New steno equipment?

Someone told me the other day about a great new steno tool that they were using and suggested that I shouldn't still be counting on the equipment that I've been using. Is it necessary to continually upgrade my steno equipment?

I've been reporting for 38 years and had a partner the last 25 years who came from the same era.  We had totally different outlooks regarding buying new equipment.  I had to have the latest and greatest technology, while he bought new equipment only when he had a problem with his old equipment that made it stop working.

Our clients, looking at our transcripts, woundn't have any idea who was using old equipment and who was using new equipment since our transcripts looked identical in format, etc.  Bottom line, in my opinion, is that having the latest and greatest equipment only satisfies the desire to have a little bit of a change in how one does one's job. 

I've just got to share this analogy, sorry.  I was reporting the depo of a plaintiff whose child was killed in a garage explosion/fire after the plaintiff had mowed his yard and was trimming his hedges.  The deposing attorney asked if he mowed his front yard or backyard first.  The plaintiff answered that he couldn't remember which he mowed first, that he frequently "changed it up to make it interesting."  It certainly brought some much-needed smiles to a tear-filled day.

Like the parent who changed his pattern in mowing his yard to "make it interesting," in hindsight, the result of my buying the latest and greatest technology over the years has only been a little breakup of some monotony.