I've always been pretty meticulous and particular when auditioning new equipment for purchase. I do so to avoid buyer's remorse about installing equipment into my system that doesn't provide the sonic benefits or improvements I was expecting. Though I can appreciate that some people love the thrill of trying out something new, auditioning equipment by doing A/B testing and having to switch equipment in and out of my system is frankly a pain in the butt for me. But, I continue to do it every so often when I make a change to my system. My philosophy on getting new equipment is do it once, get it right, and move on.
With equipment in place that sounds good to me, hearing both music I know and new music provides me with both the enjoyment and novelty that I seek. As an example of my preferences and typical equipment purchase pattern, high quality music streaming has been a revelation for me and is motivating me to build a new digital front end to play streaming music at least decently well. I've never owned a great CD player, but the ability to listen to tens of thousands of new artists via Qobuz streaming is a radically different and valuable new experience for me. Some people may be most excited by getting and trying new equipment; I am motivated by listening to music reproduced more insightfully. I wouldn't claim that one is better than another...we are all wired differently.
With equipment in place that sounds good to me, hearing both music I know and new music provides me with both the enjoyment and novelty that I seek. As an example of my preferences and typical equipment purchase pattern, high quality music streaming has been a revelation for me and is motivating me to build a new digital front end to play streaming music at least decently well. I've never owned a great CD player, but the ability to listen to tens of thousands of new artists via Qobuz streaming is a radically different and valuable new experience for me. Some people may be most excited by getting and trying new equipment; I am motivated by listening to music reproduced more insightfully. I wouldn't claim that one is better than another...we are all wired differently.