Why we (often) upgrade the wrong things (first) and ignore the important things

I am married to an economist.  Mt approach has always been using the marginal coat versus marginal gain approach.  Room treatments always begin after the initial system has been acquired.  Item auch as cable upgrades fall far down the list as you are chasing the last incremental bits if you began with decent cables.

My greatest improvement was upgrading my amplifier to provide my 3 series Maggies with enough current to make them shine.

"It's the room, stupid" (apologies to James Carville).

Agree wholeheartedly, but when you look at most virtual systems, convincing people appears to be a fool's errand.

@bmbmzig 

Thanks for the well-informed post.

When I got into this hobby, a member here took me in. They taught me, via email and zoom, about reflection times, first and distal reflection points, room modes, and all the rest. I measured extensively, moved furniture, and at one point I even had a subwoofer 3 feet in the air to measure vertical modal behavior. He taught me to figure out the bass frequencies first. Then I dealt with the rest – even mapping different reflection times on my ceiling and side walls to try to troubleshoot how to place treatment, and what kind.

Now, when I try gear changes, I know that the larger factors have been largely contained. This makes the changes "real."

I have no problem with people throwing money at equipment. What bothers me is their assertion that these actions are "justified" in any kind of a scientific sense. They're not justified. They're not disallowed – again, free country. But to assert they're justified is to tarnish the scientific bases for the hobby. 

@dantaudio  Thanks!

@lhasaguy  Good process. I'd even argue that room measurements might come before speaker acquisition.

This hobby is so subjective and audio upgrades are usually only limited by the size of one's wallet. And of course the size of the space that they have dedicated to their listening room. For those of us who don't  have deep pockets, gear chasing becomes impractical. I know because I chased gear for years until one day I realized that my audio system was good enough, and that I needed to simply learn to utilize it to enjoy music; and to stop listening for sounds.  

I've  enjoyed listening to music far more since then.  I have a modest system by most standards which I use for near field listening in my den. And because I'm not driving myself to distraction by searching for flaws in my system (or in planning my next upgrade), I'm quite content to just enjoy the music. 😊

Wholeheartedly agree, having been blessed with a dedicated but wholly wrong room size, a near perfect cube, I invested in a comprehensive suite of acoustical treatments that have tamed multiple acoustical issues with my space. Frankly, it has been the best investment, I have made and has increased the enjoyment of my current equipment immensely, no regrets whatsoever.