I was selling, okay trying to sell, gear frequently, in the mid '70s. Now that I am in my mid 70s I finally updated to a Mac C2700 tube preamp to go with the Mac MC275 amp. I have had friends who are or were musicians raise their eyebrows in surprise at what my system sounds like. One guy was quiet so long I thought he had fallen asleep until he suddenly exclaimed: "It's like she is standing right in front of me."
Mind you, I have spent my lifetime striving for the most natural sound I can achieve on a reasonable budget. Reasonable means making sacrifices in other parts of a lifetime to get your true priorities at the top of the list.
I will recommend what I tell others; listen to a lot of gear. Take your wife and your dog with you because if you have done unthinking male stuff in your life, you can no longer hear what the spouse and dog still can. At least not without hearing aids, tuned specifically for music. That's where I am and frankly, live music is much too loud even with my hearing aids turned all the way down.
Seriously, listen in the dealer's rooms to the music you often listen to and are completely familiar with at home. I burn a highest density CD of about 10 completely varied tracks that I enjoy and have the dealer play it through equipment I am interested in buying. If you're into vinyl, take a Sheffield Labs recording with you and do a lot of A-B listening. When you settle on what seems best at the dealer's, make an arrangement to take it home and plug it into your system where you spend serious time enjoying music. Turn down or turn off the lights and let your ears tell you if your choice really fits in your environment. Play it at all levels. Many systems do not sound as good at various levels of volume, especially lowere levels. Most of all, enjoy the search as much as the acquisition. That is as fun as the listening to come ahead.
