I'm happy but I want more, more, more

LewM said : " I disagree that this is or is becoming a rich man's hobby. The thoughtful and introspective man who is a clever shopper and a little bit handy in a workshop (not necessarily a craftsman) can achieve as much or more satisfaction as anyone with purely money to blow away.  True, you have to have SOME money to spend.  But six figures, nah."

I'm confused. Who said anything about “6 figures”, or suggested that shrewd second-hand buying wasn’t an option? The OP merely asked what could benefit from improvement in his system and he got a few answers. ;^)

Is the HiFi biz rapidly becoming the province of those with higher levels of disposable income….?

Well, that depends on who one talks to.

Some say all we must do to get good HiFi on the cheap is to purchase a second-hand SL1200 and refurbish it.

While I’m not opposed to this idea and have applied this principle a lot with cars, perhaps before we all rush off and start scanning E-Bay a simple lesson in economics might be in order. For every person who currently owns a second-hand SL1200 there is someone out there who bought one brand new then got rid of it  i.e. an undeniably larger number of original owners (because not all units made it back to market). In other words, the second-hand market doesn't exist unless the new market exists strongly.

Last time I looked the new SL-1200G (the non-Limited Edition model) was planned for 2016 release AT NEARLY TWICE THE PRICE OF THE OP’S CURRENT TURNTABLE.

So it would be truer to say that for more than half of us it is *becoming* an expensive hobby and for the remainder it isn’t. I will however put the money towards the items where I feel it will do the most good. ;^)