How often do you upgrade?

[fritzg]

Basically replaced my entire system after 25 years. Kept the wife (29 years), dog (15 years) and car (18 years).

 

New system is an integrated amp, the PS Audio Sprout and KEF LS50 speakers in the condo.

[gstanley75]

I upgrade on average every 5 years. I never get rid of old, just move it to a different room. My idea of a whole house system.

[master]

Let me start with a little bit of history, had a turntable and a nice catalogue of records from the likes of The Beatles, Boney M., etc. even as a young kid, so music was always an integral part of my growing up/formative years. Equipment changed every year or two, as my dad was a world traveler and got the latest from Europe and Japan. Growing up we always had some of the latest equipment from the likes of Phillips, Akai, Aiwa, Sansui, etc. Looking back I wish I still had some of that vintage stuff, but we always gave away stuff to make room for new equipment or because we moved around so much and it was impossible to carry everything.

 

a) Speakers?

 

First serious audiophile grade was Monitor Audio Silver that I bought nearly 5 years ago and used successfully for nearly 2 years. Then I heard KEF and moved to BS with the R300. I still have the MA, but have moved them to home theater duty and added a sub, center, and surrounds. I have had the KEF R300 for nearly 3 years now, and have only recently started planning for an upgrade. My next planned speaker upgrade will be the Harbeth SuperHL5 plus, and I plan to be happy with them for a really long time. I heard them extensively, and they are certainly "destination" speakers that someone can live with for a really long time. Of course I eventually do plan to upgrade, but nothing in the mid-range. The goal is to upgrade to something really premium along the lines of Magico, Focal Grande Utopia, Wilson Audio, B&W Nautilus etc. I have always wanted to try horn speakers, so something may be along those lines as a DIY project time permitting.

 

b) Power amp?

 

c) Pre-amp or integrated amp?

 

These have probably been the source of the most angst for me. Initially, I had a Marantz PM6004 for the Monitor Audio, but they were a huge letdown for the KEFs. I played around with quite a few mid hi-fi amplifiers trying to get the best out of the R300's like a Yamaha A-S500, Rega, Cambridge Audio, and lots of borrowed equipment, but in the end I had to pony up for a Roksan K3 for the KEFs to really sing.

 

PS: Have never tried separates, probably should have instead of sticking with an integrated amp.

 

d) DAC or sound card?

 

Most of my experimentation, at least the past 2 to 3 years, has been in this area. I keep changing my DACs every few months. I have had multiple DACs in the form of sound cards, quite a few mid hi-fi ones from the likes of Creative and Asus and even one serious audiophile grade one from RME. Then moving on to external DACs, there have been many like the Schiit series - Asgard 2, Modi 2 Uber, Gungnir Multibit, along with a Rega DAC and a few cheaps ones like SMSL and ODAC thrown in between. Now I'm planning/saving for the Yggdrasil or an Audio-GD DAC. Something tells me, my DAC journey has only just begun.

 

e) Cables?

 

Cables stock for the most part, and a few from Blue Jeans Cable and Lifatec, probably because I'm not a huge believer in cables making a huge change overall.

 

You have also forgotten a couple of other areas…

 

Source/Transport: Next to the DAC, the only other component that has changed a lot over the years has been the source/transport. I have changed through multiple CD players over the years, way too many to even remember, but I do regret letting go of an Ayon. Ever since moving to a computer-based source/transport I have moved between multiple PCs, laptops, an Intel NUC, even a Zotac ZBOX, but finally assembled a $2000 PC that served for a while till I heard the Raspberry Pi. Now I am extremely happy with the Raspberry Pi and a synology NAS. I do have a a couple of secondary PCs that I might try the likes of Daphile on, but for the most part I'm extremely happy with the Pi.

 

Music: I used to spend a lot on CDs, as I discovered new artists and bands, but for the most part my music collection is nearly complete as I have all of the albums (nearly all) from all of my favorite artists. In this regard I believe I'm done changing/upgrading my music collection except the odd new addition like Adele's latest CD. Most of my listening is from the 60s through the 80s, and mostly limited to rock and the blues.

[carewser]

a) Speakers?

1 year, although I bought them used

b) Power amp?

Never owned one

c) Pre-amp or integrated amp?

Never owned one

d) DAC or sound card?

Stock AMD sound card that came with my Acer laptop

e) Cables?

Stock, never upgraded

[michaelD]

Right after College over 40 years ago I got rid of everything had a nice set up consisting of at first Dahlquest 10's with subs then switched to Infinity RS-4.5's. At the time Kenwood had separates that were quite good. Got rid of it all and then about 5 years ago jumped in with Martin Logan Summit X's and Decent i subs, McIntosh 402 and MCD 500 with Nordost cabling. Then two years ago got the itch to upgrade so moved the Summits and Decent i's to a media room added a Stage X with 4 Vanquish surrounds. In the music room replaced everything between then and now. See signature for details. Last thing remaining next month is an upgrade of my M1 by Bricasti. This year will be upgrading the media room all the electronics including interconnects and power (currently Pioneer Elite 60" Panel and receiver), add more Vanquish for ATMOS and probably a OLED panel. At this point after the media room upgrade considering to replace my JC1's with the new Mark Levinson momo 536's.

[Oystein]

In the 22 years since I bought my first stereo I am in my 4rd set for 6 years now.

 

No pre set intervals but just when I had the opportunity or the urge to upgrade.

 

Looking back I guess the intervals gets longer ... first with better sound it takes longer to feel the urge again ... and even then with better and mostly more expensive equipment the financials starts te become an issue.

[davide256]

a) Speakers? only when the thunderbolt strikes and I can afford it,,, sadly the last thunderbolt

was over $100K a pair/pass

 

b) Power amp? 4 years on average

 

c) Pre-amp or integrated amp? 4 years on average

 

d) DAC or sound card? DAC every 2 years

 

e) Cables? yearly