Can the need for novelty and change be mitigated by rotation?


There is a not too serious term audiophilia nervosa; it may be a joke, but it builds on a valid observation: there are people who are never content with their equipment in medium term.It is not the initial period, when one does know much about gear and learns; or the question of disposable income, when one gets the best they can afford, and upgrades untill he (or, probably less often, she) buys the dream system. Audiophilia nervosa is a state later on, a plateau, when a desired piece initially gives much satisfaction, yet it wears off, and the person gets uneasy and looks for smth. else.
To give a personal example, I was on a quest for my ultimate power amp. Had to be Pass Aleph; happened to find Aleph 4. Did not suit the speakers (Lowther Fidelio) too well; got other speakers (MBL 101b or c) ; still not there; got ML no. 23. Much better; but still uneasy about Aleph and speakers for it; got Gradient 1.5; fine with ML, Ok with Pass; exploring options, got Parasound 2200 mk2 (and a couple of PA amps). And I needed a preamp. Seller insisted on only trading ML no. 28 together with no. 27, — another power amp.
Now the ML 28 is there to stay; Gradient 1.5 are keepers too; but I’d keep old MBL101 even if they stopped working (I’d probably use them as garden sculptures), so they stay, too. But I have way too many power amps (the listed, and a few more), I would need to sell some.
The trouble is, I cannot decide. So, in order to decide, I rotate them. ML 23 is very good with MBLs, fine with the Gradients. ML 27 is very good with the Gradients. Parasound 2200 2 is very good with the Graients, - but in a different way. So I swap every few weeks, and I still cannot decide.
And after each break I [re-]discover things I like about the particular amp / amp-speaker combination.
Again and again...
Which made me think:
— What if this ‘rotation’ takes good care of my need for change and novelty?
After a while I will decide which one(s) to sell, and later on I will probably want smth. new. But for the time being, keeping and rotating them slows down my pace - and I see it as a good thing, as in the aftermath I do not think my decisions have been sufficiently well informed (for instance, I am getting used to the fact that I actually do not like sound of Pass Alephs as much as I thought I do, and my Aleph 4 may be the first to go).
inefficient
And people here only need to read LESS reviewers advice because reviewers, remember, are first sellers of their new fad discovery...Acoustician by contrast dont give a dam about changing gear for the sake of it....

Choose your system gear well and study acoustic instead of dreaming about new gear to rotate....This is my advice... No debate here....We cannot ALWAYS debate about common sense....We are not in quantum physics here where common sense is of no help...

Or anybody is free to install 3 systems and rotating them or changing itself his chair from one room to another without being ever in the obligation to kick his own ass to create a superior one in one room with all these components distributed in three rooms...By definition of an optimized acoustical process one system will win over the others in some SPECIFIC better room FOR OUR EARS at the end of the process ....

BUT no debate here we are all free....

Optimization though has his own rules and we must STICK to a CHOSEN system for the sake of COMPLETING an optimization process...It is a common sense rule....

No need to read Kant here or James...

I suggest Goethe.... 😊

If you like philosophy i will say that the idea of change or rotating pleasure by itself may be an abstract possibility that impede the CONCRETE process of optimization, and anyway contadict the common sense and the inevitable acoustical fact that our own ears will ALWAYS choose a winner at the end among many rooms/system ...Why not then create our optimal system now with acoustic instead of buying new gear?

Then your debate is a proposition constructed on the "fallacy of misplaced concreteness"....

The misplaced concreteness here is the false alternative between the pleasure of change "per se" versus a concrete acoustical optimization process...

And any way change in sounds are one thing and change in music files another possiblities of change and i prefer this one in my acoustically optimized room/system/ears ...



«According to Alfred North Whitehead, one commits the fallacy of misplaced concreteness when one mistakes an abstract belief, opinion, or concept about the way things are for a physical or "concrete" reality: "There is an error; but it is merely the accidental error of mistaking the abstract for the concrete.»
By the way the only thing i rotated for years are my 7 headphones system because not one of them ever please me completely even after all my successful improving modifications in each one of them...

So good they are, headphones cannot compete with very good speakers acoustically controlled....Think about that simple fact: i can listen to my speakers in near listening location and in regular listening position and the 2 position are amazing in their own.... This fact ONLY is impossible to have with ANY headphone...I will not discuss here the other acoustical concepts in relation about headphone and speakers though: timbre,imaging,soundstage, dynamic, listener envelopment, details retrieving...Speakers acoustically, mechanically and electrically well embedded dont lost on all these counts and at worst they are on par if not better on any of these factors...

All that rotating urge end completely when i take few years using electrirical minimal controls experiments and mechanical minimal controls experiments and ESPECIALLY acoustical controls experiments in my own hands so to speak....

Simple...

Now if you define change by the idea to upgrade my speakers... Give me the money and i will optimize anew my room in relation to these news peakers and i will love them without searching for new one....

I like change when it is an improvement....This is not debatable....

Keep rotating if you want instead of optimizing acoustic and i will keep my actual system though....

And yes a 500 bucks system is enough to be in heaven after simple acoustical studies...I NEVER boast like some about my branded name gear choices though , i only CLAIM the amazing power of acoustic and psycho-acoustic science... Period...

Read all audio threads, all is about gear marketing almost nothing about acoustic, and mechanical and electrical controls... It is why i felt obligated to name myself "embeddings controls" the device and method we MUST use in audio instead of the pejorative and misleading calling of "tweaks"....

It is way easier to BUY a good system than installing it in his optimized working dimensions... Period....

It is more easier to pay than to study....
In a word:

There is MANY better upgrading gear choices but there exist only ONE process of optimization...

It is better to complete the optimization acoustical process in one case than rotating gear in a uncomplete acoustical process or in an  acoustically uncontrolled room...

No debating with common sense and acoustic is possible  here...

And the trivial fact that many speakers for example are better than mine cannot contradict what i just said....
The simple answer to the ops question is of course a simple “yes”.
Funny how people cannot even agree on something as basic as that.
Oh well. Carry on. It is what it is.  Hifi fans are indeed an opinionated bunch. 
@ mahgister 
You have beyond a doubt the most bizarre system I have ever seen. The copper pipe fittings with crystals are something I am acquainted with. Someone markets a more sophisticated rendition as a tweak and you decided to make your own. I gotta admit, I did the same. They did di nada. But the fans, hubcaps, bags of shells, and by all means, the gas can???
EVERYONE on this board owes it to themselves to check out mahgister's system. What Country are you in mahgister? Why do you list "N/A" for your Country in your profile? Are you perhaps an alien as in "outer space" and UFO's? 
And last, forgive me for asking, but do you live in your mother's basement?