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I often wonder just how happy they are with the purchase because when the next video comes out they will want/buy that product.
That's gives voice to a sort of running theme in this forum: that unless you are buying based on reliable information like measurements and seeking accuracy etc, then you are left to the clutches of unreliable subjective reports, leading to an endless upgrade treadmill and one is more miserable for it.
I don't think we actually have the empirical data to make that case either way. As I said, we tend to want to find justifications for our own approach over someone else's, and this can be part of the story some are telling themselves. It may certainly be true for some forum members (I've definitely seen people who said they used to buy lots of gear, but since taking a more objective stance, have stuck with gear bought that way).
Yet we see plenty of salivating about new gear on ASR, people upgrading etc. Even moving from competent designs by KEF to wanting something new KEF has brought out, or adding subs, or switching for other objectively good speakers, or gear. It's a human condition that doesn't just vanish. And it will be quite individual as to how people move in this space.
For every ASR member saying "buying X gear - e.g. ASR-approved - got me off the equipment treadmill" you can find people in "subjectivist" forums saying "I bought Harbeth speakers (or whatever) and it got me off the treadmill." People find satisfaction with a wide variety of options. I have a friend who has owned Quad ESL 57s for the last 40 years. I couldn't live with those as my only speakers. He's happy.
There's also the aspect of being judgemental about people who buy lots of gear, or who have bought and sold all sorts of speakers over their audiophile career - the idea that this has to be seen as a downer or something everyone is looking to be "cured" of. No. Some people find gear to be a hobby, they get off on buying and trying all sorts of stuff. It's like saying to a car enthusiast who has 6 different sports cars in his garage "when are you going to get off the treadmill and finally make a decision that satisfies you?" Well, that would be missing the fact this person may well actually enjoy owning various different cars...he's not aiming for One Car To Rule Them All And Retire....he likes what makes each car different.
So even pointing to the fact that any audiophile owns, or has owned, multiple systems or lots of gear over time doesn't in of itself suggest some psychological problem that has to be "cured" by "just buying gear that measures the way we at ASR care about so he can finally just call it quits."
(I've owned neutral gear and colored gear over the years, often at the same time, and I can enjoy both).
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