Are audiophile products designed to initially impress then fatigue to make you upgrade?

It sounds more like an indication of lack of synergy between your chosen pieces of equipment, to me. 

Please excuse me if that's been said multiple times already ... I haven't read thru the entire thread yet, I'm sleepy and want to crash and was excited that there was something I could respond to, ha ha ha..

I guess when you actually have it in your system, you can appreciate how important it is for the bigger effect? Something like that.

The imaging and sound staging I get from two different pairs of completely different types of speakers, meaning one's a legacy model big44" tall electrostatic panel with an attached subwoofer and the other set is a pair of bookshelf speakers on some good stands. Albeit, they're a bookshelf that performs exceptionally well, especially given their price tag. Usher Be 718 is the model. I got them nearly brand new for twelve hundred including delivery and got damn good stands for not too much.

Both of them perform unbelievably well. This sounds so cheesy, but a lot of you guys would probably say the same thin: I'm so! in love with the sound I get out of both pairs. 

If I can do it, anyone of you can because I haven't come close to spending what a lot of these guys have. Probably considerably more than others, I dunno. 

I'm familiar with that fatiguing sound you're talking about. Good news is, it can get better. I'm not the one to tell you ... but I've listened to the seasoned regular members around here and headed their advice.

The thing that would probably make the biggest noticeable difference is a good power conditioner. I. personally, am into PS Audio's Power Regenerators. I have a PS 15 and I believe the older used PS 300 would have a very similar effect.

Yeah, I would say this thread has gotten kind of off topic. I know it's easy for it to devolve into a discussion about certain pieces of equipment or whatever, because after all that's part of the fun ... right?

But, I thought the OP's question that he posed when he started the thread was: why is it, that whenever I add a new (whatever) piece of equipment to my system, does it eventually leave me feeling un-engaged by my system ... and why does it leave me with a sense of fatigue after listening for long periods?

I would believe the answer is b/c the system you've put together is leaving you feeling those things.

Isn't that the nature of this discussion?

imo ... what @ghdprentice talks about in his initial response! to the thread about noise floor and high frequency hash is particularly relevant.

I've learned from paying attention to guys like him, who have culled end all be all systems, aka: to die for, Ha ha ha ... that if those traits are what you really want your (read: my) system to reflect then there are certain steps.

The personal secret, for my particular system, was or shall I say has been that once I acquired the necessary components ... and what @ghdprentice says about how, in this world that we live in, you pretty much get what you pay for ... truth.

But once I had the right combination of components, which I consider to be Step 1, then ... the best cables you can afford OR justify spending way the f**k too much money on, ha ha ha, but also very true.

The final step is clean power ... whatever that means, given your own personal deficit, there. In my case, I live on the top floor of a high rise in an urban environment so you can imagine how trashy my signal is, coming out of the wall.

When I added my PS Audio P15, which is definitely not cheep but at the exact same time worth every single penny ... and mine came to me brand freakin new which carried a pretty price tag with it. Literally worth every single penny.

I'm not even exaggerating ... it quite literally brought everything into focus. My system, obviously, already sounded really good ... but when I added the P15 it was like it peeled away layer upon layer and refined everything in a way that was very extremely subtle but also totally striking in effect.

The reason I know I have good synergy in my particular system is because I learned quite recently that I'm able to hook up the exact same components to my other pair of super amazing bookshelf speakers and be completely blown away by how the reveal the exact same qualities in damn near all of my favorite recordings of various types of music. That's kind of like a double blind study, right?     : )

I tend to kind of look at my system like a woman, Lol ... I'm sure a lot of you other guys've learned to enjoy your favorite toys kind of in the same vein. Tell me true, what woman will please you the way your system pleases you over and over and over again, literally every single day and never give you any kind of grief?

In my experience, Italian motorcycles are the same way.   : )

But seriously, once you have the synergy of your kick ass components in place the signal needs to be able to be transmitted accurately as possible so that it can truly reveal (the effect) your components are capable of conveying ... and you can listen to the naysayers about the clean power thing if you want to, but you're always gonna be chasing the dream if it's a low noise floor and nada high frequency hash.

Have been listening to Van Morrison, Into the Music while I write this. Chills me right out. That's the effect I'm after, personally.

@steakster Talk about a cynical response. 

I'm truly not sure where you're coming from there. My impression is that he's not getting what he's after with his system.

It's interesting how this hobby we've all chosen tends to tie other aspects of our lives together ... or maybe it would be fair to say that it can reflect other things we've learned about life? I don't really know how to say it.

I'm sure a lot of you know people who seem to never be content with the things they've either acquired or achieved. Being content with what we have in life is the one that applies here. But I guess that's the way money works in general, right? It will definitely not make you happy ... and for the of you that think it does I personally feel sorry for you. And if you're not already happy by the time you get it, or don't know how to make yourself happy, that is ... the money is (insert the words: your system) will either make you a bigger j**k off than you were before you got it ... or it's gonna allow you to be able to enjoy your life more.