In article , none wrote:
How has upgrading you system changed your CD buying habits?

Just after the last hardware upgrade I see from my financial records
that I started spending much more on the "software".

Do you spend more money on demo disks?

No. There is a HFNRR test LP in the rack but that's for use once in a blue
moon for set-up reasons. The rest are for listening not demonstration.

Do you buy stuff you don't really like just becaused it is a 'DDD'
CD, HDCD, SACD?

No. I used to specifically look for DDDs of music I wanted when I first
got a CD player but I learned better. I now I buy with complete alacrity
anything with reasonable sound (including ADDs from 1955 onwards where
the performance shines - and I do have great performances back to the
1920s e.g. Bix Beiderbecke).

Life is too short to listen to less than excellent music. Sound matters
but music matters more. I have learned which reviewers to believe more
than the others and learned how to read their reviews to ensure a good
hit rate for buying music that, to me, is excellent.

Ever bought a disk just because you read some one had used it as a
listening test cd in a reveiw?

Yes when trying new genres (almost inevitably to my dissapointment)
but never in areas where I know the music.

Can you honestly say you just buy the music you want to listen
to, or has getting the best out of your system become an obsession?

Yes, I do just buy music to listen to and not to demonstrate the
system. I do put in some effort to set up the system (e.g. loudspeaker
positioning) but this is rather infrequent compared to the listening
time in between.

If Dark Side of the Moon was only in you collection on a chewed-up C-90,
would it ever get played?

I have and listen to a pair of 1978 C90s of the best performance I have
ever heard of Handel's Messiah (Walter Susskind at the Proms that year).
I listen to them more than my CD version of a different performance (can't
remember who). I should transfer them to CD before they deteriorate
any more!

--
John Phillips