AussieMick
500+ Head-Fier
For me the 2022 is a very long term keeper. I generally hold into speakers and amps for a very long time. Current DAC/amp from 2018 and I’ve not heard anything of roughly the same price that’s obviously superior. I bought a new amp two months ago that I see myself living with for ten years. My speakers are 2020, still a current model. Streamer from 2020. Great app and sounds excellent. I’ll try to add a new preamp next year and again try to purchase something that will offer a long life of excellent performance.
The joy for me in buying at this level is partly the hunt for something I know really gets me excited. Susvara, LCD-5, Abyss, have all been at home for a trial and all went back. They’re brilliant, but not for me. Nutopia was “the one”. It’s the same with DACs and amps and speakers. Lots of things tried, so I know all of the other stuff at the top of my budget isn’t for me, therefor there's no wondering, either. It tends to eliminate upgradistis.
If I won the lottery I know what I’d buy, and it’s all silly money (to me) stuff. It took a LOT of work to get here. Time, research, trips to other cities to hear things I couldn’t hear locally. My reasoning was that if I’m going to spend AUS$8500 on a speaker amp, I can certainly spend $400 on a cheap airfare and hotel room to somewhere far away to hear it in the flesh.
So to answer the original question, I’ll use Nutopia well past the warranty period. If another Utopia arrives after that which clearly delivers more I’ll consider it, but I doubt that will happen. When has it ever happened at this level that a flagship overhaul has resulted in anything like the debut of the original? Cry once, love happily thereafter. (If it stops working out of warranty, I’ll pay to get it repaired if needed, because that will be cheaper than a new one)
The joy for me in buying at this level is partly the hunt for something I know really gets me excited. Susvara, LCD-5, Abyss, have all been at home for a trial and all went back. They’re brilliant, but not for me. Nutopia was “the one”. It’s the same with DACs and amps and speakers. Lots of things tried, so I know all of the other stuff at the top of my budget isn’t for me, therefor there's no wondering, either. It tends to eliminate upgradistis.
If I won the lottery I know what I’d buy, and it’s all silly money (to me) stuff. It took a LOT of work to get here. Time, research, trips to other cities to hear things I couldn’t hear locally. My reasoning was that if I’m going to spend AUS$8500 on a speaker amp, I can certainly spend $400 on a cheap airfare and hotel room to somewhere far away to hear it in the flesh.
So to answer the original question, I’ll use Nutopia well past the warranty period. If another Utopia arrives after that which clearly delivers more I’ll consider it, but I doubt that will happen. When has it ever happened at this level that a flagship overhaul has resulted in anything like the debut of the original? Cry once, love happily thereafter. (If it stops working out of warranty, I’ll pay to get it repaired if needed, because that will be cheaper than a new one)
