When's enough, enough?

Where human, that explains it all. Years ago I decided it was all about the music, not the gear. Never enough music. I spend about $5,000 a year on music, some of it going to classical concerts in New York City. The concerts provide a reality check on what gear can never create. Well worth it.

"Just wondering why when we achieve a sound we like, do we keep looking for more?"

Because there is more.

Your question is the equivalent of asking, "Why climb higher mountains?" You don't have to, but you won't get the mountain top experience either. :)

One of the greatest delusions in audiophilia is that the system is right there, right at the best sound possible; the equivalant of standing on Mt. Rushmore and thinking you have conquered K2.

Enough when it comes to your system is when you say enough not someone else ......

Chuck

I find that many of our customers are looking for a certain minimum level of competency from the system. Once they get there, they are satisfied for a while.

But its a fact that you get used to the amazing detail and speed possible, after a while you want to know what can be done to get more (if you are all-digital, and want more resolution, a simple way is to add analog to the mix...).

So it is a journey. Its important to understand that there is not a destination other than the journey itself, sort of like a good day in the country on a motorbike.

Some people like to trade gear, for me its all about the music. I like to hear a lot of it. But whatever it is that works for you, the bottom line is its supposed to be fun :)

Atmasphere basically said what I was going to say, that the biggest culprit is that you get used to the sound no matter how spectacular and it becomes less amazing due to how familiar you are with it.

The other major culprit to merry-go-rounding is the hifi press and sites like audiogon. The hifi press is constantly telling us that the latest offerings are dramatic improvements over older gear. For the most part this is untrue. There are only so many "break throughs" that can really occur. It's mostly hype. You can easily assemble a 10 year old system that competes with today's brand new offerings.

If you want to get off the merry go round, the first step would be unsubscribe to the hifi press and hifi web sites. It's like breaking a shopping addiction, step 1, stop going to the mall.