If you’re anything like me, you’re constantly upgrading your gear

No I don’t. I don’t upgrade anymore. Music doesn’t get any better than this. I have my end game setup.

Or, to say it differently the next upgrade is so much money and inifinitesimal diminishing returns that I have absolutely zero urge to make it.

Nobody understand a damn thing about all this. Get a good DAC as published by audiosciencereview, and you’re done. Really it’s that simple. And it’s cheap.

Music is the goal. Which is, the music, tone and intent is already recorded and I want to reproduce it faithfully. My system does just that, it’s silky clear.

I don’t want to play an instrument playing an instrument. That seems silly to me.

Definitely. I’m not particularly a fan of the CD format to begin with, it’s all plastiky, it flexes, it makes that squeaky noise, etc. It’s really not pleasant. I much prefer vinyl, but the quality is at least an order of magnitude worse than digital, so digital I go. And Roon makes the whole experience so good honestly.

You should do that in the digital domain if you want to do that.

Also, my amp doesn’t have tone control of course, because that’s a power amp.

Please do not compare snake oil cables to art. It hurts.

Absolutely. Proper cables make a huge difference. It has been illustrated by benchmark here and here for example.

Also: this kind of state of the art very good cable cost pretty much nothing.

You can do it here of course. You can also join private groups on Facebook, you’ll find one for each good brand, and post there, each time someone ask for the cables they should use, etc.

You have to fight on all fronts.

I was very sceptical about break in, and obviously I think it’s total bs for electronics, amps for example. But for speakers, Focal specifically says in their manual that the new Shape I bought needed break-in. I don’t remember if it was stated for my Sopra.

Anyway I guess you could debate speakers have moving parts, with lubricant etc. which need to settle in. But honestly it would happen very quickly or even at factory.