A bit of an old chestnut here, but maybe a fresh look at an old discussion.
The quote in my title I just picked up at the end of the Absolute Sounds review of the Magico Q7 Mk2.
And the tension between the two statements in my thread title sums up people's continued spending habits and decisions for choices.
So, for the guys who have been spending big over the years, buying ever more expensive components, moving up to pricier models in the line, how are you balancing this tension?
For me, until about 5 years ago, all I looked at was what more pricey component I might move to, and how I could afford it.
Then on a couple of occasions the jump wasn't that stellar, so much so that within 6 weeks I had got bored w/it, and in effect despondent that my cash had been wasted.
I realised at that point that just going up in the product line, or looking for the next new thing was wrong.
So, I really thought about my system, and worked out what I really liked about it, where it fell short, and started looking for options that would enhance the goodness, and address the deficiencies, but maintaining my signature sound. But w/out the drive to go big or expensive changes unecessarily.
And so this led to me diverting my spending into ancilliaries, not new components. First I addressed power in one go w/a balanced transformer, and for a third of the price of a power amp upgrade, I got an overall upstick w/no downside, vitally keeping my tonal character intact.
Next came cables, which kept things ticking along. The same w/grounding, and isolation, and now judicious room treatments.
Now, in the middle of this I did make one major left field change, going SS to tubes, and second upgrade in, all my boxes are being ticked. But this was a kind of radical change of journey rather than faffing around at the margins but spending big.
I realise the skeptical out there will look at my admittedly pricey ancilliaries spend as no different from big components change, but I guess what I'm saying is that going upgrades to boxes all the time would have been twice or three times as pricey, and fraught w/getting it more and more wrong. At a show ten yrs ago, I met an audiofool who was in a constant state of anxiety, spending more and more on boxes, w/less and less positive outcomes.
Getting back to my title, I'm hoping the changes I've made to max out the basic character of my system get past the law of diminishing returns, and certainly boost the increasing importance of the smaller difference.
Eg Entreq grounding has just educated me that the reproduction of spatial and tonal cues that were a lot more masked before I installed it, disproportionately enhance my enjoyment.
When I started in audio, it was all about "how loud can I go?", "how deep can the bass go?". Now it's about, "can I reveal more reverb?", "can the tone be fleshed more?", etc etc.
For my friends listening to the system, probably the law of diminishing systems kicked in a long time ago when they roll their eyes hearing about my spending, but when they get into the music and say it's more involving than ever, w/out going "more bass, more volume", I know that I'm getting this tension in my thread mainly right.
Right, over to you all...
The quote in my title I just picked up at the end of the Absolute Sounds review of the Magico Q7 Mk2.
And the tension between the two statements in my thread title sums up people's continued spending habits and decisions for choices.
So, for the guys who have been spending big over the years, buying ever more expensive components, moving up to pricier models in the line, how are you balancing this tension?
For me, until about 5 years ago, all I looked at was what more pricey component I might move to, and how I could afford it.
Then on a couple of occasions the jump wasn't that stellar, so much so that within 6 weeks I had got bored w/it, and in effect despondent that my cash had been wasted.
I realised at that point that just going up in the product line, or looking for the next new thing was wrong.
So, I really thought about my system, and worked out what I really liked about it, where it fell short, and started looking for options that would enhance the goodness, and address the deficiencies, but maintaining my signature sound. But w/out the drive to go big or expensive changes unecessarily.
And so this led to me diverting my spending into ancilliaries, not new components. First I addressed power in one go w/a balanced transformer, and for a third of the price of a power amp upgrade, I got an overall upstick w/no downside, vitally keeping my tonal character intact.
Next came cables, which kept things ticking along. The same w/grounding, and isolation, and now judicious room treatments.
Now, in the middle of this I did make one major left field change, going SS to tubes, and second upgrade in, all my boxes are being ticked. But this was a kind of radical change of journey rather than faffing around at the margins but spending big.
I realise the skeptical out there will look at my admittedly pricey ancilliaries spend as no different from big components change, but I guess what I'm saying is that going upgrades to boxes all the time would have been twice or three times as pricey, and fraught w/getting it more and more wrong. At a show ten yrs ago, I met an audiofool who was in a constant state of anxiety, spending more and more on boxes, w/less and less positive outcomes.
Getting back to my title, I'm hoping the changes I've made to max out the basic character of my system get past the law of diminishing returns, and certainly boost the increasing importance of the smaller difference.
Eg Entreq grounding has just educated me that the reproduction of spatial and tonal cues that were a lot more masked before I installed it, disproportionately enhance my enjoyment.
When I started in audio, it was all about "how loud can I go?", "how deep can the bass go?". Now it's about, "can I reveal more reverb?", "can the tone be fleshed more?", etc etc.
For my friends listening to the system, probably the law of diminishing systems kicked in a long time ago when they roll their eyes hearing about my spending, but when they get into the music and say it's more involving than ever, w/out going "more bass, more volume", I know that I'm getting this tension in my thread mainly right.
Right, over to you all...
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