Harley quote

+1 russbutton, waiting for riding season! 

Humorus anecdote; when I got my 2016 Yamaha FJ-09 I was surprised the first time the dealer started it up - it's a 3 cylinder and frankly, sounds like an oversized sewing machine. I thought, "What kind of kiddie sound is this?" But, the other aspects of the bike, the features and performance are very much to my liking. 

OTOH, I very much dislike loud bikes and would not own one. So, I'll take the "sewing machine" sound with the very nice performance.  I could switch out the exhaust for something more rugged, but then I'm heading toward the obnoxious end again. 

One goal I have in riding is to protect my ears as much as possible. I always wear foam plugs and have a very good, full helmet as regards noise reduction. It's shocking how loud wind noise can be! I install as high of windshields as possible to block air for reduction of wind noise. 
I do not depend on hearing when riding, as it is reduced in order to protect the hearing. I don't make a move unless I can see it. 

HELP FOR RIDERS: I have no clue why this is not done OEM in the industry, but I always buy the small (approx. 1.5") convex mirrors for autos or trucks and put them on the cycle's mirrors! Superb extra coverage of field of vision! It allows full rear vision! Why cycles do not come with such as standard safety feature, I have no clue, but I would not be without them!  :) 

@douglas_schroeder Doug-you’re nuts if you ride on the street. My wife used to and my daughter work in a hospital and the worst they see, and not rarely is motorcycle accidents in ERs. Off roading is fine- at least deadly cars won’t hit you. You still can get hurt pretty badly from getting tossed or the bike hitting you, but you probably won’t get killed.

I was lucky- at age 14 my calf touched the exhaust of a mini cycle (really a beefy mini bike with gas engine) and that bubble on my leg reminded me to never get on one again and I never had the urge.

I too, have the need for speed, at least being behind the wheel of a car puts me on equal ground (mostly since it is a small coupe sports car) with the other cars and especially pick up trucks driven by whackos (not all but a decent %). 

I ride a bicycle and got hit by an idiot who didn’t see me because the sun was in his eyes. Luckily, he was slowing down for a turn and I almost got out of the way-he clipped my rear wheel. Haven’t been able to find a replacement because of supply chain issues. Now I won’t ride within an hour of sun down.

@mahgister- very true. There is used equipment out there for very reasonable prices (I finally recently sold a very good sounding B &K amp and Belles Research preamp form the 80s and 90’s for a total of $400. Great core for a fine sounding system. Would have kept them if I didn’t want a volume control ina a remote.

 I was lucky to find an integrated with ONLY volume and mute functions on the remote- no extra noise with source or other controls, and I still have it for 15 years. No reason to switch unless it breaks (crossing my fingers) and if it did, I would most likely get another used or demo model with minimal functionality (no digital tuning or streaming crap). I got tremendous improvement from putting my turntable on a a wall shelf ($179) and putting in a vibration control platform on it - a little more but WAY less than a new cartridge or turntable which would not have made anywhere near as big an improvement for 3-4 (at least) times the investment.

"Diminishing returns " is the subjective excuse by budget Audiophiles for not putting more into their system.  It's an excuse for Lower Fi. Pretending you're doing all that, without doing it.  :(
Mostly, the phrase is used by people ignorant of the performance spectrum.  

Do people who swap out the manufacturer's supplied power cords also swap out the innards of the component they wish to improve on? If they believe a company is skimping on their power cords what makes them think the connection point is going to be any better? Why do you suppose a company would invest so much into R&D and spend so much time and care on the internal components of their equipment to end up saying "Well shoot, let's top this masterpiece off with a cheap power cord?" If you spend thousands on a power cord but you don't upgrade the supposed poor internal electronics what have you achieved?