true. and i would also advise the others to upgrade their software. there are a lot of audiophile-quality materials out there that could be bought at reasonable prices. chesky, linn, clarity, sheffield, mobile fidelity, reference, absolute sound, sony, etc. but you see, even getting more technical, such as equipment tweaking, is towards achieving the ultimate sound, or a previously unheard sound, we want to achieve and discover.
Sir AV, i guess we were luckier we had built a good collection of audiophile-grade recordings, incl. vinyls that were easily available then, but hard to find now. remember Danny Samonte's (Sam's Audio) record sale on Pasay Road in early '80s? i was a fresh graduate back then, but i was able to buy at least a hundred vinyls from that little shop. i shifted a bit to CDs, however, after a guy at the Linn shop on Union Square in SF in mid-90s demonstrated that digital CD technology has improved a lot since the early '80s.
my interest in audio was on-and-off and i once thought i had settled on the best i could afford. however, i don't think my desire to upgrade would ever stop. call it human frailty, but i'd say some others would feel the same. the gear is nothing without the music and only good amps and speakers could do justice to the lush orchestration of Mahler's 5th and the grandeur of Beethoven's 9th. your posts make this forum a lot more interesting. thanks for your comments.