Is advice from a constant upgrader to be avoided


For a while now I've been reading these forums and to be honest i was thinking of leaving. I felt a bit out of depth given that it seems so many others have had so much experience through owning what seems to be tens of speakers, amplifiers, DACs etc etc and reading people buying and selling piece after piece after piece on the search for some sound.... 

When someone asks advice about a certain item it seems like half the audience have owned it and moved on and have a comment to make. I then read about someone buying an extremely expensive amp and deciding quickly to sell it because it doesn't sound right. Then someone else is on their fourth DAC in a year. 

So all these people have advice to give. What I'm wondering now is, is advice from a person who's never content, constantly changing their system, never living with a system for long enough, and have more money than patience, really the right person to take advice from? .

There seems fewer (maybe they're less vocal) people who buy gear and spend the time to appreciate it, and have maybe only had a very few systems in their lifetime. I think I'd rate their advice higher on the gear they know than the constant flipper/upgrader.

Is the constant flipper/upgrader always going to say that the gear they used to own was no good and they've now got better? Maybe their constant searching is because their ear is no good or they're addicted to the rush of opening a new box. 

Just because person X has owned a lot of equipment doesn't mean their advice is to be sought after, it could mean the exact opposite.

mid-fi-crisis

Showing 1 response by headphonedreams

This is an interesting question. I am firmly in the not-changing-for-a-very-long time camp but when I think about it that has two main reasons. First I got a family and did other things for many years which meant I did not have as much time nor money to think about hifi upgrades. Now I have some more funds but not enough to upgrade everything over and over. Maybe I would be a real flipper if I had the funds?

I am in the process of planning my next upgrade which I hope will happen within a year or so. I might upgrade two parts of the system. One hard question my wife asked was "if you do this upgrade now for $X, are you then done?". And even though I have upgraded very few things the last years I don't really like to decide now that I will be done. Of course I could live with that for years but if I have the financial means it may be interesting to upgrade something or everything again within the next 5 years or so.

As for who is best to listen to, there is a downside of listening to me or anyone else like me, I have not had that much gear going through my home. I have mostly heard new things at a dealer or at audio shows. I think you will hear more nuances when you have a piece of gear at home and can listen for days or weeks to it. If I were to recommend a dac right now it would be from dacs I heard at dealers or shows or from what I've read. Or, a very, very old dac which I don't think is of much interest for you.

So I do pay attention to what some "flippers" say also. I do add a grain of salt to some things or try to interpret what they say and think about if that thing they did not like as much as their new gear could still suit me. If someone says that their new $10k dac is much better than their old $5k dac I think it is interesting but I still don't have a $10k budget for a dac (right now) and if they say that they have tried three $5k dacs at home and choose the last one it may still be interesting to hear what they liked or did not like with the other dacs.