I'm confused.
I know I'm old and my opinions are irrelevant, but I'd like to clarify some things from my point of view.
The things that are important are food, shelter and clothing.
This is way short of the mark.
How would you like to have food, shelter and clothing….and zero education?
How would you like to have food, shelter and clothing….and live in a war zone?
How would you like to have food, shelter and clothing….and live in the middle of a plague?
How would you like to have food, shelter and clothing….and be regularly assaulted by your close group members, including sexually?
There are hierarchies of human needs, reaching well down into psychological and spiritual matters….. and they are all
needs.
Those are the things that you worry about "affording". Hobbies are something that you either can afford (in which case spend as you wish) or you cannot afford (in which case don't spend ..... period.)
If your point is that we are discussing first-world problems, then you could have just said that, instead of over-reaching.
Not only that, but the sensible way to enter into a hobby is to learn all that you can about it before you spend your money. In that process, you will undoubtedly be exposed to shills, con men and thieves. If you think otherwise, you're ............. naive. You will also be exposed to happy, satisfied users who will help you with real-world advice, as long as you make an effort to search them out.
It's up to you to sort the good from the bad, and it likely won't happen overnight. So comport yourself accordingly.
And it is my opinion ...... my cruel, unsympathetic and heartless opinion, because I'm a bad person ....... that anyone who spends " ... thousands on a headphone and more thousands on a cable and many more thousands on a DAC/Amp ..." and gets taken in is both a wastrel and lacking in the basics of common sense, to put it nicely.
Jim Taylor
Fraud and scamming of first world people is not a non-issue, sorry.
And your comment above hints that you are of the opinion that marketing only works on fools. Incorrect. It works on everyone — even you and I. And that is why fraudulent and deceptive marketing needs to be treated seriously, and not brushed under the rug as not being a “food, shelter and clothing issue”.