I’ve had a record player for at least 20 years. For the last 10 or so it was an Audio Technica LP120, which is on the upper end of ’non-audiophile’ turntables. Swappable cartridges, tons of tracking force adjustments, speed adjustments and strobes to check for accuracy. Direct drive. I ended upgrading the cartridge at some point. I loved that turntable, and it was darn reliable.

I did manage to fry it on 220v here in Singapore, despite the fact that it advertised compatibility with 220v. After it broke, it didn’t take me long to find a successor: an Audio Technica LP70X, which is in many ways the opposite: Fixed cartridge, no tracking force adjustment or speed adjustment. Belt driven.

So why the “downgrade”? And given that I’ve been buying and playing LPs for so long, why not upgrade to something really great?

Because the price+time vs results curve on so many things in our life looks like this:

and the LP70 is just past the sigmoid component, while the LP120 is higher up: almost twice the price, but diminishing returns.

You can apply this to tons of things. There’s a relationship like this when it comes to cars, musical instruments, cameras, youth sports, vacations, kitchen equipment. For myself, it was even true with schooling - thankfully I was blessed with choice. Going to Purdue over something like Indiana State made a much bigger difference in my life than going to Yale or MIT over Purdue would have.

For some people, those top end results are worth the time and whatever money it takes. For most of us, finding that point just past the sigmoid is a real sweet spot for quality of life. Except the one or two things you’re truly passionate about.