Are audiophile products designed to initially impress then fatigue to make you upgrade?

@tunefuldude 

I would believe the answer is b/c the system you've put together is leaving you feeling those things.

Good effort to get things back on track.  I would agree your answer may be one reason for the OP's observation. 

Could another reason be that the constant barrage of review press, forum threads by enthusiastic owners, manufacturer marketing releases, new tweaks, and "breakthrough" innovations has conditioned many audio enthusiasts to continually look for the next best thing and to continually question whether their system sounds as good as it should thereby putting them on a never-ending quest for the holy grail of audio systems?  All the factors I mentioned may make it hard for some audio enthusiasts to simply sit back and enjoy the music.

  I have no such issues I DIY most all my gear or I buy from very well-respected knowledgeable builders. But I do see you types living what I posted constant gear changes many complaints of not using systems or of listening fatigue. Many loudspeakers today are voiced to have an extended response in the upper ranges but are overly small and weak in mid-bass and bass. These require large power to produce a sense that there's a lower frequency which leads to thermal compression and listening fatigue maybe you recall the BBC would put a bump around 100hz to give the impression of bass. These types of loudspeakers will sound bright and clear at the shop thus attracting buyers. Many modern amps are also fairly bright and hard sounding toss this in with the over-bright extended upper range weak thin mid-bass and bass with a bump to make you think you have bass but once in a home, you will be left wondering why you don't make time to use such a system. Manufacturers know they need to grab the attention of reviewers show-goers and at demos. Why I posted what I did. 

My system has been more or less stable with these components for 25+ years, with the approach to configuration for 45+ years. 

https://www.theaudioatticvinylsundays.com/about

imo ... what @ghdprentice talks about in his initial response! to the thread about noise floor and high frequency hash is particularly relevant.

I've learned from paying attention to guys like him, who have culled end all be all systems, aka: to die for, Ha ha ha ... that if those traits are what you really want your (read: my) system to reflect then there are certain steps.

The personal secret, for my particular system, was or shall I say has been that once I acquired the necessary components ... and what @ghdprentice says about how, in this world that we live in, you pretty much get what you pay for ... truth.

But once I had the right combination of components, which I consider to be Step 1, then ... the best cables you can afford OR justify spending way the f**k too much money on, ha ha ha, but also very true.

The final step is clean power ... whatever that means, given your own personal deficit, there. In my case, I live on the top floor of a high rise in an urban environment so you can imagine how trashy my signal is, coming out of the wall.

When I added my PS Audio P15, which is definitely not cheep but at the exact same time worth every single penny ... and mine came to me brand freakin new which carried a pretty price tag with it. Literally worth every single penny.

I'm not even exaggerating ... it quite literally brought everything into focus. My system, obviously, already sounded really good ... but when I added the P15 it was like it peeled away layer upon layer and refined everything in a way that was very extremely subtle but also totally striking in effect.

The reason I know I have good synergy in my particular system is because I learned quite recently that I'm able to hook up the exact same components to my other pair of super amazing bookshelf speakers and be completely blown away by how the reveal the exact same qualities in damn near all of my favorite recordings of various types of music. That's kind of like a double blind study, right?     : )

I tend to kind of look at my system like a woman, Lol ... I'm sure a lot of you other guys've learned to enjoy your favorite toys kind of in the same vein. Tell me true, what woman will please you the way your system pleases you over and over and over again, literally every single day and never give you any kind of grief?

In my experience, Italian motorcycles are the same way.   : )

But seriously, once you have the synergy of your kick ass components in place the signal needs to be able to be transmitted accurately as possible so that it can truly reveal (the effect) your components are capable of conveying ... and you can listen to the naysayers about the clean power thing if you want to, but you're always gonna be chasing the dream if it's a low noise floor and nada high frequency hash.

Have been listening to Van Morrison, Into the Music while I write this. Chills me right out. That's the effect I'm after, personally.