$920????? That blows my mind. Today a used Mac 2100 alone would cost you in the area of $1600, and that for an amp that had a list price of $599 when it was new.
It is amazing how happy we were back in the day listening to equipment that we would now characterize as mediocre at best. probably because we were more concerned with the software then the hardware. Somewhere along the line we went from buying equipment to help us enjoy the music more to buying records and CDs to help us evaluate the performance of our equipment.
My big epiphany came when Meredith ad I got married and moved into a new house. We felt that getting my sons out of the house that they grew up in would help them deal with their mother's passing and it actually did. But the downside of moving was finding a house then met all of the space needs for our blended family resulted in me loosing my dedicated listening room and having to deal with a space much smaller than what I previously had. With the downsized room I had to downsize my gear and this brought me to the realization that with the new space limitations I would most likely never be able to get the same level of SQ that I had gotten in the other house after 25 years of tweaking that room. But what did pleasantly surprise me is that although it was not as good as the old system, the new set-up was still quite good indeed and more than good enough to sit back and really enjoy the music. Knowing that my room became the limiting factor and I would in all likelihood not be able to achieve that last 1/2 percent of SQ allowed me to get off of that hamster wheel mentality of constant equipment upgrades and get back to why I started in this hobby in the first place, to enjoy the music.
Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying that spending time and money upgrading your system is a fools errand, all of that work got me to the point where my system is today and provided me with the ability to sit back and enjoy it. But there comes a point for many of us where for any of a number of reasons a change in available space, a decrease in disposable income from retirement or a career change , the inability to physically move around heavy gear, etc, that it is time to stop building and harvest the fruits of your labors. (I think we had a thread going a few years back on when does good become good enough.) And like most everything else in this hobby, that point is different for each of us and there are no wrong or right answers.
But I do have to say, that at least from my perspective getting to the point where you are content with your system and can put your focus on just sitting back and enjoying it without stressing out about whether or not you can hear the flea fart in the third row is a good place to be.
Of course I do have to admit that one of the things that also got me to this point was the introduction of high quality streaming services like Qobuz and Tidal. This allowed me to transfer my Nervosa from finding better gear to finding new music. I am having a blast exploring all kinds of vintage jazz and classical recordings that I never would have access to without these services. It is real easy to click on an old Blue Note recording that I never would have explored without streaming since most of those recordings are only available as vintage LPs that get very high prices on the collectors market. I would never pay $50 for a jazz LP that I never hear or know nothing about, but on Qobuz I can try it at no additional cost so I am finding all kinds of stuff I never would have experienced otherwise.
So Evan, I don't think that your current take on stereo equipment and music is due to old age, it is due to wisdom.
And Pete, it seems like more and more of us are starting to increase our focus on music over equipment. Kinda sounds like Earl, doesn't it?
I'm beginning to wonder if that is because we are all approaching the age that Earl was when we first met him.
