Guilty Pleasures....

Whatever the guilt feels like, Dewald, and it can feel horrible, you don't have to use it to beat up on yourself. Developing a radical turntable and tonearm is sure to teach you a lot, and bravo for your salvaging and recycling. IME the most awful feelings will pass if you let them do their thing without trying to get rid of them by repressing or acting out. Maybe you and your mother need to have a talk, perhaps with a neutral party present if one or the other of you is not sure they'll have a chance to be fully heard. Good luck!

There is no need to feel guilty, what needs to happen is to build a system you are happy with and stick with it. An audio system is a tool for playing back your favorite music. That's all there is to it. Once you leave the obsessive compulsive behavior behind you and stop obsessing over other components out there, you will find you have more time for everything else including music and the expenses also stop.

Well said Tboooe. That hits it right on in my view.

As long as you have your priorities right; your family is not wanting; you're saving for your future; you have no debts; and, you have some disposable income left over, then what's the harm. If everything else is taken care of, then why should a person not enjoy some of the pleasures that life has to offer in the short time that we have on this earth. Enjoying life is not something to feel guilty about.

One thing that helps me rationalize the huge expense of this hobby, is that once I get my system to a certain level, I've tended to stay with it for 20 plus years.

So, once you do the math and spread it out, and consider the amount of enjoyment gained, it actually seems pretty cheap.

It also keeps me out of trouble, Audiophilia is awfully tame compared to a great many other things I could be doing with my free time.

Okay, I could have bought a country club golf membership (around here 50k plus 500 bucks a month plus a food charge) and been around my family less with nobody enjoying it but me.. then add food, misc, a cart) but I would rather golf with my friends at the local muni.

I could have bought an exotic car that I could take one family member in who would complain about the wind, the noise, drive it twice a month on Sundays, move my wife's car out of the garage, pay insurance, upkeep, etc.

I could have bought a boat, forced the family to go there every weekend, pay the payments, the slip fees, the barnacle scraping fee, the fuel, the upkeep, etc.

Instead I bought a stereo that my whole family can enjoy, that brings me great joy, that keeps me at home, that uplifts the soul, and satsifies my need to tinker,that is a per piece charge, no monthly maintenance fee (other than bigger electricity bills) that soothes me when I am tired or stressed. If I want to upgrade, I can try it out, I can wait on the finances, I can buy something for 12 dollars and have a new piece of joy for the rest of my life. I can pass along my love of music to my kids, amazingly, one daughter in in three dance clases as a teenager, the other plays cello and drums, wonder if they had done that if I was away playing golf three times a week instead of playing music every night?

All things being equal, I can think of a lot more selfish things to spend money on.

Cheers!
Chris