AUDIOPHILE OR JUST CRAZY ?


FELLAS,
I have been building and putting together systems since the sixties when I build my first health kit FM tuner ! Yes it was a father and son project my dad got me for my 11th birthday in 1967 .I have been in pursuit of the best sound system ever since, thanks to my dad who had the loudest HIFI in the neighborhood ! None of the neighbors ever complained ! i could mow the yard and hear Elvis, playing at the same time ! I have spent fortunes, in audio equipment ever since my first job .I was that kid who could spend all day at the audio superstore, looking watching listening to the systems in the speaker audition room ! The audio stores are far and few in-between these days, but here is my problem ! In the early nineties i purchased an Onkyo Grand Integra M-508 power Amp @ 225 wpc and a Onkyo P-308 pre amplifier .Went solid state, got my first R2R pioneer 909  audio reverse and a Thorens td 166 mkii turntable with a shure mm cartridge ! A Nakamichi dual Cassette deck , oh yes ! I forgot to mention my Klipsch Cornwall speakers with 15 in woofers and horns ! I was on top of the world ! None of my friends or family could touch the sound that came from that system !  
In the early 2000, i felt last decade, and got back into the tubes, with Conrad Johnson ! Since 2004 I have spent over $45,00.00 k on nothing but the best equipment money can buy ! I am still not as Thrilled as I was over Thirty years ago !
discussed , I sold everything for penny's on the dollar ! Everything except my old Onkyo m-508 and p-308, an old ADC graphic EQ , kept my old AR turntable one of Eric's Sound of the wood, and my klipsch  La Sacla's ALL Vintage Audio old ass equipment and I am the happiest i have ever been ! It is music to my years after spend $$$$$$ and never being satisfied !!!! Am I crazy or what ? I call myself EXPERIANCED ! 

128x128geurds
It's all about building a system to satisfy yourself and it sounds like you are doing that. Good job.
If you've  never heard a Marantz 7C feeding into Model 9's driving Klipsch Horns you have not lived. I was only 13 years old when I heard that system. It looms large in my memory as the best I have ever heard even though it was not. But the memory of a 13 year old is very hard to divorce and I have been chasing that memory for 55 years. The next system is going to be the one:-)
Thanks ! Very interesting testimony and unortodhox one indeed...

You are not crazy!

All  audio forums are about selling and buying to so called " upgrade"....

 My personal experience with the same system for years:
 
Mission Cyrus speakers781 (50 bucks used)
Sansui Au 7700 amplifier (100 bucks used +recap for the same amount of money)
Starting point systems NOS dac ( too low price to be mentioned ny bid on Ebay)

 Why i dont give a dam for upgrade?

Because the worst half-truth there is in audio is the supposed fact that costly electronic components will buy you the audiophile experience...

An half truth is worst than a lie....

Electronic components design is mature and gave to us many high quality components in the last 60 years... Then buying used and vintage is the way.... New costly coponents are better, yes, but the truth is the improvement is not worth the money invested most of the times for the majority of people... WHY?

Because the greates improvement in audio instead of an upgrade is most of the times these modifications in these 3 dimensions where an audio system is immersed in, what i called"embeddings controls:

  A-How much noise pollute the electrical grid of the audio room coming from the house grid...high noise floor destruct the timbre and imaging...

B-How much vibrations and also resonance affect my speakers, and even the rest of the gear? Same negative effect, these uncontrolled vibrations and untamed resonance will decrease S.Q.

C-And the very fundamental fact to add to these very 2 important one: is my room acoustic good? This factor, so much important were the others, this one is crux of the matter...

 then you are perfectly sane to prefer to listen to music instead of spending big money.....