When do you decide it's OVER !!

[Tenson]

It makes sense to me actually. All my life I've been able to listen to decent stereo at home and then did my education in recording. One downside of that is my minds ability to filter out unwanted noise is very poor compared to others. I'm crap at hearing a phone call if the signal is poor, or a person in a crowded place; others don't have such a difficult time with this as I do. The other thing I find is that I can't enjoy music as easily if the reproduction has a lot of other distortion. Most people just filter it out, but I can't. I put this down partly to never having a bad stereo system, and partly to training myself to pick out the blips in recordings etc.. so they can be fixed.

I can enjoy music by a lesser system, however I certainly find distortion more objectionable than most.

 

[TonyL]

But when do you decide enough is enough and you have a good system and time to stop thinking of that amp, this cable, that rack........when do you just stop and tell yourself perfect solution does not exist...as in room, system, cost etc!

I haven't thought in conventional terms of 'upgrades' for a very long time, but I like swapping hi-fi about as it gives a different perspective on the music and is interesting in itself. Most decent hi-fi has something unique and likeable about it, e.g. systems built around a pair of Quad ESLs, Tannoys, Kans, LS3/5As, Lowthers, Klipsch, ATC or whatever will all sound radically different to each other, as will different decks, carts, amps etc, yet each will offer an interesting and unique perspective on the music if incorporated synergistically into a system. All hi-fi systems are inaccurate to a quite extraordinary degree. My reaction to this is not to stay in one place forever. There are many different types of systems I've yet to explore...

Tony.