You will of course remember my response to your dissertation.
I REALLY enjoyed that, Mark (of course, I'm old and have a LOT of time on my hands
). You're to be commended for your openness, honesty, and articulation.
Your journey reminds me of my own, though slightly different, road to aural happiness and abject poverty. I came back from Viet Nam in 1970 with some pretty heady equipment for that day: top of the line Pioneer stereo receiver; AR-5 speakers; AR turntable with Shure V15 cartridge; Teac top of the line reel to reel tape deck, and Koss Pro4AA headphones. Believe it or not that stuff lasted me 30 years. And, if I were interested in music alone, and if one of the AR speakers hadn't given up the ghost, and if the knobs on the Pioneer receiver hadn't pooped out, I'd probably STILL be using it.
About the time this equipment was heading for the big stereo trash heap in the sky, I began noticing how good movies in a theater were sounding, and particularly how good the MUSIC in those movies sounded. I can remember my reaction to the soundtrack of Sleepless In Seattle which utilized a lot of great old songs that I loved. That reaction was "Gee, my stereo at home doesn't sound like that." DUH! So, like you, I bought a Technics Pro Logic receiver and some new speakers, and from then on I was dead meat.
I know what you mean by "pride of ownership." I tend to express it as "pleasure of ownership" just to avoid the possibility of others interpreting it as "snobbery." But, I believe we are talking about the same thing. For me the wonderful thing is, having reached the age I have, the "pride" has little or nothing to do with what others think. The only opinion that really counts is the man in the mirror's. Folks who have lesser systems would listen and be impressed with my stuff, and "audiophiles" (I have come to loathe that word and all it implies) would just smile and politely say "gee, that's very nice." So, since reactions, by others, to my system would run the gamut from "AH" to "UGH," I think it prudent to listen to the little man inside. Quite liberating!
