Instead of boxing & selling off all the surplus leftover gear (from tweaking the main rig) I'd use some of those pieces to build 'second' & 'third' systems, each optimized for somewhat different charactaristics. As it is, the boxed up castoffs that I haven't sold as yet are occupying significant floor space which I really should put to some better use.
What would you do differently?
Wives take a lot of heat in the audio press and on forums such as this one for their effects on their husbands' audio enjoyment. WAF is a recognizable acronym and effect, and there's always a lot of anguish over the "grief" of upgrades, etc. What would you do differently if you had nobody to answer to on any audio issues? Is it as simple as, "I'd spend a lot more and play the system a lot louder"?
Personally, I'd do a couple of things differently. First, I'd probably own more than one pair of speakers at any time and experiment a bit more. Sending and receiving speakers seems incomprehensible to my wife so it's a bigger hurdle than it's worth to do this currently, even if I break even on the costs. The second major thing I'd do is remove everything from the semi-dedicated room the system is in that I didn't want in there.
All in all, I suppose the back pressure is good as it keeps a bit of anticipation in the hobby. -Kirk