How Long Did It Take You To Build Your Dream Setup?

I’m in my 50’s and still have not achieved the "dream system" but I’m close. I’ve been in the hobby since 13 years old when my mom bought me a radio shack all in one receiver with an 8 track player! Back then I thought it was the cat’s ass! Lol... from then on I was hooked on achieving better sound.
In my junior & senior years in high school, I eventually bought a much better radio shack receiver and the optimus 10 speakers, which back then got great reviews in stereo review magazine. They were impressive speakers with 8 inch woofers and 10 inch passive radiators. I even put off buying my first beater car to buy instead a $600 f770 Aiwa 3 head cassette deck! I still own and use it today...From there I moved up to jensen system 400 acoustic suspension speakers etc etc ....
I also owned some nice Rotel equipment and a beautiful denon direct drive in the late 80’s early 90’s, along with B&W standmount speakers.
Moving forward to today, I’m a proud owner of Tannoy’s and a sugden class A amplifier etc....to complete my dream would be to acquire a Linn Sondek lp12....

I'll let you know when I get there!  I'm pretty happy with what I have, but it's a hobby, which implies that you're doing something.  Maybe the hobby will evolve at some point to just sitting back and listening, but for now it still involves experimenting and trying to get the most enjoyment out of the system.

It’s like the search of the Holy Grail....... never ends..!!

It took about 10 years of trial. Haven't changed anything significant in last10 years. Dartzeel and Evolution Acoustics the reason

are you asking how many times i’ve told my wife or friends that i’m done?

done buying more gear?
satisfied with the sound i have?
bought my last turntable?
my last cartridge?

it’s a big number.

might get bigger.

honestly right now at 68 years, 9 months, 6 days.......old.....that’s how long it took me to get this far and i do own my dream system for now.

more seriously; since my later life (after the kids left the house) hifi focus started in 1994 (26 years ago) it took me 9 years to get to a finish line point for my system in my old room.......but then saw my limited space as a barrier to reaching my dream.......so........then i moved in 2003 to my current house with a separate barn with unlimited space..........and built this new room and it took me until 2016 (12 years) to really get things fully worked out in the new room. but in both cases my expectations were very high and my commitment was complete.

dream system time depends on how big you dream. and your personal learning curve.