Changing audio beliefs

I never was a big believer in cables.  I could detect an improvement as one went a rung or two above bog standard RCA but after that I thought it was diminishing returns.  Digital cables all sound the same to me.  Shielding was the main issue for me with cables.

  For me the dogma of spending a certain percentage on speakers/source/amplification was something I believed in.  However improvements in equipment design, particularly in digital sources, and computer modeling for speakers, seem to have upset that balance, as fantastic bargains are to be had in those two areas. Analog still seems to reflect the older philosophy, in that the more you spend, the more the ROI

I used to believe it was all about the equipment until I heard what room treatments are capable of. It made me realize that it is mostly about how the speakers interact with the big box (room) that they are plopped down in.

+1 @stuartk 

There are certainly things that are on a par with music for me: my marriage, my spiritual life, canine companions and appreciation for nature. In the end, I view all of these as aspects of one thing. 

...sounds good to me.

@campoly 

I'm with you on that. Not only room treatments, but just good rooms. I was shocked and humbled when a co-worker asked me to help her get her sound system straightened out. It was a super cheap department store stereo system from the 1970s. I got the speakers hooked up in phase and the components hooked up so everything worked again and had a listen. I just about cried because it was beating my system in the lower midrange by leaps and bounds. I had been putting huge amounts of effort into equipment improvements to try to solve a problem that was inherent to my room acoustics. 

I used to believe (and maybe it was once true) that I needed to buy the best of breed of each type of component and pull them all together to achieve a SOTA system. Of course this was a struggle, was expensive, frustrating and  heartbreaking at times. Currently, I have speakers, amps and a digital controller from one vendor (Tidal) and have never had a more engaging and rewarding sound.