Being happy with your system is like being in love - you just know when it's right. Till then (just like with love) get used to spending a lot of $$ for less that complete satisfaction. . .
Tyson - well said.
I'd have to say that you can be satisfied, but I'm trying to think if I'd include myself in that category or not. Being satisfied, desiring nothing more than what you have......
I can't say that I'll stop desiring, but I think it is possible to be content..
I think if you can figure out being content, you stop sweating the small stuff. Sure that can be done by simply changing your mind and how you approach listening..."I have music regardless of what I listen to it on, thus I'm happy.", but like the relationship analogy, when something works, and its 'right', and you are
moved, you wonder how you lived previously, and you don't mind the blemishes, and you may even appreciate them, but more than likely, you don't even notice them.
Can you be moved more? Probably. Actually, pretty darn close to definitely.. And knowing that you've taken steps already with 'improvement', the curiosity most likely stands...but you become a bit more hestitant in those jumps, you find that need to only exist if its a relatively monumental change. You make a change, realize that its removed that blemish, but maybe there was something about it that felt right?
I think maybe if you're not moved from the start, not even a glimpse, or an inking of something being breathtaking or you being overwhelmed, then maybe you should try and find that first...not possess it, but know that's it out there.
When I first had audio catch my attention, that's really what it did -- it caught my attention, like seeing someone striking across the room. It was so far from what I was used to, but I don't know if it was emotional overload.. Maybe an audio one night stand... Different, intriguing, eye-catching, great from afar, but not necessarily something that completely shuts off your thinking and elicits nothing but emotion. I want all that other to stuff to freeze. I want to be overwhelmed.
If you tinker with equipment, try new things, swap things around, its easy to keep searching for something, and you may find definite changes, even improvement -- your presentation feels bigger, or you find greater clarity, timing improves, bass lines are more easily deciphered, but if that feeling isn't there from beginning, you're taking something that's not quite right and making a lot of changes -- erase this, add that, and its a better version of something, but not necessarily a better version for you. You start down a path that's not totally right for some time, and maybe you should have just started over.
Its the same thing as how one song will move someone while to another its irritating, and what goes the same for women and men, audio reproduction, and just about anything.. But there's got to be that something there in the first place... Find that first, and you're about 50 steps closer to satisfaction.
Not knowing anyone else local with even the slightest interest in audio equipment, and not frequenting dealers as I know I won't purchase new, my initial exposure to equipment was limited; at most brief visits to dealers. There's a lot of trial and error and taking chances in between.
If someone with some money laying around came to me for suggestions about audio, and I had the slightest thought that they might end up in the interest/upgrade/try-different-things wheel, I'd probably tell them to listen to a ton of different
systems, at individuals homes and dealers, that all had completely different philosophies and tastes, I'd tell them to spend the money to go to an audio show or two, and I'd tell them not to even
think about spending a penny until they were not impressed, but moved.
I think it would probably have saved a lot of money and frustration, but that sort of patience is tough to come by.. I also think that if you've done the swapping game, if you find something that does moves you, that you are content with, its initial easy to fall into the trap of analyzing or thinking of what could be better, and then realizing after the fact that you've found something great....for you. I think this is in part that you've been used to hearing the changes and the 'neat' and 'wow' factor that's expected in a change, that's often temporarily nice, and you're used to thinking that's there's always improvement.....and then you settle in and see that you already have it pretty darn good.
Satisfied? Maybe not completely as you're always fighting curiosity and dealing with factors out of your control (ie. recordings).
Content? You betcha.
