is technology really does advance and so a dozen years later, hearing how much more awesome a Herron is than the ARC, even though almost the same price (but inflated currency, so in reality much cheaper) vastly more performance. One thing led to another.
This site like most is 99% nonsense, misinformation, and banter. But its like diamonds, you only need one. The Swarm Distributed Bass Array concept alone makes this worth ten times what I paid. Okay, a million. What's a million times zero? Okay never mind.
Point is yeah, little while longer, the wheel turns, back to just the music.
Its like anything else I guess. To be good requires focus, concentration, and practice, practice, practice. But then to enjoy it you have to relax and forget all that. And so again, congratulations on getting there.