I tend to agree with Plato. I have owned component systems for 30+ years as well and CD only source systems for the last 10 years and I always thought that most of my music collection sounded pretty good and my systems had pretty good components. My systems have sounded very musical and enjoyable with a wide range of music, which has not been my experience with so much of the truly expensive equipment that I see and hear today. And you are not alone in your assessment. There was a thread here last week where all one member wanted was a pair of "Big Stupid Warm Speakers."
I am not quite sure how high end audio got going on this path over the last dozen or so years (Wall Street $; HT systems) ... but I do more head shaking at an Audio Show than wishing I owned most of the audio gear. There is no reason to change your systems, especially if you are happy with them. If you were a reader of most audio magazines 30 years ago (like High Fidelity or Stereo Review) and suggested that speakers that only sounded their best with certain types of music or other major limiting factors were SOTA, you would have been laughed at. Compare that to a typical speaker review that you might see today in Stereophile, et al.
Regards, Rich
I am not quite sure how high end audio got going on this path over the last dozen or so years (Wall Street $; HT systems) ... but I do more head shaking at an Audio Show than wishing I owned most of the audio gear. There is no reason to change your systems, especially if you are happy with them. If you were a reader of most audio magazines 30 years ago (like High Fidelity or Stereo Review) and suggested that speakers that only sounded their best with certain types of music or other major limiting factors were SOTA, you would have been laughed at. Compare that to a typical speaker review that you might see today in Stereophile, et al.
Regards, Rich