What’s really important to someone who enjoys audio? - Here's some perspective.
I'll be 80 all too soon, and tomorrow I will be spending a few grand on a couple of hearing aids. When I am not enjoying my Sennheiser cans I will use these new aids to connect directly to my sound system so I don't have to deafen my wife or get the neighbors dogs yapping. I enjoy music. Lots of kinds, from chamber music to Viking ballads. Corvus Corax offers a special connection to my daughter who is getting married later this year in a traditional Viking ceremony.
I started selling audio equipment in the 60's and still have most of everything I ever owned. If I am lucky enough to start cleaning my closets next year, it will probably be under the handle of MidFiMusicGuy. I can accept that almost every device I have ever owned had a bigger, better brother, but was the right device for me at the time. I've had lots of people try to tell me that I should have purchased something else, and all I can say is that they don't have my ears, my room and my preferences but they are welcome to theirs.
I have never even had the luxury of seeing every salesman in a shop agree that a particular device is the best unless the manufacturers rep is there also. That's part of the joy of chasing the dream of music. We all decide what is best for each of us at a given moment in time. That "best" evolves and hopefully so do we. I'm looking forward to digitizing my hundreds of 78's, thousands of LP's and even more R2R tapes so my shaky old hands will not damage the many fond memories in my collection.
I truly appreciate the opportunity to learn from some of the folks on this forum, several of whom have systems that cost more than the new house I am in the process of buying. The world we currently live in has an amazing amount of uncertainty that is stressing everyone. Helping others relieve some of that stress by offering tips that may make their enjoyment of music thrive is a gift we can all offer.