Not much of a line for me yet other than my wallet. ALTHOUGH I'm getting a lot closer to "settling down" for awhile...I think, anyway (famous last words). I definitely don't hoard, more like "churn." Try something for a year or so, move it on, hopefully for close to what I paid for it. I've never kept really anything extra around, I"d rather spend it on something I can use. At one point I had 4 systems. Then down to 3 for awhile. Now down to 2 systems - it was going to be one system but right at that time I had a speaker issue in my main system...luckily I still had the 2nd system around as "fill in" duty and at that point I decided to keep two systems. One main system, one office system. Anything in the main system goes down, the office system gets bumped up to the main system to fill in. The office system is modest but IMO still sounds darn good...good enough for main system fill-in duty.
I do have a bit of an amplifier issue right now...4 power amps laying around, only one being used, 1 needs repair, 2 for sale...I've never had this happen before...I'm not even a power amp kinda guy...but here we are...
If I buy these days, it either has to be a "steal" price or something on my "wish list" at a good price, that is a step up from what's in my main system. As my main system has improved, it becomes harder and harder to do that. As I'm "only" about 5 years into this hobby, there are still a lot of brands and types of gear that I've never owned or even HEARD, so plenty of opportunity to explore yet, but I'm more careful about what I buy now....there has to be a purpose and a great price, and preferably an audition, but if the price is good enough, I'll try without hearing.
It's so easy to ramble on this topic! Bottom line for me is basically:
- don't break the bank
- purchases should be a clear step up, on the "wish list" or brands/types I've yet to hear and am curious about, at good/steal prices
- very limited extra gear around...ideally none, as I can take the 2nd system offline to fill in for the main system