I can't speak for anyone but myself, but for me, it has been a long process. I don't really consider the evolution of my system "upgrading" toward some absolute standard. For me, it has been more about learning what is important to me personally in a music system. I have been a slow learner, partly because I read too many ads and reviews. I am more in touch now with the sonic priorities that make music sound good to me. Of course, affording it all is another matter...
Is Upgrading Degrading?
Is the search for the "perfect system" a kind of vulgarity?
We don't tend to say "I' had an old Bach recording, but I've upgraded to Schoenberg!" We appreciate the wildly diverse character of these two geniuses on their own terms.
ok--it may make sense to say "I've upgraded from the Spice Girls to Bartok" but once music reaches a certain level of seriousness, it seems to me the correct approach is to bask in the aesthetic differences and perhaps the same is true of music systems.
Are we really getting "better sound" along an imagined continuum that runs from ghastly cacophony to some auditory Valhalla or are we just experiencing different wonderful systems with personalities as varied and unique as human beings are?
We don't tend to say "I' had an old Bach recording, but I've upgraded to Schoenberg!" We appreciate the wildly diverse character of these two geniuses on their own terms.
ok--it may make sense to say "I've upgraded from the Spice Girls to Bartok" but once music reaches a certain level of seriousness, it seems to me the correct approach is to bask in the aesthetic differences and perhaps the same is true of music systems.
Are we really getting "better sound" along an imagined continuum that runs from ghastly cacophony to some auditory Valhalla or are we just experiencing different wonderful systems with personalities as varied and unique as human beings are?