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Audiophile Addiction

I met a man on Audiogon who had a fairly high-end system and he was selling the whole thing off. I asked him why, which is the purpose of this posting, is that he was constantly trying to find the perfect sound from his audio system and came to the conclusion it does not exist. Additionally, he said most often all of his hours of listening were alone, taking many hours of quality time from his family. In addition, he said he was listening to his equipment vs. the music. He is now very happy listening to background music with his family from his AV system. I don't know, I just wanted to share this story as I myself fall into this trap (made me think).
rpg
elizabeth
6,726 posts
 
Someone sold me thier (older) system for a pittance because of the same reasons. They did not have a state of the art system, but HAD decided to change thier behavior and spend the time with family in the main living area instead of in his man-cave.
hooper
396 posts
 
I had a ~150k system that I sold because I had lost complete sight of the music. Audio was a miserable chore, and, as a result, the system ultimately had to go. I'm completely content listening to my infinitely cheaper second rig while I cobble together the pieces for a budget-minded main system. Music is now technicolor again instead of the black and white it was when I had my uber-rig.
rpg OP
126 posts
 
I think the best medicine for an Audiophile is to spend their money on music, be happy with their system as there comes a point of lower return and just get your mind off the equipments faults and enjoy the music. I have some friends who are talented musicians and their high end systems are boom boxes, they just fall into the music and could not be happier. Perhaps this is the definition of a true Audiophile.
markpao
403 posts
 
Hello, I am an avid reader of these forums and I have noticed recently that there have been a few posts regarding this issue. I have to say that yes, enjoying the music is number one. After all, isn't that what got us into high end audio? I do not agree that tweaking your system and looking for that little extra every so often is a bad thing. To me thats half the fun in this hobby. I have to go now, just got my 1000 ohm resistors to solder in my phono stage.
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
2,651 posts
 
I think a balance between the two poles is a good thing, but it is easy to find yourself out of balance. I realized recently that for the past year and a half I have not been spending enough on music vs. hardware, so I'm changing that. I have to say I'm pretty tame though, especially when I read threads by guys comparing the minute differences they have observed in 5 different brands of very expensive power cords. That is when it seems that perspective is being lost.
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