Is advice from a constant upgrader to be avoided

Nothing wrong with reading what "flippers" have to say.

Nothing wrong with reading what "possessers of perfect sound" have to say.

Just try to read the tea leaves. Laugh at irony, challenge bluster, pity insecurity, and expose hidden motives.

i am surely one of the gear swappers/hoarders, been doing it off and on, since my college days in the early 80’s

to me, there are different ways to enjoy this pursuit

first and foremost, i believe there is much much wisdom in not swapping gear much, especially if you really enjoy music (and not the gear), have limited budget, and have a system that already pleases you in how it presents music you like to listen to

second, having said the first, i do also enjoy the equipment, as wonderful tools to present music beautifully... to me, these are lovely products of human passion and ingenuity -- to make gear that in turn makes beautiful music in our private spaces, music we want to listen to, when we want to... so over the years, i have found that i enjoy learning about and finding great equipment, experiencing first hand what it does, how it does it, this is cool and fun, to then enjoy the awesomely wonderful music that results ... to me it is a high order melding of left/right brain, science/engineering, for the pursuit of art/beauty/emotional connection

my second career for the last 20 years has been designing, developing, building new/renewed homes, and it is similar pursuit in some ways - a melding of business and operations with design, functionality, ergonomics and style, hard and soft skills coming together, employing construction methods to create homes that are comforting, beautiful and that bring joy to those who live in them

so for me, it is not at all about dissatisfaction or restlessness in wanting to experience (and thus changing) hifi gear, it is about experiencing firsthand what the best of this industry has to offer, in pursuit of lovely, wonderful music...(and frankly, to a much more minor degree, to call b-s on some of the hype/marketing that is thrown out there)

last thing i will mention is that since early 2020, i dove headfirst back into hifi and related gear as a hobby, due to covid, after several pretty inactive years, and i would have to say, getting back into this hobby so much, learning about streaming, getting up to date on the latest great gear, has in hindsight been vital in maintaining my humanity and sanity over this period

anyhow, my 2 cents

“Not all those who wander are lost.”
 

If I had the time and means I'd churn through a bunch of gear just to have first hand experience with it. The only way to be absolutely sure is to try something in your room, with your music, with your ears. Since that is usually impractical it's necessary to vet your sources anytime you need to use second (or third) hand information. There are some great resources here and other places once you weed out the clueless yahoos, fanboys, and trolls. Professional reviewers don't get disparaged for equipment turnover. Some amateur reviewers are willing to patiently answer the endless stream of repetitive questions. With all the great equipment that is available sometimes there's only a very few people that have done a direct comparison with the two obscure components one of us is currently fixated on. I'm grateful for their input. I just wish it were easier to tell them apart from the yahoos.

"Gear shifters"....some are manual, but there's a lot of automatics on the lot...;)

Truth be told, I lack the disposible to run in the SOTA wheel of audiophilia, and have for most of my years past 30ish.  Nor the leisure to spend discerning the details 'twixt A>Z anything, esp. since my hearing has admittedly required the application of 'onboard appliances' to render any profound 'imho' on any object of audio obsession worth your reading about...

I have learned what and how to make the items in my possesion recreate that which I enjoy listening to in the spaces I happen to have them in.

Some may 'snarf' and opin that "You'd be better off with a Dixie cup at the loose end of a string!" or some other not-so-pleasant response.

Note that I will not subject you to listening to it unless you stumble into my presence, or ask to be subjected to it.  I do have a relative amount of regard for your inattention or basic civility.

Basically, it's a hobby pursued to enjoy music in a fashion that's done specifically to do just that, enjoying what's heard when I click the mouse, drop the needle, or engage the laser.

I only have to please myself...sometimes, even be impressed by my efforts to my own perhaps lackluster levels.

I suspect you're doing more or less the same.  Enjoy. 👍, J

This is an interesting question. I am firmly in the not-changing-for-a-very-long time camp but when I think about it that has two main reasons. First I got a family and did other things for many years which meant I did not have as much time nor money to think about hifi upgrades. Now I have some more funds but not enough to upgrade everything over and over. Maybe I would be a real flipper if I had the funds?

I am in the process of planning my next upgrade which I hope will happen within a year or so. I might upgrade two parts of the system. One hard question my wife asked was "if you do this upgrade now for $X, are you then done?". And even though I have upgraded very few things the last years I don't really like to decide now that I will be done. Of course I could live with that for years but if I have the financial means it may be interesting to upgrade something or everything again within the next 5 years or so.

As for who is best to listen to, there is a downside of listening to me or anyone else like me, I have not had that much gear going through my home. I have mostly heard new things at a dealer or at audio shows. I think you will hear more nuances when you have a piece of gear at home and can listen for days or weeks to it. If I were to recommend a dac right now it would be from dacs I heard at dealers or shows or from what I've read. Or, a very, very old dac which I don't think is of much interest for you.

So I do pay attention to what some "flippers" say also. I do add a grain of salt to some things or try to interpret what they say and think about if that thing they did not like as much as their new gear could still suit me. If someone says that their new $10k dac is much better than their old $5k dac I think it is interesting but I still don't have a $10k budget for a dac (right now) and if they say that they have tried three $5k dacs at home and choose the last one it may still be interesting to hear what they liked or did not like with the other dacs.