Thanks ! Very interesting testimony and unortodhox one indeed...
You are not crazy!
All audio forums are about selling and buying to so called " upgrade"....
My personal experience with the same system for years:
Mission Cyrus speakers781 (50 bucks used)
Sansui Au 7700 amplifier (100 bucks used +recap for the same amount of money)
Starting point systems NOS dac ( too low price to be mentioned ny bid on Ebay)
Why i dont give a dam for upgrade?
Because the worst half-truth there is in audio is the supposed fact that costly electronic components will buy you the audiophile experience...
An half truth is worst than a lie....
Electronic components design is mature and gave to us many high quality components in the last 60 years... Then buying used and vintage is the way.... New costly coponents are better, yes, but the truth is the improvement is not worth the money invested most of the times for the majority of people... WHY?
Because the greates improvement in audio instead of an upgrade is most of the times these modifications in these 3 dimensions where an audio system is immersed in, what i called"embeddings controls:
A-How much noise pollute the electrical grid of the audio room coming from the house grid...high noise floor destruct the timbre and imaging...
B-How much vibrations and also resonance affect my speakers, and even the rest of the gear? Same negative effect, these uncontrolled vibrations and untamed resonance will decrease S.Q.
C-And the very fundamental fact to add to these very 2 important one: is my room acoustic good? This factor, so much important were the others, this one is crux of the matter...
then you are perfectly sane to prefer to listen to music instead of spending big money.....