I’ve hacked my way as far as my bank account will allow into the NAIM Matto Grosso.
After many years and pre-loved, serviced in Salisbury bargains (currently two out of seven boxes) the law of diminishing returns now demands vast swathes of cash be exchanged for any significant SQ improvement.
But that’s O.K. My ears continue to love me for what I’ve done.
It often occurs to me how wasteful upgrading is. When I think of all the upgrades over the decades, that’s an awful lot of money down the drain.
Sometimes I think back to my first Linn/Naim set-up and wonder why I just didn’t get a bank loan and buy a full fat LP12/32/HiCap/250 and Isobariks. Yes I would have been saddled with repayments for several years and would have paid interest, but I would also have had my (then) dream system to enjoy.
Most people I know took out a loan as soon as they started work to buy a car. I had and have zero interest in cars. So why not the hi-fi? I really don’t know thinking back. I was still living with my parents and it would have made sense. Instead I planned to upgrade to that system but never got there for various reasons.
Deferred mine. I’ll claim it whenever I give up on work or paid work gives up on me.
All I’ll need hifi moneywise is enough for a new stylus when the Kandid goes blunt, and servicing the boxes…
The rest: Champagne, Cognac and other things beginning with c…
I had a choice of upgrading the HiFi or purchasing a brand new motorcycle - with the view of not just keeping Up With The Joneses, but also overtaking them as well! 
Take care……the hifi was presumably safer
Thanks. I always try to ride with the upmost of care to myself and to all the other drivers. Loving my new bike! 
Carrots?
Cheese…
More…Cognac…and Cigarettes while my lungs still let me.
Not quite an XO, but for forty quid…gorgeous.
Cocaine? Cannabis? Hm… when I get the chance.
Chocolate? Definitely!
Anything else beginning with C… this is a family site!!!
After a few decades the voice of experience tells us loud and clear that the latest version of some things can be seen as “better” but most new versions are simply “different”. Despite this, all will be marketed as “better”.
Having done iPhone 3G, 4, 5, SE 1st Gen. then 12 Mini I’m not one for rushing to the new. I’m still waiting for one of them to match the audio call quality of my Nokia 3210.
I find myself feeling the same about audio in general nowadays. Always interested in new stuff or developments but I’ve achieved “good enough” and “enjoyable” and,really, there is nothing else. I could add “better” power supplies; cables; a network switch; a reclocker and so much more. I prefer to listen to music; read books; eat out and so on.
Funny to read mention of phones and computer hardware here.
Regarding phones, I’ve gotten 5+ years out of each phone since 2000. I recently threw a mini tantrum because I am determined to get a decade out of my current Asus Zenfone 4. It’s got 3 years left to go, and the back is shattered and covered in masking tape to keep the glass from scratching me. But Asus turn off uodates after just 2 years (which is a year longer than most others) and that was in 2018. Despite it being reasonable hardware even by today’s standards (4 core 1.2Ghz Snapdragons, 6GiB memory, Full HD HDR at 60fps video) it is nearly bricked. Apps are one by one vanishing from it because they no longer support Android 8.1. I realise that forking out $1,200 for a phone thinking it will last 10 years is a fallacy if the vendor pulls the plug on the software. France is introducing legislation to mandate 7 years of software updates but the details of that lack teeth. Global cooperation is needed here. It’s a ewaste generating scam in my opinion.
I work in IT and have seen computer hardware slow down in pace dramatically over the past 15 years. My workstations are both 8 years old and fast and powerful. I have some systems in the lab that are over 15 years old and the only maintenance done is CMOS battery and fans swapped out on a strict 3 years schedule. I will almost certainly get 10 years from my workstations despite my company offering a replacement every 24 months which I constantly refuse. I hate needless waste.
We live in a tyranny of the new, and terror of not being Up-to-Date.
Personally I have never been inflicted from this anxiety. Perhaps being not a type A personality might have helped.
Hifi wise, I have not upgraded anything for quite a long time. Mainly because there is no way for me to home demo. Cartridge is the only thing I have upgraded and probably I need to do it pretty soon again.
I use a FREE Android phone which weighs as much as a he-man Krell remote T-Mobile gave me when I switched. Many of my friends offered me their iphone when they upgraded. I do not particularly feel a need to switch. Besides I still use a flip phone when I am not abroad. It fits in my palm and if I lose it not a big deal. There is no personal information stored as I only use it to make a call and receive a call. I tell my friends do NOT text me a chapter!
For me, one of the benefits of buying Naim is that they don’t release new models just to keep people buying new equipment all the time. Only when they have meaningful upgrades to offer does new equipment appear.
When I have upgraded my systems, I’ve tried to spend just enough to make myself uncomfortable under the theory that to do better would take more money than I’d ever consider spending.
Switching to streaming as my primary source prompted my last big spend and my most recent upgrade to my NC system came as the result of a huge salary raise. Now I’m focused on saving as much as I can before I stop working.
I look at the systems on these pages, and even the most humble are often way in excess of what most people have.
I feel envy very rarely , sometimes though I look at a system and admire the cleverness that has gone into it’s building
I have a humble Doro, it makes phone calls, sends text messages . And if an accident happens such as leaving it in my trousers as they go into the washing machine, it’s an catastrophe
The more I upgrade the older my system gets (Talking analogue components here … Digital, not so much). So not the Joneses, but perhaps I’m keeping up with the Button’s (as in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button).
My first audiophile purchases were brand new. More lately the upgrades are to about 20 year old gear (+/-), but still much better.
I have always thought that the most fascinating systems are not those that cost mega-bucks but those that are relatively inexpensive and buck the trend, yet still manage to sound wonderfully musical.
Any fool can build a fantastic system if there is limitless money available, but to put together a great system on a limited budget is I think a bit of an achievement.
I remember several decades ago now reading of a system that a reviewer heard at a show. He said it was the most musical system there, yet it was fronted not by an LP12 but by a humble Rega Planar 3! That’s the sort of thing that really gets me excited!
Yesno. it’s certainly more fun. less risk. And in my experience from the many lower costs systems I have in addition to the big Naim system, is that the low costs ones are far more consistent. They don’t get in a huff when you get cable dressing wrong; let a Bunrdy touch the floor; put them on a table instead of a rack; look at them sideways under a full moon etc etc.
That’s so true and it’s a phenomenon I’ve been aware of for decades.
I’ve tried to keep tweaking with various bits and pieces to a minimum in my set-up as it’s been my experience that the more you tweak the more fussy a system becomes. To the point where it only ever sounds right if the sun is shining, the wind is blowing SSW and the neighbour’s cat is sitting in the garden!
It’s a bit of a diversion but I can’t help but raise this out of curiosity - and it’s as good a place as anywhere. Has anyone else experienced hi-fi groupies? This was an odd group of people, usually sad middle aged males, who seemingly haunted dealer’s shops on Saturdays. They prattled on about this and that review and drank endless cups of coffee. They never seemed to purchase anything.
I first became aware of them decades ago. I very rarely go into a dealer’s shop now so I’ve no idea if they are still around. Maybe it was something peculiar to the time (1980’s) or where I lived. I always found their presence a little unsettling.
