Headphones aren't the most expensive hobby of mine, as traveling takes that title by a mile and a half.

I feel like it's been a worthwhile journey. Money is made to be spent on things that bring enjoyment to your life IMO. I feel like the money I've used for audio-related purchased has been well worth it in return for the thousands of hours of enjoyable music listening I've done.

Buying used and waiting for good deals to come up have allowed me to try a lot of stuff with decent resale value. Listening to gear before purchasing it limits buyer's remorse.

It helps that I'm not a particuarly impulsive buyer. I'm always curious about new equipment that come out, but I generally don't buy into the hype enough to make a purchase in blind faith.

There's a big difference between audio aficionados that spend $2-20K on their setups vs. those that spend hundreds of thousands on big Wilsons and DarTZeels and what not. I'd wager that those of us in the former category are probably more devoted music fans than the latter group, as much of the equipment in the six-figure class seems tailor made to people that just have a ton of money and a ton of shit. Garage full of Ferraris? Would sir like these $200K speakers? They need to be brought in via crane and require a minimum of 500 watts, by the way we just happen to have 500 watt amplifiers, also $200K. Right this way...

I know I'm painting with a broad brush and I'm sure there are some people out there with hyper expensive systems that are genuine music lovers and care about sound as opposed to just having a thousand pounds worth of ceramic drivers and carbon fiber that they can impress the neighbors with. These things though, I mean come on, these are $160K toys for rich kids, end of story.

However, how do the rest of you balance this out. Do you have high waged jobs? Cut down on the rest (trips, clothes, eating out etc.)? Or simly scavenge the FS-listing on various forums?

It would be fun with a discussion about this, shoot!

/V

i sell my body on the streets. i am clearly an irresistible guy. everything and everyone wants to hit this. but it's all thanks to Anax,LFF,rythmdevil, and kirosia. they trained me well and prepped me with utmost extravagant and unparalleled position to do my duty. i'm basically the gigolo of gigolos.

White Snake....gigalo.....heh heh...heh...