N.B. The following are my experiences of buying Hi-Fi as a customer over the years before making a business out of audio.
I have been a Hi-Fi enthusiast since the age of 15 when I purchased a Dual 505-2, Nad 3020 and Mission 700 system package.
To my embarrassment I would play `Kiss Alive 11` at nearly full volume but it wasn`t long before my tastes in music widened to the point where I now listen predominantly to World music.
My first upgrade was when I discovered the wonderful Croft Micro which was initially used in conjunction with the Nad power amp section thanks to the nifty pre/power links on the back of the 3020. I then tried the Linn K9 followed by the K18 which did not improve on the standard issue Nagaoka MP11 Boron cartridge the package had come with.
By pure experimentation, I `externalised` and bi-wired my Mission crossovers (before bi-wiring existed to my knowledge) and rang Mission to tell them what a big improvement it had made to those particular speakers and after giving a detailed description of what I`d done, they said `not practical for mass-production`…
Later, I bought a Thorens TD 150 with SME 3009 arm from a junk shop and realised the greatness of some classic audio.
A friend swapped my new K19 for a worn out Decca Gold and it was the single biggest upgrade I had yet made! As it was supposedly worn, I had it re-tipped with a VDH tip and it lost its magic. The swings and roundabouts of upgrading started to sting.
At that time the Rega RB300 came into existence and every reviewer was shouting about it. I bought one for the Thorens and immediately lost bass focus while the midrange became forward! It obviously didn`t suit the deck and cartridge as well as the SME 3009 had done.
My first foray into CD replay was a Pioneer PD9700 with its stable-platter mechanism. It was an above average player for the time and yet I remember a renowned Hi-Fi dealer in Wolverhampton explaining to me how `Phillips have written a technical document explaining why the Stable-platter mechanism cannot work!` What nonsense…
I found that CD replay in general reproduced the very simple passages quite well until the music got slightly complex when it would become confused and far less natural than vinyl. The primary layer would be OK, each subsequent layer more of an ill-defined mush.
Auditioning other players, I found I preferred Delta Sigma designs which had a far superior midrange to Multibit etc. The problem with Delta Sigma was that the rhythm was slow and bass rather thick. E.g. Quad 67 which was a great player nonetheless. Midrange and vocal naturalness is what the ear recognises best and so Delta-Sigma was a fair compromise of what was on offer at the time.
A few years later the first Cambridge Dacmagic came out and it was a `must buy` so I did. The bass was overblown and thick and the mid and top slightly inferior to my Pioneer. I then began to realise that what most people, including `What Hi-Fi` mean by `good bass` is big, thick and ill-defined to my ears.