What do/did you do for a living?

I'm a software engineer.   My system was about $10K, but since around March this year, with the COVID-19 lockdown, I've added $30K to my system.   I bought everything online except for my new speakers which cannot be sold online.  Thank goodness for retailers like Audio Advisor and Crutchfield, which offer great return policy.   I cannot see myself spending thousands of dollars on hifi gears without testing it at home.   I can never trust myself auditioning gears in a hifi store.  There are just too many variables involved, and it is almost guaranteed that what you hear in the store will not be what you hear at home.

I never considered myself an audiophile, and I don't think I'll ever.  There are just too much engineering and science behind this stuff that I don't understand.   One thing for sure though, this hobby is a slippery slope.  Money just get sucked out of you like no tomorrow, and you can never be 100% happy with what you have, and always looking for the next upgrade.

Anyway, I digressed.  Another question I think might be interesting to ask this forum is how many men and women are into this hobby.   My guess is probably 90% men and 10% women, but I can be wrong.

Software Engineer.

My first stereo system I owned was after the summer of my junior year in high school. Used my hard earned summer job money to buy a 3 pieces stereo system consisting of a receiver, turntable, and a pair of speakers for around $500+. It was all Pioneer gears. I later added a top of the line Pioneer cassette deck for close to $500. Looking back, I wish I didn’t throw them all away. Would love to have my Pioneer cassette deck.

Since then, I’ve gone through quite a few Home Theatre "do it all" systems, including music in stereo. Like receivers from Yamaha, Sony, and finally Maranzt.

I never considered myself a hobbyist until the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Since then, I’ve spent probably around $50K for speakers, stereo pre-amp, amps, home theatre processor, network streamer/DAC, turntable, cartridges, subwoofer etc... A lot of them were purchased from reading and recommendation of this forum.  They were paid mostly out of my vacation budges since we haven’t travelled since the pandemic.

This is no doubt an expensive hobby, but I guess cheaper than collecting cars 😀

Cheers!