Great post. I do understand your hesitation to ignore people that seem to never find happiness with what they own. Perhaps to them the chase is more important than the capture? I try to read everyone’s post on certain topics because I don’t have as much experience with all the different brands of equipment and different components. I may not agree with most of the advice I read here, but that is because I know what I like when it comes to music reproduction.
Is advice from a constant upgrader to be avoided
For a while now I've been reading these forums and to be honest i was thinking of leaving. I felt a bit out of depth given that it seems so many others have had so much experience through owning what seems to be tens of speakers, amplifiers, DACs etc etc and reading people buying and selling piece after piece after piece on the search for some sound....
When someone asks advice about a certain item it seems like half the audience have owned it and moved on and have a comment to make. I then read about someone buying an extremely expensive amp and deciding quickly to sell it because it doesn't sound right. Then someone else is on their fourth DAC in a year.
So all these people have advice to give. What I'm wondering now is, is advice from a person who's never content, constantly changing their system, never living with a system for long enough, and have more money than patience, really the right person to take advice from? .
There seems fewer (maybe they're less vocal) people who buy gear and spend the time to appreciate it, and have maybe only had a very few systems in their lifetime. I think I'd rate their advice higher on the gear they know than the constant flipper/upgrader.
Is the constant flipper/upgrader always going to say that the gear they used to own was no good and they've now got better? Maybe their constant searching is because their ear is no good or they're addicted to the rush of opening a new box.
Just because person X has owned a lot of equipment doesn't mean their advice is to be sought after, it could mean the exact opposite.