Sanity test before you start this hobby

For madmen we sound surprisingly normal.

In my case, mostly silver alloy wire for speakers but copper for interconnects.

Oleschool, I meant my current system and particular cable brand. I keep an open mind to this. Silver/Gold/Palladium alloy by Echole is said to sound great. Very unusual alloy indeed.
Yeah, we are a little bit crazy but not insane.
I was thinking the other day.. Who would make me a custom outboard playback head tube preamp for my Nak deck? Vladimir of Lamm or Ralph of Atmasphere perhaps? No, this would not be insane, just expensive.

Understanding the addiction would give us no joy, unlike not understanding it and continuing as we do. As for superficially controlling it to a degree, that could be helpful. One way to try and do it can be to buy the most expensive best equipment possible in the hope that the urge to upgrade will not be too demanding for a while. I’ve been saying it all along - the biggest mistake some people make is not to spend enough. Recently when I wanted to upgrade my RCA cables I planned to spend about $600 for a pair, then I thought - no way- and spent over $1k. This made me happy because in the next five or more years I won’t have to upgrade them, I might still have the wish to but it won’t be strong, what I have now is already very very good. They will also work very well even if I upgrade the components they connect. And those $600 cables, as good as I suspect they are, would’ve been upgraded much sooner, probably to what I have now. However, with cables it is easier, with active components we are usually talking thousands of dollars difference not hundreds.

I virtually stopped on-line explorations of my possible future upgrades. Unless suddenly I become a rich man, it is quite clear what I would like to do in the next five/seven years. And after that - it's too premature to even think. Except for cartridge and probably couple of cables, everything is going to be used so I can look at it now. I would get cables used too but suspect I won't find them.