Did your system getting better the more money you spent or more experience you gained?

The ultimate goal coincide then with the ultimate pleasure in audio : learning acoustic and listening music...

Not buying, even if buying a new piece of gear is fun when it is necessary....😁

I’ve been at this hobby for 55 years. I built my first amp, a Dyna 70, when I was 14. 
 

I was born on the wrong side of the tracks. So I’m a cheap rat bastard.
 

I believe the system I have built up over the years stands up to 98% of the stuff out there. 
 

see

@asctim wrote:

Experience saves me money. Ultimately I can get better sound if I spend more but I have found there’s an upper limit to my ability to enjoy. Once the sound quality reaches a certain threshold I’m basically there, so no reason to push it further. Mostly what drives me to try new things now is just curiosity. What will it sound like if I do something novel? Even if I limit myself to moderately priced components, experimenting can get expensive quickly. And that’s where experience comes in again. I’ve learned to think more and build less. Think about every reason why I shouldn’t try something, and be as sure as possible there’s not a better way to do it before I actually start ordering stuff and cutting wood. Thinking about assembling a new system can be as much fun as actually doing it! Meanwhile I'm blissfully enjoying my current system, occasionally trying a minor tweak that doesn't require me to buy anything. 

Well put. I very much share your sentiments and approach here. 

I actually shaved off substantial cost buying my current main speakers a few years ago, while at the same time converting from passive to active configuration over the mains (the subs were already actively configured) and later replacing my 3 different brand power amps (mix of class A and class D variants) to similar brand/series ditto (all class A/B). The Xilica DSP I had over the subs to begin with, and with enough channel outputs I just needed an extra power amp to configure to whole frequency range actively. That turned out to be a wise move, if I may be so immodest (that is: there was a clear rationale behind it, but it was an experiment as well, so the outcome was hardly given); substantially better coherency, added resolution, a more uniform sphere of sound, added physicality with a more visceral imprinting, and better height of presentation with a more realistic sound stage overall. 

The thing to learn from the above is how and where to invest your money, and not - as an outset - how much you're spending. Sometimes there's only so much that can be done within a given narrative, design approach and configuration. Implementation is still key, it always is, but at some point you start seeing limited gains with the upgrades and endless tweaking of a certain pathway, and ultimately more money isn't going to solve the main problems inherent here. For these to actually be addressed one needs to look outside an approach previously taken, and this is where new ground and experimentation comes to the fore. That's the very exciting part, and much time with research in design variations and their configuration is invested by me here. 

So, instead of pouring ever more funds into a perhaps stubbornly held approach of thinking audio, change the narrative and vantage point, and in doing so one may well end up saving loads of money while seeing significant improvements across the board. Only then do you can start refining the new approach even further, but only so much to prepare for what lurks around the next corner.. 

Knowledge has been far more important than money spent. In some ways it's an inverse relationship.

@phusis @asctim yes i am at a point to where any changes or upgrades at this point will only minimally improve my sound. I am at a great place right now. I have my system dialed in to how I like it and it aligns with my listening preferences and type of music I listen to.  I find that when you have experience and you gave the money to get what you want then that’s where that knowledge really kicks.  It becomes less improvements and more takeoff the higher you go!