Not important to me at all. I suppose it also depends on how much a person is given over to hyperbole getting to them. If someone else describes the newest thing as a clear “leap forward in performance” or “and then plugged it in and woah!”, and the classic, “made my old unit sound broken” and that worms into their subconscious, then that’s their problem.
Going by a lot of early adopter comments, my NDX is load of old under par s##t; my 282 not cutting the mustard; and 250DR clearly seen better days. Luckily I think my system is brilliant. I will upgrade eventually but today I have zero plans. When I do it will be a big bang whole system (I am not a gradual upgrader) and almost certainly not until my current system hits it’s 15th birthday at least. If I decide to recap it instead of sell it and upgrade, then my next upgrade is more likely to be on it’s 30th birthday.
My system doesn’t do Bluetooth. So they would probably think their little speaker was far superior. I have friend who has an Amazon Echo Dot speaker and he raves about how fantastic it is because it is voice controllable. He never comments on the sound - good or bad.
People judge things by all sorts of standards and from all sorts of perspectives. My system isn’t voice controllable - so who’s to say that doesn’t make it inferior to my friends little speaker? Some might well consider it so.
Although I like many here am retired, I never kept up with the next best thing. It was a great feeling being the only one in the company with an iPhone 3G but I can’t be bothered with all that now. My Olive system is here to stay and the only thing left to do is to upgrade my NDS power supply. I could actually have done that recently but blew the funds on an unplanned Prefix PS upgrade. Which is amazing. Replenishing funds is kind of doable for me as I have 4 pensions left with money still in them and each time I start drawdown I can get 25% tax free so that’s a boost every 3 years or so until state pension age . I think these days the only big spends will be replacing roof tiles or car as and when.
To be honest I’ve never given a monkeys about keeping up with the Jones’s and I’ve never had as much disposable income as many others. I had a level of performance I was keen to attain with my system and to be honest I just chased that. Having got to 82/Hicap/250 I realised I had reached it when I added the ATC SCM40’s (I was never happy with my SBL’s in the system). My disposable income has tended since then to go on AV equipment rather than 2 channel hi-fi equipment because it’s in the arena of movie replay and surround sound that the biggest changes have happened. So I have recenly upgraded to 4K projection and an Atmos receiver.
With respect to phones I ditched Apple a couple of years back and bought my wife and I a couple of Oppo A9’s for about £130 each!! Miles better battery life than Apple, very similar user interface nowadays but these phones take Micro SD cards so I can also load them with 512GB of FLAC music and run Fiio music player software which has enabled me to replace my old FLAC (hardware) Fiio player too (impossible with Apple due to their limited storage capability and inability to take SD cards. Copying tracks is a simple drag and drop operation from my NAS to the device - no buggering about with itunes etc.
I do tend to stay on top of computing hardware approx every 5 years though mainly because I run high end flight simulators, driving simulators and space simulators in VR and you need serious power for those.
So in essence I upgrade kit when there is a genuine technical need to do so and absolutely never just to keep up with others. Being a reviewer I do get to hear the latest and greatest in 2 channel audio but I’m sometimes left at the end of the review period thinking - yeah it’s better than what I have, but just not by enough of a margin for me to dig that deep to buy it… As others have said managing to achieve contentment and satisfaction with what you already have is the way to be happy in life I think!
Just occasionally something comes along (like the Lyra Kleos SL) I reviewed where I think I really do need to improve what I already have and I need to move in that direction but it’s rare…
My learning (in England) was that when an s is added as a plural, then the apostrophe goes after the s with no additional s, but where the name ends in s then 's is added as with when there is no s at the end.
I’m late to this topic. Over the years I spent more on audio systems than I care to think about. Having the latest upgrade was vital. For me, it was an illusionary pursuit of perfection or compensation. At some point I just stopped the pursuit. My last system (Rega) lasted me 8 years. I would have happily kept it, if not for it not surviving an apartment renovation. Items could not be repaired. It was time to move on.
Not only did I select a new system, but selected a new dealer as well. My former dealer was great and still is. However b/c of disability I now need more home setup assistance than he can provide. Connecting equipment is no longer possible for me. We selected equipment that was disability friendly to use. Touch screens need not apply.
I chose Naim b/c for the equipment I selected, the CD player and integrated has buttons. I am pleased with the sound as well.
Oddly enough my Rega P9, which should have been the most delicate, was the only thing to survive. Go figure.
Given my age, it is unlikely that I will upgrade to another system, but you never know.
We have 2500 LPs and about 500 CDs. We are getting into streaming for the first time.
I wish more attention could by given to disability by manufacturers, reviewers and even forums.
Things that are easy for others, like connecting or moving equipment is often difficult or not possible for me.
For me, once everything is set up and broken in, it is about the music and not the equipment. My dealer says I need about 200 hours on the new system for everything to be up to speed. I as m almost there and can’t wait.
I am so grateful to everyone here who has helped on my first Naim journey.
but I can’t be bothered with all that now. My Olive system is here to stay and the only thing left to do is to upgrade my NDS power supply. I could actually have done that recently but blew the funds on an unplanned Prefix PS upgrade. Which is amazing. Replenishing funds is kind of doable for me as I have 4 pensions left with money still in them and each time I start drawdown I can get 25% tax free so that’s a boost every 3 years or so until state pension age 
. I think these days the only big spends will be replacing roof tiles or car as and when.