I took 8 years off & it was the best move I made since sticking the needle in ,I ran through over 150 pcs of equipment here and on eBay as well as 12 different sets of full range floor standing speakers , as soon as I made it to the top of the McIntosh line with Mc-1201s powering McIntosh XR-290 line arrays out comes MC with an entire new line ,going from 1,200 watts to 2,000 watts for $50k would have been a huge expense for just a notabke difference in sound so I jumped out & put my efforts back into my other hobby which is Harley Davidson motorcycles ,in the 8 years I took off of audio my gear is worth more than I paid and I acquired a 2nd Fatboy " 2015 " ,a Buell lighting ,my 1st Road King "2014 "and a 1955 Panhead Duo Glide with jockey shift and Rocker clutch ,in the 8 years off I discovered j still owned a mint pair of McIntosh XRT-22 line arrays needing new foams that are being rebuilt as we speak ,I remembered I owned a pair of Emotiva XPR-1 1,000 watt monoblocks and the XPR-2 600 wpc stereo amo ,I found my old Dynaco Panor Corp preamp/tuner and matching Dynaco tube out put CD player ,I found my vintage Rotel system along with a pair of Klipsch Heresy 3,s I listened to for a few months & tossed in the attic , I found I still owned 3 unused McIntosh amps and a C-39 Pre/Pro ,a JM Labs center channel and a Mc-HT2 subwoofer along with some super clean McIntosh XL-1 Bookshelf speakers and the matching XL-1W bass module ,I’ve been having hella fun playing with old equipment that’s been stashed away and my main system still grabs me by the short n curlys every time I see the tube warmup notification come across my preamp ,I spent the last 8 years concentrating on room Accoustics I learned j should have addressed before I got past the $5,000 mark In HiFi ,the bass traps I had built and the rear wall diffiser that has an oil painting finish we’re the biggest marked improvements I’ve ever heard & only spent $800 on all 3 treatments .
I think all of us should take at least 5 years off where were no longer looking at the most beautiful new piece in our rigs and just explore our music collections , ,last week I found myself enjoying the hell out of myself listening to some Ice T my 10 year old grandson was playing on my system and I absolutely HATE rap music except Blowfly , any reason you can find to take a step back and get off the roller coaster of flipping gear will be a huge blessing in your life I’m betting ,I had my 90 year old aunt on the back of my street glide for Thanksgiving as one of her bucket list deals & had the time of my life ,I wish we could post pics .