Jax - GREAT post! I whole heartedly agree. I have an audiophile friend (who's local) who literally blows a gasket if I tell him I sold "X" and bought "Y". He built a system 10 or 15 years ago and literally didn't change it until recently when his financial situation changed. What I noticed at that point however, was that he literally bought the first thing he heard and was so hell bent not to buy anything "mainstream"....as if buying Wilson, Magico, Focal, Sonus Faber, Shunyata, Wireworld, etc. would be admitting the gear swappers were right all along. Instead he bought a pair of speakers that have been nothing but trouble since the day they arrived (and are now back with the company - if you can call it that - to be "fixed"....but of course, when I first said there was something wrong with these speakers and for him to get his money back, I was the bad guy....but now I'm the guy who was right.) But I digress....
The point is, that gear swapping can help one fully understand what sonic characteristics a particular piece of gear has in ones home. If John Atkinson states that "X" is the best he's ever heard - he is speaking about how it sounds in his system, in his room, with his cables and associated gear. That piece may sound better or worse in someone else's system, but will definitely sound different. Gear swapping also allows you to try something, live with it for a few months (or less or more) and know if its a fit for you or not. If not, it's easier to move on.
I have a friend who told me he had one bad experience selling a piece of gear and has pretty much just quit looking at other gear, reading about other gear, listening to other gear, because he doesn't want to deal with the hassle of selling. Selling gear is never easy or fun, but believe it or not, the more you do it, the easier it gets - but it is never "easy". But to just stop listening to other gear because of one bad experience? Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water....
The one thing I've never got into was cable swapping. I know guys who go through cables like you can't believe. I'm the exact opposite. Probably because I never have a whole system long enough to synergize with a particular brand of cables!
Great Post Mike and Jax,
I guess that more or less after the last 5 years, of going through various cables - power cords - isolation devices/platforms - racks/stands and speaker stands as well as interfacing devices between the speakers and stands and finally from solid state ( wanna be tube types ) to actual tube integrated that match my speakers to a " T ", I'd be now seen as a gear hugger, as I've come to realize through said mistakes over the course of 32 odd years of system building and after 17 different systems, there were times when I went lateral at best, and never built upon the foundation of what I had replaced, in so much as a few pieces merely sounded " different " yet, not better then what tgey had replaced.
Yet, in the last 8 months, I've come to realize that my simply well matched/balanced little $17K system is clicking to my ears, and more often then not, much visitors have commented on the fact I shouldn't be looking to change a thing, unless I'm crazy, not knowing that I had come to the same conclusion months prior, and knew that what I had stumbled upon by living with said pieces long enough to understand their strengths and weaknesss, which requires months if not years to know exactly how to counter balance what's needed, with the power cabling loom or said isolation devices placed throughout ones entire system, and even more importantly, coming across those magical tube combinations that allow everything - and I mean everything to come together in such a matter, one has to know in their hearts when enough is enough!, there are times when merely changing out one component can/will have a adverse effect on the entire system, and throws it out of whack, and we then find ourselves going over and over in our minds - where/when did we lose the magic?.
At some point, if your system is clicking as I like to put it!, you have to ask yourself as what cost can it be bettered?, not different?, but better, and if so, at what cost?.
I enjoy reading about those of you whom own over $100.000.00 systems, and marvel, but I've always see/heard the other side of the coin as well, with friends here in Michigan with said systems, yet they weren't properly matched, and I've always found myself visiting these guys for all of 20 minutes, before finding a reason to leave, and get back home to what had proven to be a more synergistic whole approach to my system pairings, and happy that I didn't waste the money these guys had, I've always felt that if the speakers are chosen to drive/suit our rooms, then are properly driven, and matched to the cabling loom, and capable of playing any genre of music thrown at it, equally well, then I'd much rather spend the differences in funds saved on my music collection, which to my mind has always been my passion which then lead me to wanting a better system to begin with.
But at what point, I just ask any of you, when does one become content?, especially in the case where something isn't broken?. Yeah, I'm that sort that ask the hard, yet logical questions, but I've my entire life, so why change now?, are any of us really, really ever happy with our purchases long term, meaning 3 - 9 years, instead of months?. I wonder.
