Yeah, I dunno that I fit squarely into one category, especially over time. I came up in "audiophile" world, and by the time I was 20, in 1974-5, I had an all ARC tube system with Quads, an SP10 and eventually a mini-HQD set up with Decca Ribbons and a woofer. I’m now doing something completely different (horns, SET, woofers galore) but that that old Quad system, fully restored, still runs in my front lounge, like a circa 1975 state of the art thing.
I’ve been spending far more time on the records, not the gear. And the history, the industry standards, what happened when and how the technology and culture kind of worked together. I have no answer to that- it always seems like convenience and cost win in mass market stuff, but we are a different segment.
I guess I want to know when I turn stuff on that it isn’t going to blow up.
After that, it’s all gravy. I have a lot of fun records to listen to but part of it is the hunt. And that becomes very personal- a musical, emotional voyage (as well as for me, a sort of intellectual one that fascinates).