Psieg- Lots of what you say is probably correct. However, not all of us have the ability or time for DIY. One thing this site does is allow us to dabble w/o spending huge sums. And I guess some folks get a lot of pleasure out of spending big $ on audio, others buy cars and others design and build audio (or cars). I imagine you get as much pleasure out of the design/build process as you do from listening (or maybe as much when you add in the pleasure of knowing how much $ you saved. Anyways, just my thoughts, but please try to be tolerant of those not as talented, skilled, or with as much free time (I envy all of the above). No flames here, though.
Audio Hype!!
Well I have to be honest,I love high end equipment and all the fun tweaking,and trading,and trying out new stuff. However, it has much hype behind it because I think that we all understand by now that--we are never totally happy with any one piece of gear. By hype I mean we read great reviews of some cable and the miracles that it is suppose to create,but we know deep down(if you have any experiance in this hobby)that it never stands up to our expectations once we use it for some period of time--that is just an example but I believe this holds true to all equipment--and then we sell and try the next flavor of the week which is normally just a side step VS. an upgrade of the last piece we owned. Its a vicious cycle does it ever end?(I know that question is like asking why the earth exists and there is no answer)However, my question is have we just created this illusion of what we wish 99% of the products out their should do, while at the same time damaging our checkbooks to prove the illusion wrong?