I agree with the previous posts. You know the drill--read a raving review on a piece of equipment, then go search different web sites for user reviews to (hopefully) confirm the positive remarks on the equipment, then go find one used on audiogon and buy it. Then when the equipment arrives, be a bit disappointed because the equipment didn't give you boosebumps all over and lift you out of your listening chair. We all have some degrees of upgraditis--as so many of us are familiar to that syndrome. I think even sometimes when we do get lucky and find a musically satisfying system, some raving review of a piece of eq will make us think--"hey, my system could be better!" Like Redkiwi says, system matching is rather complex, and I believe it involves some luck to have a synergistic system (if you are not using all eq from the same manufacturer). I think it's a good idea to have a piece of new equipment (whether bought new or used) in your system for at least 3 months before deciding whether to upgrade, instead of after a week thinking buying a more expensive product will give you that goosebump/chair-lifting experience. But all in all, through countless swapping pieces of audio equipment, when that first note of goosebump city sinks in, it's all worth the effort...
Audio Hype!!
Well I have to be honest,I love high end equipment and all the fun tweaking,and trading,and trying out new stuff. However, it has much hype behind it because I think that we all understand by now that--we are never totally happy with any one piece of gear. By hype I mean we read great reviews of some cable and the miracles that it is suppose to create,but we know deep down(if you have any experiance in this hobby)that it never stands up to our expectations once we use it for some period of time--that is just an example but I believe this holds true to all equipment--and then we sell and try the next flavor of the week which is normally just a side step VS. an upgrade of the last piece we owned. Its a vicious cycle does it ever end?(I know that question is like asking why the earth exists and there is no answer)However, my question is have we just created this illusion of what we wish 99% of the products out their should do, while at the same time damaging our checkbooks to prove the illusion wrong?