Interesting thread. About 5 or 6 years ago, I sold all of my vinyl stuff and my record collection. Not because I don't think great vinyl is still the best, but because with the 1000's of CD's I had as well as my vinyl collection, I simply did not have the time (or inclination) to listen to anywhere near all of the music I wanted to. And, to be honest, a music server spoiled me. And now, with streaming services like Tidal, it has just gotten to "easy" to reconsider jumping back into vinyl (but some of those gorgeous turntables are alluring !!).
I, like Rodney, am now using a Trinnov to drive my system. The upsides for me are huge since I no longer listen to 2 channel music with 2 channels. and can keep readily available listening curves, depending on the kind of music I am listening to. I am a huge 70's rock addict but most all of the music is recorded with anemic bass. Now, with the click of a mouse, I can select a new preset with a different shaped target curve and, viola, no more anemic bass.
Listening to 2 channel music but using AuroMatic to cleverly engage the other speakers in the room is most enjoyable. If you were in the sweet spot, you would be sure you were listening to 2 channel, until I disable all of the others. Even my hard core Magico friend is finding some enjoyment (not 100% sold, but close) in the expanded pleasure of a more holographic listening experience.
As I said in another thread, there are a number of reasons that I chose to finally get off the bus: the massive reduction is expendable funds (retired and loving every minute of it); actually no longer being able to criticize the audio in my room, and finally admitting that the chase to perfection (whatever that is) was, in addition to incredibly expensive, occasional frustrating, time consuming and really took away from the (alleged) purpose of this hobby - listening to music. Even the tweaks I have alway used to "fine tune" no longer work.
Will I quit spending money on this hobby? No. I will continue to try to improve the user interface to the room's multiple purposes; I will, of course, continue to purchase source material (even that can get pricy); and finally, re-do the wiring mess that has occurred as a result of all of the recent changes and upgrade.
I found a post on anther forum from about 4 years ago where I stated something similar, only to be followed up a year later by massive upgrades and changes. While will this time be different? A number of reasons. When I retired and sold my business, I set aside some funds from that sale specifically for use in this hobby - and they are all but gone. Furthermore, short of starting completely over (new speakers, etc) or getting back into analog (won't happen) there are no significant improvements I can make. I have finally, for my audio system gotten to the "good enough" place as I did in video about 2 years ago. And with the gazillion options built into the Trinnov, if I get the itch to "diddle" I can.
It has been an awesome, if not incredibly, incredibly expensive, over 50 year journey (started in college) that got me here. There is not an occasion now, that when either listening to music (or watching a movie for that matter) that I don't sit in the room and then leave the room with a smile on my face. No more "if only" !!
