Are audiophile products designed to initially impress then fatigue to make you upgrade?

@fsonicsmith1

The bicycle analogy is pretty good. I am an avid bike rider… with a long distance / touring slant. I have four custom made bikes of my stable of eight. Each is carefully crafted, with every detail thought out to the highest level.

There is a real difference with true top end bike frames and equipment and great high fi gear and true audiophile gear. For those of use really dedicated: that ride thousands of miles a year and listen hundreds of hours… there is no substitute for uncompromising designs, meticulously purpose built equipment. It outperforms in every way just very well done stuff… and sets it apart.

As you learned and improved your listening skills, and your finance improved? You will more likely do upgrade. 

@jayctoy +1 also as your hearing changes you will try to compensate (with equipment) for diminished hearing ability across the hearing range.

Nothing ever stays constant forever  except change. 

@mihorn

most people (non-audiophiles) ears are almost in natural sound mode.

Interesting observation. maybe that is why people think audiophiles are nuts. They’ve never entered the world of "unnatural sounds".

The right speaker is converted to a natural sound speaker by me

I can hear the improvement.How do you do this?

Lately, I have been wondering if a single omni-directional point source is the best method for sound reproduction of certain genres of music. Not for orchestra where soundstaging is vital. But for rock music / wall of sound.

Also trying to figure out why some musics sounds better on my 2" single driver computer speakers than my hi-fi system.Volume and full-range sound notwithstanding.

I switch back and forth with the same song. Sure, this is personal taste, but seems the "harsh" metal driver actually sounds better when it is coming from a small point source. Due to its small size, as it expands, the harshness is dissipated and what fills the larger space is a more clear, coherent sound.