What will audiophiles do Different?

Would not have bought as much audio equipment as I have now.i went way over board,to many speakers.

I would have become more knowledgeable on room acoustics and invested there first.

Digital has come so far that I’d probably not get into analog. LP was the dominant format when I got into music and audio and I still enjoying playing records. After all, the best version of many recordings is the LP and some great recordings have never made it to CD or streaming. But it’s a huge expense that I probably wouldn’t consider if I was just starting out.

I’ve all but abandoned analog tape for everything but playback of historic or archival recordings. One of these days I’ll get around to dubbing them into digital, and say goodbye to my Tandberg, Crown and Nakamichi decks.

Back in the late ’70s, I spent $2K on a McIntosh MR-80 FM tuner. That’s the equivalent of about $7,500 today, but it shows how important FM was back then! I wouldn’t be likely to spend that kind of money on an FM tuner today. (I still have the tuner, though, and still listen to it occasionally, so it’s been a good value.)

I wouldn't go near a turntable or a vinyl LP. 

I'd give class D amps a much closer look.

I'd give multiple subs more consideration in my 2-channel rig.

I'd attempt to build a system that would only stream music or play back only file based music...no cd's, tapes or vinyl.

I started at warming up gear, realizing changes, hearing differences, buying $200 cartridges, etc...when I was 15 years old (in the late 70’s). So, change anything? Probably nothing.

Oh yes, age 15, bought the Shure M97HE cartridge. First in a long a long run of expense problems, one might say. (today they would call that a ’line contact’ stylus profile, at 0.2x15 mil)

Run of the mill pioneer stuff, with a Technics direct drive table. But I could sure as heck hear the difference that stylus was making with records....

Then it spun out of control.