Are you an Audiophille or a Music Lover No.2 ?

I have a helluva satisfying stereo system but only 1000+ CDs, so I would go for the music-- as long as I can replace my pre-amp tubes once in a while. One of the most exciting aspects of this sport to me is finding excitng new music/artists. A good recent example of this for me was "discovering" both Allison Moorer's music and Alison Krauss' music about the same time. And BTW, both of these were recommended to me by other A'Gon members:>) Cheers. Craig

I swear, it feels like the general state of music gets worse all the time. The growing domination of drivel is so pervasive that I would listen to yesterday's music on the best system possible, and regret it less than if I did it the other way around.

Ben: Kind of a twisted study, IMO, as I constantly purchase software, but am not keen on 2002+ and/or most musical releases done after the mid 80's or so. Today alone I purchased fourteen LP's, eight 78's (and an alpaca blanket:-) and this sort of thing happens many times a week/month for me. I have accumulated over 1000 CD's and 600 LP's in approx. a two year period since getting back into this hobby. That said, I recently had to downgrade my system as I have been off work for two years (today's purchases came to $18 @ a local thrift down the street). If I had to concentrate on "new" releases "only" I would definately stop buying music and beef up the system once again. Also in my case the software is cheap and plentiful which is not the case for most of us. What did I get for $18 (other than the blanket:-)? Well, to name a few: Dakota Staton, Les Paul & Mary Ford, Noel Coward & Mary Martin, Maurice Chevalier, Porgy & Bess (Victrola Historic Series recording), Marilyn Horne, Nana Mouskouri (the Brit concert), Tango Argentino (original cast recording), Dinah Washington, Duke Ellington and a double LP of Russian folk music produced and pressed in Russia, plus others.

As with the other thread, I'd go for the music. While my system and collection are both pretty modest, like Craig I get much more satisfaction from discovery of a new artist or piece of music I enjoy, and get more enjoyment when I lose myself in the music and am not thinking about the reproduction. But I second Muzikat's question, which leads us to take 3 ...

This is a nice philosophical discussion but I am glad I don't have to choose between one or the other. It takes both to be a true audiophile like most of us.