How much are you worth ?

"VALUE" is the keyword, cornfedboy, and that is entirely subject to our personal means (well, I oftentimes have felt that I MUST rob the closest bank to obtain that latest piece) and is proportional to our individual choices and priorities. Several have posted here that they live spartan lives in order to maintain their highest audio standard...read Pls1 above...that's their choice but they may be somewhat off the beam!

A negative factor in audiophiliadom is that NONE of us will let anyone else operate or even go near or touch our systems...so that many of these pieces are squirrelled away where pokey fingers do not roam! If you cannot see or touch or listen to it then how could an uninitiated be persuaded to try it.

Thus they brand us ...well, whatever word comes to them first...but it sure ain't NORMAL, j_thunders!

Karter, re: normal. Robbing banks? Of course that's not normal. Bankrobbing is very risky. Normal people hit liquor stores when they want to upgrade, they are much easier targets.

Lorne. Thank you so much for the priviledge of stealing a peek at your very exclusive club named Audiogon (for which you are the Majority Speaker)where membership is restricted to those who have $X in the bank & spend $X in their stereo.
Obviously yours truly, with a heavy mortgage, mouths to feed, bills to pay, parents to support, need not apply!

Let's see - steady income, 401k, my own half-assed attempts at investing coupled with the recent state of the stock market, all offset by two teenage kids, a non-deterministic set of costs associated for advanced education for them, a non-income-producing spouse with house remodelling plans, aging parents on both sides that may or may not need financial help someday. System is probably worth $25K, music being acquired at about $100/month, once or twice a year buying something for the system for a few K. Gotta subtract $2K since I recently did a deal with DSSMAN, at least until they catch the scumbag. I know what Quicken says I'm worth, but I really don't believe it takes into account all these unknowns, so I figure that at 40 years old I've got somewhere between 10 and 40 years of work left ahead of me before I consider myself "comfortable" and income-producing activities become optional. In the meantime, I'll keep buying equipment and music as long as those activities give me pleasure and don't cause any of the juggling balls to fall. I'll also be glad that a ski boat and a Harley wouldn't interest me even if there was no such thing as high-end audio equipment.

Regarding the sub-thread on why we've gotten to this state of expense in this hobby - there's a very interesting book called "Luxury Fever" that discusses this same phenomena in many areas. I think most of the factors described above play a part in the rising costs. -Kirk

Bankrobbing risky? Not in Canada. In fact, it is quite popular here...sadly lost a teller locally...but it seems that the robbers never GET IT. We need to fix that.