How competitive are you with your system?

How my system compares to others could not be more irrelevant. I've been in the live music biz forever (or at least since the 60s), and an audio geek for as long, so I know how to get my system sounding to my tastes...everybody does that, possibly to varying degrees of success. I don't schlep other systems into my listening space like a reviewer, and neither do most others. There are cult like adherents to room conditioning, floating cables, magic fuses, etc., none of whom make much sense to me, and I'm perfectly happy with that. Since most of my friends aren't audio geeks their attention span when I try to show them some new item often peaks in 3 seconds. This is a solitary hobby for me, my wife likes the way things sound, and I change things in my system when I feel like it. 

That's a losing proposition and not healthy. Be happy with what you have and if you want to "upgrade", don't do it out of envy of someone else's stuff. 

"competitive" isn't the the same as being able to compare.

Everything I do with my love of music is for me. The guy who was the best man at my wedding happily still uses the receiver and speakers that we bought when we were in college.  My brother happily listens to his tunes through his phones speakers. I have another friend who has a system that probably costs $400,000-$600,000 and he probably listens to it a hour a month.  If they are happy, I am happy.  Absolutely no need for competition here.

Oh and my dog isn’t better cause he eats Kennel Ration either. ( do they even still make that stuff?)

1) Nope.

2) Yup.