I am so happy.....

Upgraditis is thought of as a sickness because when someone engages in it, they are actively removing themselves from enjoying music and enjoying life.

Been there, done that.  I even did it the other day, messing with minute toe-in tweaks of speaker placement, pulling out all the gadgets, tools, hunching over the turntable to check alignments and calibrations for the 2000th time, etc.

I used to enjoy music. Bad car stereo, mid-level home system, Walkman, high end system, paint-covered-portable-radio/cassette player-with-bent-antennae-perched-on-a-garage-windowsill, didn’t matter.  Music was good, end of story.

I fell so far into the rabbit hole of audio, I had to dig myself to the other side.  Thousands of dollars and countless tedium-addled hours later, I MIGHT finally be at where I used to be.  I can’t say my quality of life improved choosing to indulge in such minutiae. It’s been interesting and at times extremely rewarding, but I can’t say with full conviction it was worth it.  
I’m happy when I hear about people enjoying the wonders of music neurosis-free.

@mahgister While I appreciate the lecture on reality, and the presumptuousness of my ignorance as to the importance of room acoustics, I would counter that it is pretty black and white.

You have people that enjoy listening to music, and then you have people with a deep concern for the fidelity of their playback.  Sure, they enjoy listening to music too, but only after executing processes A, B, C, D, etc.  When this series of processes is finally completed, they say, “…phew!! Okay, NOW, I can enjoy listening to music.” There is a stark difference in thinking and behavior there.

To quote Karen’s mom from Goodfellas: “normal people don’t act like this!”

@mahgister I appreciate your thoughtfulness.

After taking a wonderful (to many, perhaps, humble) audio system from one home to another, with zero changes in gear in between, I was struck by the difference in sound quality.  Wow. What a difference.  Unfortunately, for the worse 🤣  My music sounded better in the old room.  Like, noticeably better.

I feel that your point about prioritizing room optimization in lieu of perpetual “upgrades” in electronics is valuable and helpful.  Arguably more substantial gains and almost always (depending on far one is willing to go in changing their listening room) far easier on the bank account.