Why so much????

Do these same idiots go into friends houses and ask why people have so many books in their libraries? If you have a lot of books you are well read and worldly. If you have shelves of marvelous LPs, you are one step away from becoming the Unibomber.

The rationale is simple. I can't see Miles again. If you have not noticed, he is dead. Ditto many, many others. This is the closest I can come to inviting the long dead ghosts of these geniuses into my home. When I get the urge, I want to have the appropriate music at my fingertips. I work hard and have the funds and space to indulge this desire. I might add that, in the case of LPs, they have become quite, quite inexpensive in relation to other storage media and marvelous collections can be amassed with just a bit of sweat equity and very modest amounts of cash, at least compared to what these guys with ten CDs spend on their amps.

I am the person who started the other thread Ashra is reffering too. My motives behind it had nothing to do with the quantity of anyones collection, just the ratio of hi-rez to redbook and the quantity of hi-rez formats in some audiophiles collections- and based on the replies I got, my theories from that thread are true. But I digress...

1.)How much is too much? that's such a relative question, as Eldartford said any classical music lover probably has a much larger collection then a non-classical fan(I have over 60 discs by one classical composer, and I wish I had more!). Then there are some groups(like the Greatful Dead for example) who have cult like followers that have literally hundreds of there discs. Music is about enjoyment, fun and in some cases an emotional connection- the quantity required to fulfill your needs may be large or you may be content with 12 recordings. Some say quality over quantity some say too much is never enough. Who's right? I don't know. I have bought duplicates of discs I already owned, and I don't think I am "there yet". To me too much is when you need a database to keep track of it(for me that would mean over 10,000 titles)

2.) Why so much?? because there are still musicians I don't know about, music is a voyage- and I enjoy it a lot. And any night I want to have a voyage I can go from listening to Greg Brown, to Rodrigo, to Dave Mathews, to Beck, to Bach and then back again if my little heart desires it. When I have enough music that I am no longer looking for new material then I will truly be a happy audiophile.

3.) Am I crazy?? I have to quote Ozfly, who said it perfectly

Absolutely. Otherwise I wouldn't be in this hobby.

Slappy,

I'll be slap happy to take those other 370 discs off your hands (or rack, as the case may be). I have no other alternative for getting over CD envy.

Just say the word, and I'll send you my address. Unless, of course, you happen to own sixteen multi-disc collections of the greatest love songs of the '70s.

Speaking for myself, every month hundreds of new albums are released. While they might not be 'great', they're generally still worth spinning a few dozen times. For example, I recently purchased The Killers album Hot Fuss after seeing them at the ACL Fest. The music is ultimately derivative but it's still pretty good. Moreover, unlike the music it derives from I haven't heard it a hundred times. In some ways it's more interesting to listen to a B recording that you've only heard a few times than an A recording that you already know inside and out.

That said, I *know* that I have records or CD's that I'll probably never listen to again (these tend to be the albums that I'm almost embarassed to own). But what should I do with them? To me the two or three bucks that I might get for them isn't worth the opportunity to listen to the album forever.

So the collection continually grows.

To be completely honest, I probably have a collectors mentality as well otherwise I wouldn't be such a sucker for special issues and colored vinyl.

I don't think Ashra has asked unreasonable questions. If someone collects porcelan figurines and has all of their walls covered with shelves (each holding 100), any of us might think they are a bit crazy. The collector may even admit to that, and laugh about it. There may be collectors among us who are a bit crazy and have hundreds of Xmas albums they will never listen to. And so what? I don't think its unfair to ask questions about what is reasonable consumption. This is a world of finite resources that we live in, and everything has consequences. And we all have areas in which we feel our passion, or our necessity, dictates a level of consumption above the "average". It doesn't put us past the question though. And sometimes one might say - I love it so much, I just don't care. Some "collections" are just right for the level of passion, some are "amusing", and you can't say that some might just be overconsumptive. We make our choices. Not all of them are what's best for the world, but we decide on the balance that is right for us. Although I may have a bit more equipment than I need, I tend to live simply in other ways, and I don't feel bad about it. But I feel we should all be open to the question and be open to thinking about what is an appropriate level of social responsibility. We must make allowances for our passions! I don't think that means we are 100% consumers in ever area. That is the nature of "balance". Sorry for the rant!