For this specifically, “Traitorous Critic Fallacy”. More broadly, an Ad Hominem argument.

Lost/reduced wages from time off work, and health insurance doesn’t cover everything.

I’ve bought pretty expensive equipment, tube amplifier, many fancy headphones, optical DACs. A library full of FLAC files. I even purchased a $500 portable DAP. I’ve never been able to reliably tell a difference between FLAC and 320k MP3 files. At this point, it really doesn’t concern me anymore either, but I at least like to see my fancy tube amp light up.

I will say, though, $300 seems to be the sweet-spot for headphones for me.

A long time ago when they used the 1-5 star system, I think it was

I totally get it. I think the whole Xbox vs PC vs PS thing has always been annoying. If you just want something simple and cost-effective that works well, you do you.

What’s your full setup? I’ve been running a 5 year old mid-tier AMD CPU, 16gb DDR4, and a 2080 super for the past several years on 1440p ultra-wide. I can get 60Hz at max settings on most AAA titles, and stable 100+Hz on moderate-high settings.

I don’t plan on upgrading for a couple more years, and even then I’ll probably keep my CPU until the mobo or CPU dies, just upgrading the GPU. I’ve never felt compelled to upgrade any other components. Hell, my PSU and original SSD are both almost 10 years old (yes I know I need to switch those out shortly)

But yeah if you’re starting fresh, price to performance with consoles is always better. But it sounds like you’ve got set up already. I do totally agree with you on the GPU market, though. It’s been ridiculous for years, I keep hoping for the market to settle some

I’ve had to take my PS2 controllers apart to clean them when I was like 11. Have some faith in yourself. At least they don’t have the spring-triggers like the following generations, unless your aftermarket ones do.

Also, this soldering job would not be hard at all. It can be done with a $1 flea market iron. Could probably re-use the old solder if you’re careful about it.