I have had good luck moving up the food chain with most manufacturers Examples I went from a Mcintosh mc-300 to a mc-500 and now a mc-602 each time I had not auditioned the replacement as for speakers I went from Thiel cs-6's to Thiel 7.2's again with great results as for digital I went from an EAD Ovation to a Theatermaster to a Pro 8000 and now a pro 8800 again no audition and reasonably good results and finally cables from Nordost first Red Dawn's then SPM's and finally Valhalla's. I think in my case I really enjoyed what I had so the transition up the ladder built on what I enjoyed and added sufficient improvements.These are very specific upgrades based on gear that I had in my system for a while not a short listening session with the hope of a more expensive piece sounding better, I would not test drive a Jetta if I want to purchase a Passat or a Phaeton
Product Line Predictability
I've been doing research for a new pair of mains and a center. These forums have widened my perspective greatly and I am starting to see a lot more choices. I am running into a problem of not being able to even see much less hear all of the speakers at the local dealers. I keep hearing from the dealers that the sound is consistent throughout the same product line but the higher end models are just more dynamic. I have not been able to find B&W 803's, Vandy 3A's, Snell XA75s, but everyone has one step down from these and a "trust me you'll love em" for the more expensive models. So how much can you trust the product line? Why don't dealers carry the better models?