@temporal_dissident I don’t particularly disagree w/ your lusting after gear theory.
I built a fairly nice system when I was married to the mother of my kids, which gave me a taste of good sound. Years later when I decided to build another system I decided to implement a little bit of a strategy, because I had learned about how expensive the upgrade bug can be.
So glad I decided to just go ahead and do things right the first time around.
Also thankful I had already learned about how important synergy in a system is, including having a complete loom of whatever cables/wires you use. I’ve learned some really valuable things from reading these silly posts.
It’s a good feeling to be completely content with what you have and not be the least bit envious of what others have. Like others have mentioned, relatively good sound can be had for a fairly reasonable amount of dough. I would consider our buddy @mahgister to be sort of a master of that particular domain.