I can't play a recording all the way through


So when does this end? I've got a new system, a lot of new music from DSD to FLAC to favorite old mp3s. So my problem is that I'm trying to both enjoy the new system yet, giddy as a schoolboy, listen for the quality differences. It's been three weeks and I just keep bouncing all over my library. 
I have learned that there is absolutely a difference in the very high DSD recordings. Less noise, more separation and more immediate sound. Also was impressed by the very high 320mhz mp3s. Not in the same sense as the DSD or FLAC but for the portion of my library that will never be HD, not bad. 

iclickjohn
For some people it never ends. You are listening to your system and not to music. Pick music you really love and force yourself to listen all the way thru. Also it helps to have equipment that doesn't focus on detail but on emotional connection
Alan
Hah, excellent point. I never took the time to separate my motives but you nailed it. 
Try not just listening to songs even listen to entire albums. That's what I usually do and I feel like it really helps draw me into the music rather than using the system as a jukebox. And congrats on the new system!
One day, when you're much older, you'll ditch everything digital, and get back to enjoying music. It took me 15 years.

For the time being, your money is important. Spend spend spend. Without you, the high-end can't exist.
cousinbillyl
One day, when you're much older, you'll ditch everything digital, and get back to enjoying music. It took me 15 years.

For the time being, your money is important. Spend spend spend. Without you, the high-end can't exist.

Hard to read through your sarcasm...
Don't quote me as I read this a while ago, but it makes a certain amount of sense to me.

Relative to your position on the 'interest levels in stereo gear' scale there exist three levels:

1) music lover - he/she could happily live with a waterproof crystal radio set with a single ear piece. They'd cheerfully play it anywhere, anytime, at any volume including underwater, in the Sistine Chapel, while standing next to the screaming  Rolls Royce jet engine of a 747, or on the sideline of a Seahawks game in C-link Field.

2) audiophile - the music matters as much as the equipment;  a mint vinyl copy of Jazz Samba (Verve 1962) featuring Charlie Byrd and Stan Getz played through a $50,000 phono rig then output via a Burmester and Aida output section would cause a complete left brain/right brain meltdown and the listener would spontaneously combust on the spot. The moisture generated from pants wetting would turn to steam before it even reached a zipper.  

3) gear head; no music necessary, just have more money than God and more space than the Everett, WA Boeing 747 manufacturing facility.  You may or may not need a razor knife to cut open boxes, we all know it's easier to resell gear that is advertised as 'new, unopened box' vs. 'like new' or 'store demo'.   


I find that a little alcohol helps. Seriously. If I find myself not enjoying the music it usually means I'm listening to the equipment instead of the performance. Particularly if I have some new component that I'm trying to get used to. A nice drink or two will shift me into music enjoyment mode. Also try to actually make time to listen to music. Don't make it part of your multi tasking routine. Set aside some time with no distractions when your not in a rush so you can relax and really get into the performance.

If none of that works then get a turntable and try analog as cousinbillyl hinted at. You may just be surprised.
Wow, this is a major problem! You must force yourself to listen all the way through! Or else you're not doing audiophilia properly by "listening to the music". LOL 

Ah, the affliction of the young. Also perhaps an indictment of the new singles driven music scene. 

Have you ever seen a kid on Christmas morning who has found too many toys under the tree. They flit from one to the other never spending time with any one particular toy. When I was young, we'd get a single toy and the rest were practical items (clothes etc.) and we played with that toy and loved it all the time. I still have some of them 50 years on as I view them with great affection.

One the one hand, the availability of music today is astounding but, the smorgasbord of music out there has killed focus and the love of music in general. When you have that much, nothing is special and definitely so when you're talking downloads - music has become ephemeral. A throwaway commodity to be consumed while doing something else. Others are spot on here. Find a few recordings and obsess about them before moving to the next. You may find with time, you learn to love music. That's why I prefer LP's. Their physical nature demands that you sit and listen.
Lol, OP here. 
True. I'm a very young 60.
True. I really really do love my music new and old.
True. With this new system I am hearing the music "that I really really love" better than I've ever heard it before. 
True. I want to hear my entire collection at once. 
I think that is my problem. So once I get all the way through sampling the few hundred songs /albums once, my curse will be over and I can just play for the music again. And I hope it doesn't take me 15 years. I would like to enjoy them before I'm 75. 
JM

LOL!!! It's always dangerous to assume isn't it. I've heard your comments from a few twenty somethings and I leapt to....well you know.  In a way, I have the same problem but with LP's which now number in excess of 20,000. Picking my daily records for listening is daunting. Sobering is the thought I'll never hear all of them once again in the number of years I have left (63 yrs young).

Approaching, reaching, and then passing a certain landmark age, I recently set about weeded my music library on both LP and CD, getting rid of anything I viewed as non-essential. Check Amoeba Records on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood for my roughly 1000 LP’s and 3000 CD’s of 1950’s-1990’s Rockabililly, R & R, Blues, R & B, Swing, Jazz, Hillbilly, Bluegrass, Country, Singer-Songwriter, Pop, and Punk music I decided I could live another 10-15 years (about the time I reckin’ I have left) without being able to hear again on demand.

My thinking is that with the rapidly evaporating time I have left left, I want to hear as much as-yet-unheard music, along with long-time favorites, as that time allows. I have hundreds of LP’s still waiting for their maiden voyage on the ol’ Rock/Zeta/London, and many times that on CD. J.S. Bach recordings alone will take me a few years to listen to, even at only one spin each. Spend your time wisely, youngins’; the end will be here before you know it!

^^^ Yep, its kind of a rude awakening when one realizes that he/she has a lot less time looking forward than the time that was spent looking backward.  As for me, I'm not only in the final glide path, I'm running out of runway. :-)

Like you, bdp24, there is no way I could start listening to all of my LP's and CD's and ever get finished before I reached the end.  

As for advise to the "youngins:"  Keep in touch with your parents and grand parents. Always treat them with respect. Make sure they are cared for. So many of them will not tell you if they are in need. Always remember ... discipline weighs ounces ... regret weighs tons.

With that said, I'm going to Amoeba on Sunset to look for bdp's records. You never know, I might find a gem or two in there. *lol*

OP 
I've made up my mind I'm not going to die. Problem solved. Now I can buy more records.
Oh, and my excess Classical CD’s (about a thousand of them, all great stuff---Baroque through late-19th Century---on Harmonia Mundi etc.) went to Atomic Records in Burbank (Amoeba didn’t want them!), a real cool little two-brothers-owned shop specializing in Jazz and other adult music. They have a VPI HW-16 LP cleaner! Great guys, reasonable prices.
ehtoo10 posts08-08-2016 7:21amI've made up my mind I'm not going to die. Problem solved. Now I can buy more records.

Welcome to Underworld pal.
78 rpm is a great solution for short attention spans. 3 minutes per side and you're done.