Is it ever enough?

@erik_squires ...*s*  Precisely.

Listening to a pair of speakers that I've 'heavily modified' to 'be, or not to be'...and they 'are', is gratifying.

Having such actually sound pleasant, and respond in the manner hoped for is, as noted 'round 'n about, priceless.

I may have invested more time than treasure in the pursuit, but the end result of listening to that which ones' 'tinkering' wrought beats the bejeez out of merely buying ones' way out with the 'next new thing'.  Or the side-step to swap Xd to Xr for the next new nuance.

It finally occurred to self that the response of offered components had outstripped my ability to hear nothing more than 'small differences' in recordings that suffered more from their resident qualities than my equipment had or has.

It may be considered a 'false ceiling', and the stone needs to have more pressure applied to squeeze that last bit from it.  And it could be noted that I'm more or less doing that, anyway.

It's OK to wave a white flag and step away from the fray.
It gives one the chance to retreat, regroup, and return to the field with different 'weapons'....;)

Good variable factors to us all, y'all. 👍

I have been going through this process where I started out thinking in one direction with equipment but then being intrigued by reading others’ experiences in other directions. The equipment I originally bought beginning in early 2020 now doesn’t jive so well with new pieces I would like to sample. As I am a buyer and not a seller, I don’t want to acquire too much equipment that will end up on a storage shelf because they don’t work with my evolving interest.

Example: I started out thinking my music would be digital, with radio as a steady backup for casual listening. I thought of records as old technology, with memories of all the crackles and pops of my youth. I never thought about tubes — weren’t those the things we gladly parted ways with when the miracle of solid state arrived?

So I got a SS amp and preamp, and a tuner, and some tower speakers, and a couple of subs. I had my 30 year old Pioneer CD changer that didn’t sound so bad. I’m set, right? Not exactly. I read here about the bliss of high quality phono music; that the crackles were due to my never knowing how to clean the records right. I’m not sure about this and don’t want to invest a lot of money if it turns out that records are garbage. I buy a $300 turntable and an $80 Spin Clean, and I’m furiously cleaning and playing records. Pretty good, but not sonic nirvana.

Then I read that a “decent” TT probably costs at least $2,000, and the same amount for a decent vacuum record cleaning machine that sucks gunk right out of the grooves! Really? And I read that my old CD changer is junk and that a need to buy a high quality CD . . preferably transport . . . and then I need to buy a dac to play it. So I do — I give my changer to a nephew and buy a CD transport that some people seem to like, and a small dac. I’m set, right? (Except for the crappy TT and record washer)

I keep hearing about the magic of the “tube sound”, and again I’m intrigued. I could spend thousands but decide to buy the $1000 Freya+. So I swap that in place of my SS preamp . . but now I need a phono stage to play my turntable! It just keeps happening like this, changing directions and now more equipment is needed to play with the new additions. And I still don’t have a dedicated streamer, though there is one in my Bluesound Vault 2i, but then that might not be good enough to obtain quality sounds.

And my Martin Logan towers probably are not good enough, but I don’t have room to properly position speakers anyway, and certainly not enough for the planars everyone raves about. Yeah, my listening room is just inadequate and I need to move to another house or build on to this one to have a dedicated listening room with all the necessary room treatments, the dedicated electrical lines and special audio-grade receptacles. But then my cables are crap and I need to spend thousands to upgrade them!

My head hurts. Maybe I was better off before?

This is a very common phenomena  in our hobby. There are always unintended consequences when we make a change in our systems. Most of our systems are in a state of flux  in actual components or in our minds.  For better or worse, that is the essence of many hobbies. Most audiophiles brains are both right and left activated, constantly shifting back and forth from the music to its reproduction… it’s all good!

@ erik_squires

The secret IMHO however is to build instead of buy. Get your hands dirty. Play with parts. Solder something. Glue a speaker together. You’ll be able to tinker a great deal more and get hands on experience.

I think you’re onto something, and is perhaps is one of the reasons I’m fairly satisfied. I built my speakers from scratch, rebuilt my amps, rebuilt my preamp, modified my TT, and even pieced together my own speaker wires.

DIY increases knowledge and appreciation for what you have, plus you might even have some luck tailoring things to your liking.  The budget goes a lot farther too.

It is easy to get to enough once you understand what makes the sound you want.  Every one has their own preferences.  So opinions are just that.  Get to understand what works for you and then you can be done.