The truth? What a concept. But keep in mind, everyone's truth is just as valid as your own.
I'm of a different mindset I guess. I buy equipment I like and keep it until technology advances to the point where I have to change it out of necessity or it breaks down. The last time I had a major change for necessity was to get HDMI input capability. Now its on to Atmos capability. I don't have the time nor the desire to keep hunting down and changing out equipment. I'm in it for the music, not the gear.
I haven't played physical disks in years. I handle them only to rip them to my NAS, then store them away. They are a nuisance because of the storage problem. I still have a turntable that only gathers dust, an Oracle Delphi, Black Widow arm, MC cart. All highly regarded equipment back in its day. I use it occasionally now to demonstrate to the odd vinyl aficionado (who always seem to be convinced that vinyl sounds so much better) that hi res digital out performs it under A/B test. So I guess the truth does have a way of biting eh?
I used high end tube gear for a time back in my stereo days. Audio Research SP-6, D-150s, with bi-amped Magneplanar Tympani 1-D's (an upgrade from Dahlquist DQ-10s). A lot of that was purchased on the basis of what the underground rags thought of it at the time. But it wasn't satisfying to me. I listen to rock, not classical (I tried it, it's not my thing). After a while I came to realize the tube components were distortion machines. The distortion was euphonic maybe, but it was distortion none the less. I also realized that for what I was listening to there was better equipment to be had. One day I sold it all and never looked back.
Edit: I just realized, both my old amps and speakers are mentioned in the article you posted.
Well, since you are all products of my imagination, my truth is all that matters, eh? ;-)
Yes, some analog components have very long legs. SOME.... mostly the old tube stuff and some designs that attempted to bypass the nastiness of early solid state transistors.
Music wise we listen to everything BUT rap and hip hop. And we know how real instruments sound so that adds a layer of expectations on how we listen to our music: realism is very important to us... instruments may be euphonic but sound more realistic that other instruments that might more accurate in that way but add a layer of nastiness that makes them less realistic.
I separated my systems a long time ago. The Video (HT) and two channel audio required very different set ups.
My HT has seen the most churn... at one point I had a seven foot rack of Sony ES stuff.... It got so complicated that I bought the 6x6 matrix switch and had a cheat sheet printed out. I used my ADS speakers, an Infinity Video Reference front projector (upped to 480p) and a 19" Proton. I added a Windows NT tower with an early 24/96 audio card, etc, etc... But the churn of standards makes an HT system ( mostly anything digital ) a change-forever proposition.
Today, the only part of my HT to have some long legs are the 7.0 PSB Stratus speaker setup -bought used in '00- but everything else is in flux: LG 77OLED, Emotiva Pre (likely next out), Nuforce MCA-20, Dell i5 Laptop (win8, 64bit), ASUS 7.1 decoder, Direct TV, etc... Sources are now the rips in the LAN NAS ( 110TB, two PLEX servers)... I have ripped all my DVDs into MP4 and ISO... so the laptop can play the ISO as if it were a physical DVD. Things keep changing in there... and I'm not going the way of Atmos. Forget it.
Now, the two channel set up has been a history of refinement, except for the digital. Started the digital with sequential Dell towers running a succession of 24/96 AD/DAC boards, then moved to an M-Audio Profire and now updating to the RME ADI Pro FS and a Dell 8030. That's for the recording/playback path, as a digital tape deck.
I then added Tidal HiFi so for that I use a simple Samsung Android Tablet with update audio drivers, an OTG USB cable and a NuForce HDP4 as DAC... running it as an AUX into the preamp. I updated the tablet with a 512 GB flash card so I got like 400++ downloaded albums (mostly Master Quality). My phone is sync'd to that, so it makes for nice music in our long 2500 mile round drives up the Coast.
The analog audio stuff is more of a refinement.... I seldom sell what I buy... so I got the updated Linn LP12/Trampolin/Ittok/Grado Master 2 well maintained with a new suspension... the CJ PV9 with the teflon caps, and a number of amps and speakers available.... DIY Aleph 5s into the Maggie 1.7i's and the B1Korg/DIY F5 into my oldie ADS L810s for a taste of "rock"... Oh, the VPI HW1.6 ( knock on wood ) is still working well after all this years!
So, the only thing I've been thinking of getting rid of is the CDs and DVDs as I have them all well ripped, but the LPs are a different story. I like the way they sound and every time I change the turntable/preamp/ADC I automatically invalidate everything I've recorded... meaning the sound changes. Besides, with clean records, I find that they don't wear out. And so I rotate between Tidal sources and playing vinyl.
The thing is that 2 channel audio has changed a lot too.. Those Timpanis don't hold up when compared with the current crop of Maggies... and the SP6 will sound outdated when compared with something like my factory upgraded PV9 with those teflon caps (expensive, rare and worth every penny in sound quality). I mean, even something that moves slowly, with somewhat fixed in standards does evolve over time and equipment from the 70s is simply bested by current stuff. The good thing is that if you chose the right components, you might be able to update them... if not, like my ADS L810s, well they sound good still (they were very fine in its time) but they lack the imaging of a Harbeth M30 or my Acoustic Energy AE1s (which oddly enough, although 30 years old, are still outstanding..).
I have four other systems in the house, home offices and in two bedrooms... but that's another story. More toys, except that for my wife's office I'm keeping it sort of static: NuForce DDA120 to Acoustic Energy AE1s.