Does upgrading you system have to be on a logarithmic curve?

the last 1% is very expensive.

It is not logarithmic, but rather linear, if you concur with the old-time experience.

For all us old-timers here, we remember the simplified anecdotal guideline casually referred to as the “Rule of Fourths”.

This was an inverse relationship that had its genesis in hi-end audio.

Simply put, once you chose to further upgrade while you now play in the high-end gear sandbox, upgrading further with a performance improvement expectation, generally required a four-fold dollar expenditure to get a 25% step-up in audio performance.

My take:

Because upgrading while striving for system synergy is a difficult and variable journey, throwing just money alone at it may parrot this homily and provide merit, …but … it still may not necessarily satisfy another parallel time-honoured adage:

“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”

- Warren Buffett

There is no great sound to be found for under $100k or so, speaking new suggested prices. So unless you can and want to do that just enjoy your system as it is. And I am talking one source system. However, if you must keep upgrading as most of us, including myself, double the cost, assuming that what you buy is not overpriced.

There is a small minority of audiophiles that have stated once past a certain point the sonic benefits of expenditures accelerates at an increasing rate of return.  I think that's ridiculous, but anybody can have an opinion.

I have grown my system from a $350 affair in 1972 to it’s current state of around $150K. I have methodically and incrementally invested over the entire time. I have spent thousands of hours learning, experimenting with cables, cords, and components. I have spent thousands of hours traveling all over the world with every portable musical device / combination you can imagine.

Large investments components has brought me larger and greater jumps in sound quality along the way. The very largest differences were the most recent and the largest investment.

If, let’s say you measure the frequency response or something… sure diminishing returns.

But it is about the music…. and the ears / brain can be an astonishingly sensitive instrument. “Great sound quality”… is about peeling back layer after layer of what that means… an enormous onion… layer after layer of nuance to bring pleasure to the listener.

Of course, it is a matter of values. I really value high quality sound… that is musical, nuanced, incredibly accurate… like brass sounds like brass… not trebly distortion like most of us though cymbals sounded like when we were young. So, for me the gains have increased with investment.

Audiophilia is all about the real love of musical reproduction. Most people think we are crazy… why walk down this diminishing return return curve. But those of us that fell in love with really great musical reproduction as youth see the reward as accelerating return. That has absolutely been my experience. I am absolutely ecstatic with my current systems (see my UserID).