Thank you all! I have read through all the replies, and I must say it does my soul good to know others who have been afflicted by the audiophile bug have many of the same experiences. Looking back on the journey, my real regrets are thinking there was something amiss with my gear because a particular song didn't sound "right", or how I thought it should sound. Turns out there is so much about the recording/mixing/mastering and other aspects of the production process that can take a perfectly good piece of music and make it sound less than good when being reproduced. I've also been burned too many times by believing in the reviews, buying the piece of gear, and realizing it wasn't for me. One thing I'm so glad I did was to buy a cheap bass guitar & amp to toodle around with. I never got good at playing, but it gave me a new appreciation for what it takes to be a good musician. My passion was always for drums, but space & the sheer volume kept me from buying a kit.
The DAC I have I bought new (on sale) and is the most analog I have ever heard. My speakers were purchased as open box (by all accounts they were very close to new) so saved money there. My integrated amp was purchased second hand and the previous owner gave me a very generous price. I have always been a big proponent of buying used when it made sense, and that helped me save money over time. There are so many speakers I want to try in my system to see what they would bring to the mix, but cost and my limited space simply do not allow for that pursuit. Living in Minnesota I have toured the Magnepan factory. I would love to have a pair of their smaller speakers, and while I know my amp could easily drive them, my space would not allow them to be their best.
One big regret I have is not wearing ear plugs to a live concert (The Cranberries) in a small venue years ago. Bloody tinnitus has been a bane ever since. Then about three years ago I had a "mild" stroke. I fared better than many as it didn't have a profound effect on my being. One oddity was the tinnitus largely abated. Every doctor I told along the way was fascinated by that. It effected my auditory center too, and there are times when I'm listening to a song I'm intimately familiar with, and it sounds completely...unfamiliar. Strange, but I still find I enjoy listening to music, and as others have said, that's really what it's all about.
