Have you "lied" to yourself?

No, but I have lied to my wife how much my gears costs. Gosh I hope she's not reading this.

Here's a list of upgrades and the differences I noticed, by category:

AMP:

Luxman integrated to Bryston 4B NRB -- HUGE

Bryston 4B to Bryston 7B-ST -- sound difference was noticeable, esp. in highs, biggest difference was that I never clipped again

PREAMP:

Luxman integrated to Sonic Frontiers SFL-1 -- HUGE, although this happened at the same time as the Bryston 4B, so tough to seperate one upgrade from the other

SFL-1 to Melos SHA-Gold -- (done to get remote control) -- not a vast improvement in sound, but WOW, what a headphone amp!

Melos to Rogue 99 (done to get phono without losing headphone capability) -- pleasant upgrade, but again, not vast, as the Melos was a very nice sounding unit

INTERCONNECTS:

crap to Cardas microtwin interconnects-- some difference, not much

Cardas Microtwin to Tara Decade -- unbelievable. Turned me into a "cables are components" convert. After the initial upgrade from the Luxman to seperates, this was the biggest difference in my audio system

one interesting note -- my big system is temporarily in storage, and I am again using the Luxman integrated. I inserted the Tara Decade for the crappy IC I was using, and the difference was noticeable, but not 1/10th as dramatic as with better components.

SPEAKER CABLE:

crap to Monster -- little diff.

Monster to Kimber 8TC -- terribly disappointing. I am not a Kimber fan after this big expense with little to show.

Kimber 8TC to Tara MGII -- pleasant change. I guess Tara and I are a good match, although I still feel like there is a better cable looming in my future.

CD:

Kenwood to Micromega 2 -- nice change, but the Kenwood is a pretty good unit, so it wasn't a vast difference

Micromega to Meridian 508-24. Blackness. The background noise level went to nearly zero.

SPEAKERS:

ADS monitors to Hales Rev 3's. WOW.

I just sold the Hales as I no longer have an appropriately sized room, and I will be travelling for the next chunk of my life, but boy, they are an amazing speaker. Poor Paul Hales -- who would have thought that Wadia would screw him over so badly. He is a talented man, and I am certain we haven't heard the last from him (pun intended).

When I am back in the US and in another decent house, I will be shopping again for speakers, expecting that the biggest change in sound comes with different speakers. Maybe a minimonitor? Maybe planars? Maybe Hales will be back in business then....

BOTTOM LINE: The better your system, the less ability there is for an upgrade to matter. That said, if I were to recommend places to upgrade, they would be AMP first (clean power can't be beat), IC's next, SPEAKERS next, and assuming that your cd and preamps are decent, I'd do these last. At least, that was my experience in terms of sound quality difference per dollar.

I followed an initially dissapointing trail that, now having walked it, I am still not sure where I came out. In the course of a week or so, I retubed all my gear with NOS stuff, added a power condidioner and made a major upgrade in my speaker cables. First was the power conditioner, didn't hear that much of a difference at all, if at all (although my gear now remains constant when the lights flicker, which they do a lot--so I suppose it was worth it for that, if nothing else). Then I retubed everything (just CD and preamp, so not THAT much of an expense). There were noticible (if only barely) differences, but more in the lines of subtle characteristics, hardly a jump in quality. All in all, nothing that special. Then I swapped in the new cables (from junk to something considerably better than junk). Wow. A huge difference, more or less blew me away. I would have never believed that cables could make such a difference had I not heard (or believed I heard, though I'll stand by--or between--my ears on this one) it for myself.

However, in retrospect, I have now managed to convince myself that the huge jump in quality that I heard with the cables was more due to that fact that the old ones were simply that bad, not so much that the new one were that great. To clarify, I've convinced myself that both the power conditioner and the new tubes also lent huge improvements to the system, only that I was unable to appreciate it until I got the weak link (the old cables) out of the system and put something in that was more equal to the task. Thus, (or so the rationalization goes) all three additions contributed equally to the improvement, though it was only with the last one that it all came together. No, I never re-swapped or reversed the order to see if there is any truth in that, but, truth be told, I think I prefer my little post hoc fiction. So, in conclusion, no -- never made a bad purchase...(and you just watched me lie to myself).

Thanks Mezmo. I appreciate your candor. This thread isn't meant to make people humiliate themselves or anything, just to show us that it's not THAT rare to want to hear differences after dropping some cash (even if you have to struggle).

I spent $500.00 on power cables. Having a hard time justifing that one. But your probably right, if I pulled them out and went stock. I would here the difference. That is the only upgrade I can think of that did not seam worth it.