Do you buy new, used or new or used gear?

Mostly used. I don’t think gear changes than much except when it may benefit from newer electronics, such as DAC, DSP, HT receiver that implements new standards or Class D amp. There rest, esp tube gear, is pretty much the same as it was 20 years ago.

@zavato Over  years I have been buying both, used and new stuff. And quite recently I bought a few Chinese clones which cost less than used stuff with which I am satisfied quite a lot. 

I would have  ,to say depends....but usually the best price. 

I just picked up a like new Zesto Spirit phono stage for 40% of new.   I wasn't really quite ready to upgrade my phono stage but I could not pass it up.  

Sounds phenomenal,  I would not have been able to swing that new.  

Both.

I used to buy items new, but that was when I first began buying High End components, circa 1985. Twenty years later, I bought a used speaker system (Hales Revelation IIIs), and have often bought used components, although some things I will only buy new.

I had the unfortunate experience of buying a preamp from Upscale Audio in 2009, a Convergent Audio Technology SL-1, which I’d owned in 1988, so I knew what it sounded like. The unit I got from Upscale sounded nothing like the Convergent I’d bought new in 1988, and getting Upscale to take it back got unpleasant. They actually refused to take it back, although the credit card company reminded them I’d met their conditions and had even called them back within 45 minutes of installing the preamplifier, when I realized upon first listen, that something was wrong.

Eventually I shipped it to Ken Stevens, who found someone (clearly, a previous owner) had changed a resistor in the power supply, altering the sound for the (MUCH) worse. I ended up going to Rush, New York where Ken is, and buying a Convergent preamp directly from Ken, so that worked out well;  I didn’t have to worry about the sonics. To this day I don’t know if Upscale ever got that preamp back.

I did buy something else from Upscale, 10 years later, and was put on hold. Kevin Deal came on the line and reminded me I owed them a preamp from 10 years ago, and I calmly told him it was defective - as I had told them - and that Ken Stevens  now had it, that he had found someone had monkeyed around with the preamp, and they could  now get it from him. (I never found out if they did or not. Wasn’t my concern any longer.)

So now, I test electronics immediately when I get them used, even from a dealer. Otherwise, I’m comfortable (mostly) with used components