JimmyS, What you doing is what many experienced hobbyists do, they learn how to work with a system and get the best out of it by understanding the sonic signature of brands of gear with your room and speakers making a huge impact on the final sound you will hear. Many times we just want a different "sound" from what we are used to (boredom). The only danger is you can go, on and on changing our gear and sometimes you end up at square one again. We chase our tail always thinking boy the next piece of gear will get me there. The best advice I heard once was to turn off the system for a few weeks then go back to it, it will never have sounded better. I've done it and he was right, your ears get a break from hearing the same sound so to speak. I went away for a month once and when I came home warmed up the system and I said it never sounded this good.
I had a good friend who's the system was killer, he called me depressed because he said where do I go with it, in a month he sold almost everything off, and then for several years brought more and more gear to get back to the sound he liked, very expensive, but then he had the money to do it, and even today it does not have that magic that one system had and it was not the newest gear, I learned a lesson from him.
I can see myself adding a tube preamp at some point or a tube amp and sell my 400-watt amp, and I want it to sound like a tube preamp or amp, not a tube trying to sound like a solid-state preamp or visa versa.
The one I'm thinking about my same friend said it won't hold value so when you go to sell it won't be worth much, I said why do you think I want to sell it if it sounds good? I am not a gear junky, just for the sake of buying.
Listen it can only get so good then you just making change for change's sake unless you have deep pockets but thinking back I heard systems 30 years ago that sounded more like the real thing that many high-dollar systems sound today. NO FANCY POWER CORDS, WALL OUTLETS, CABLES, POWER CONDITIONERS, ETC. Nothing against them I own them, but I also know the sound I heard of gear back then that was sellar.
A different sound is refreshing, but it does not make it better. As I age I hope I get smarter, and chasing the holy grail died a long time ago, that is a road to ruin and dissatisfaction, which is why many get fed up-sell their system and never look back, it lost its enjoyment due to frustration. Keep it fun, it's about the enjoyment of the music in the end, and like cooking, we spice it up to our own personal taste. And that's the way it is, its a hobby no absolutes, we all seek what we like.
I grew up on vinyl of course, but I will never go back to it, I own my CD's that will never be on LP's and why would I want to spend more money to buy back the same vinyl I owned before and now own it well-mastered CD, yes some CD's do not sound as good as my vinyl 1st pressings, but that not night and day, more due to tapes now being 30-50 years old, not new 1st generation pressings like I owned and owned only no reissues (RE) on the back of the LP cover. They never sounded as good and once I had a Manhattan Transfer RE LP I purchased and played it I said where the hell happened to the warmth and where did the bass go, back it went, the guy at the record store said yeah reissues can be really bad at times, sounded worse than any CD I"ve owned did. I never bought used Vinyl much due to the damage done to the inner grooves due to cheap turntables and poor arms and setups.
I have CD's that smokes my LP's. So this myth that vinyl is superior is just that, I owned many dog sounding vinyl recordings. It gets back to the mastering, plus vinyl can only handle so much dynamic range, the needle is hard-pressed to track it, think Telarc 1812 Overture, back then arms jump when the cannons went off, that was a true test of arm setup and tracing and VTA, etc, we all laughed watching this happen and bass notes as well.
So much we learned over the many years. But my biggest lesson was to enjoy the music, not only gear.
