members and their systems

I suspect accumulation is the key to how many get to higher priced systems. I started out many years ago asking the same question; all this high priced equipment, how can people afford it?
Starting out with beginner equipment, over many years buying mostly used and selling the old I can afford the more expensive. I sometimes look at the total retail on my equipment and wonder how I got here! For some of us it takes nearly a lifetime to get to sound quality we could only dream about decades ago.

There is a true story of a famous reform (the least traditional type) rabbi who gave a sermon in Toronto, Canada in the '70s. He recounted he read a story in the press somewhere of a middle-class lady being interviewed about her sexual habits vis a vis her husband - in some detail. Which she fully answered apparently with little care. At the end of the interview, the questioner asked, "There's just one last thing, how much is your total annual income?" Her reply: "Don't you think that's a little personal?"
The question as you've asked, birdscantrow - flirts with titillation more than it needs to. The setup as to why people switch so readily has some very interesting psychological undertones that you then refuse to ask about. If you had & then added besides I'm curious where audiophiles get all this money from, it becomes more overtly sociological/psychological in all sorts of interesting ways. As it is, you come across more like the little boy with his nose pressed to the store window salivating for the rocking horse behind it. The prioritizing of resources to fund audio & the various demographics involved is not an uninteresting question, but given this is primarily a more directly audio forum with some related issues as well, linking it to some of these more substantial issues would've gotten you much more enlightening responses. 

sokogear,

"Just cause the non-data flip phones are meant for the tech deficient doesn’t mean that thrifty people can’t use them."

I think that millercarbon mentioned somewhere that he does not have a phone with a plan, revolving kind I assumed. I might have imagined that, though. I have a few phones for guests that I reload from time to time instead of having a revolving plan.

I am one of those who does not have a so-called "smartphone". It is not because of technological deficiency, although I do not claim proficiency either, or because of thriftiness. In fact, my phone cost me more than many pay for their brand new iPhone with a plan. Newer "smartphones" are too large to be convenient, while too small to be comfortable to read from. I like to be away from the Internet so "you can always be online" that I hear often is not appealing either. There are more issues, but I will not go into them.

I have actually heard that Porsches are quite reliable and my comment was only because in millercarbon’s world there is no place for imperfections of Porsche, Tekton, Raven, and whatever else.

@glupson - I didn’t think of the burner phones. They are mainly used by drug dealers, but I guess they can be more economical than a monthly plan. You don’t have to be connected all the time if you have a smart phone. You just turn notifications off. You can go on .the web when you need to. Like directions, ordering at restaurants without waiting in line, and texting, which I fought for a while, but it is actually very efficient.

Porsches are very reliable. Something like 60% of every 911 EVER made is still on the road after like 60 years. The difference with Porsche versus Tekton, Better Records and his other commercials he spouts is that MC doesn’t get any special treatment for promoting them. 
FYI - I don’t like the big smartphones because they don’t fit in a pocket easily and I get criticized because I still have an iPhone7. I think they are up to 12s now. I like the size of the 7 best, and if I need something bigger, I use my wife’s extra iPad (worst case, my lap top).

In some situations, they are actually required. Some restaurants’ menus have to be accessed via a QR code and some teams only issue tickets electronically and they scan your smartphone to enter the venue. If you leave the house much I would recommend you give it a try. You might like it. You can even read Audiogon on it and post!

sokogear,

That is interesting fact about 60% of all 911s ever made still being on the road. I doubt they have never been repaired, though. Some years ago, I stopped by some car heading for auction. It was a little Ferrari. I think it sold for $12 000 000 or some number towards that. Eventually, I read its history, which was some read, and it was not even the same color like what it started as. I know, that is an extreme example.

Going back to cell phones, I actually need to use the phone quite often and current phones are not only large, but also do not sit on the face that well. When someone hands me their phone, I feel like I am slapping myself with a brick. As far as texting goes, it is easier on a non-touchscreen phone. I can do it without looking at it. Maybe those are real "touchphones". You feel what you want to press. I do have an iPod Touch and, note this, a SONY Z5 Compact phone that has no phone service (a friend gave it to me) and that I use as a remote control for my server/streamer, weather forecast, and some silly Coronavirus screening, all on Wi-Fi. That is how I know my fingers are too big, letters are too small, phone is too big, etc. I noticed menus in restaurants, but they usually have a paper menu for a few of us who keep up with times, just not with these times.

So, I actually understand why someone stays away from the phone like millercarbon does. However, it is not the way to retire rich. As I had mentioned before, my half-yearly phone bill costs me like a White Hot Stamper record that I bought out of curiosity, and not out of passion.