Are audiophile products designed to initially impress then fatigue to make you upgrade?

It's probably the inverse, many audio products are designed to impress in the showroom, bright top end, over blown bass etc.  these soon become fatiguing in real use. The same applies to performance measurements they are stated as xyzzy but often are no where near what they claim (or seem to be claiming), the 1980's watts war being typical. Today we have the THD war, some 'audiophiles' believe that 0.000000001% THD is really good, the problem is you stopped hearing any difference 5 zeros or more ago, the measurements mean nothing whatsoever. 

It sounds more like an indication of lack of synergy between your chosen pieces of equipment, to me. 

Please excuse me if that's been said multiple times already ... I haven't read thru the entire thread yet, I'm sleepy and want to crash and was excited that there was something I could respond to, ha ha ha..

I guess when you actually have it in your system, you can appreciate how important it is for the bigger effect? Something like that.

The imaging and sound staging I get from two different pairs of completely different types of speakers, meaning one's a legacy model big44" tall electrostatic panel with an attached subwoofer and the other set is a pair of bookshelf speakers on some good stands. Albeit, they're a bookshelf that performs exceptionally well, especially given their price tag. Usher Be 718 is the model. I got them nearly brand new for twelve hundred including delivery and got damn good stands for not too much.

Both of them perform unbelievably well. This sounds so cheesy, but a lot of you guys would probably say the same thin: I'm so! in love with the sound I get out of both pairs. 

If I can do it, anyone of you can because I haven't come close to spending what a lot of these guys have. Probably considerably more than others, I dunno. 

I'm familiar with that fatiguing sound you're talking about. Good news is, it can get better. I'm not the one to tell you ... but I've listened to the seasoned regular members around here and headed their advice.

The thing that would probably make the biggest noticeable difference is a good power conditioner. I. personally, am into PS Audio's Power Regenerators. I have a PS 15 and I believe the older used PS 300 would have a very similar effect.

“Cd players used to be built to last a lifetime and the ones that were built in the 70's are still sought after for that reason. ”

hahahaha

@kenjit 

You do realize the first commercial Cd player was released in 1982?

So no, there are zero cd players from the 70’s

@kota1,

If you use JBL M-2 or JBL 4430,4435 or 4425 speakers for (L&R) channels you will not need a center channel. Because listeners can move up to 65 degrees off axis and still get the same frequency response as center. The imaging of the horns is very, very stable.😎 See article below:

Mike

https://noisegate.com.au/collarts-chooses-jbl-professional-for-high-spec-future-proof-audio-education/

The notion that manufacturers secretly deliberately design their products to degrade, but only just enough to not cross a very fine threshold of degradation to avoid becoming obvious poor quality - is simply not realistic.

Often the question of whether one’s system ‘sounds best’ comes down to what might not exist within the soundstage.

In other words, when there is nothing obvious that offends the ear, the question becomes whether the speakers or a given piece of equipment might not be transmitting some or all of the source material as completely as can be done.

The question of what might not be there is nowhere near as straightforward as a poor soundstage no matter what you do, or a hum that shouldn’t be there.

For instance, my amplifier sounds really fine, but I have come to wonder if there exists more clarity and openness in the high range, so I’ll eventually try another.

And specifically, I wonder this because I’ve run different speakers on this system and studied their sound, I’ve got my set-up correct including cables, source devices are excellent, and I’ve done a lot of reading that suggests to me that there is better sound to be had.

Logically, it could be the preamp or the amp, but the amp is older, so I’ll start there.