@phusis Your account of an acquisition of an Audio Related Device, shares many similarities to my own.
I gave up on the mainstream supply route many many years past and chose to learn about others and the work they were undertaking to the point I end up in the homes of others hearing their work demonstrated in the producers chosen environment.
The outcome being on plenty of occasions being that my search was over, a discovery to be maintained was realised.
Slightly different to your own experience, but also with similarity, I have not been Wed To one End Sound, for quite some time.
I get great pleasure from bringing in new devices and using them within the system to enable a new End Sound Experience. Some devices are wanted to be maintained and used in conjunction with other devices within the system, and in other cases, the End Sound experienced is not wanted to be maintained.
I am a collector of End Sound experiences, I am not monogatmous in my relationship with Audio Devices. To be Polygamous with audio devices, is to be alert to what might be, and to be of a mind where certain selections made are not easily separated from. Especially when able to deliver a new form of structuring of sound within the listening environment.
Unfortunately in relation to the Threads Topic, I am function before form.
In my relationship with producing a End Sound from recorded music, the real stimulus is the careful forming of the Sound Aesthetic, this requires disciplines associated with any Art / Craft that has a fundamental to evoke emotion and connection.
I do not get the energy rush personally to generate intent to create a stimulus through a Visual Aesthetic, I am happy for the the Tools and Workhorses to be seen as just that.