It's been really nice reading on each of the posts here. For my own story I have to recall those RAM from my brain as to what I did and what I have done. I hereby confess the ff:
Circa late 70s I bought, probably with my own money from school allowance, a portable Sanyo cassette player which I 'converted' into wide stereo sound by plugging a pair of Daichi bookshelf speakers.
As would be the formula for all my further 'upgrades', I sold that, and bought another set of toy, this time a 'Silver' brand mini component (Japan) from Cardinal Audio.I really loved that thing. But again, SOLD. Next buy was a Sansui 'separate' mini component. As with other upgrade phenomena, the SIZE of the components gets bigger. I matched this with my first, ahem, US made speaker, the Boston Acoustics (forgot the model). Heaven. A few more months, a supplier in the office told me if I like stereo, I should get JBL speakers. He sold me a pair. (I do not wonder now.)
It was the L-86. Then I upgraded it to the L-112 (again, bigger size). The same fellow introduced me to his friend who sold me an impressive but troublesome SS amp and at the same time I bought a JBL 4311 Studio Monitor. The ball was rolling hard and when I visited AudioLab in Timog to buy TAS magazine, I ended up bring home a Bose 901 SIII too, which I mated with yet another new intergrated amp, HUGE, heavy and hot Pioneer amp. I think by that time I had 3 systems in 3 different rooms.
I know believe I did not know what I was doing then.
And while rabidly bringing copies of TAS and Stereophile into my office and bedroom, I succumbed to yet another purchase, the so-called 5 star cartridge flavor of the month, the Madrigal Carnegie 1 which was designed by Ernest Benz of Benz Mirco.
Thereafter, some guy whom I met from the Bulletin Today classified ads sold me a Fisher pre-amp which I mated with an Apt Holman SS amp (yet another new amp). And the ball continued to roll that when I was introduced to Audiophile Components in Paco, I ordered via indent a pair of Infinity RS3b which was a younger brother of the then highly rated RS 1b (of which I had not enough money to buy anymore).
As luck would have it, I discovered that a neighbor also loved the hobby, and he bought my Fisher/Apt combo and I bought a Counterpoint SA7.1 pre-amp and Sumo Polaris amp from the late Mang Dima. By this time, my source was the Ariston RD110 table with the Sumiko Premeire MMT arm and a Grado 8 MI Cartridge.( Prior to this, the source were casette decks and a Sansui and Kenwood integrated turntable.) This was the period that I would regard as my first entry into 'high-end' audio. This should be in the mid 80s.
And this would be the start of REALLY building my system. I had sold all of my previous mini comps and JBLs, sort of consolidated my spendings into one 'big system', and here it goes further...Moments later, I would order a VPI HW 19MKII, a ET2 air bearing arm, and a Monster Cable Alpha 2 MC cartridge. In the meantime, the RS3b was sold and in came the B&W Martix 3 loudspeakers. It stayed briefly because the Celesion 600s came in, which later became the 600Si, and while I got 'tired' of the bookshelves, I ordered a pair of Thiel 3.5s from a US dealer in SF. By then, my electronics were magically converted via 'upgradtitis' into the ARC D115 amp and SP10 MKII pre-amp. And because of the phenomenon of 'trade-in-nitis', the D115 became D125, and the SP10 became the SP14. What happened next was an opportunity to own a virtual brand new Koetsu 'nude' cartridge that was rebuit by the Lyra boys of Scantech. Also, the ARC was sold in favor of a pair of VTL 120/75 monos.
Into the 90s: Bought a pair of B&W801 S3 monitors, Conrad Johnson MV125 amp and traded in some minor stuffs for a Jadis JPL line stage while retaining my SP14 as a phono stage. Theta Pro Gen 2 also arrived via trade-ins. While living happily at this period, the phone rang and it was the so called 'sulsultant' on the other line. Trade-initis again, this time, 801s for the humongous 800s. I can't refuse the deal, can I?
After a great review, the 800s were the 'perfect' speakers of that time, or so said some reviewer.
The rest is history. Another call in a few weeks from you-know-who and the CJ was to 'balloon' into the 4 chassis Jadis JA200. It was so hard to be good (to my wife).
I sort of promised her (silently) that I wouldn't buy any hardware anymore (for a year maybe) but an irresistable offer from an old friend for a very very slightly used Koetsu Black passed by, and since it was relatively small, she did not notice.
This combination lasted the a long time of non-movement, about 4 years until I decided to let go of the huge 800s speakers in favor of the Magnepan 2.7QRs. I realized I had been lisening to a lot of vocals, hence the move to the Maggies which are known to have a beautiful midband. I was not disappointed. At this moment on till about 10 more years, I did not do any 'upgrade' and in fact went downscale in the amp department as the JA200 proved to be unreliable and hard to service. In came the present ARC VS110 and it stayed till now and the SP14 became the ARC PH3. About 1 year ago, I also did a slight upgrade to my old Koetsu Black and changed its color to the Rosewood Signature. And here, is where all the build-ing ends, I would like to believe.
Like many other hobbies, the audio path we take is a learning one. We never cease to be students of our hobby. I admit that sometimes there may be no logic to my upgrade or downgrade movements but just by sheer passion and impulse. We may pause and go on, or perhaps finally stop in system building, but our learning process still goes on, from listening to other systems, and sharing audio experiences, exchanging insights and opinions.
Sorry for the long narration, I would have divided it into 2 parts but I thought I might forget some tidbits. Thanks for reading.