Am I right for this forum?

Thanks to so many for so much encouragement—even to chrshanl37 for comparing my post to Stewart Smalley (ouch! but point taken). The general, and reasonable, consensus seems to be that "music lover" and "audiophile" are not synonymous, but not mutually exclusive either. Of course, that's true. And, despite the fact that I don't suffer from the kind of intervention-demanding fanaticism described by ghdprentice, I do consider myself an audiophile. You probably know the snide definition attributed to Allan Parsons: "Audiophiles don't use their equipment to listen to your music. Audiophiles use your music to listen to their equipment." Like the comment about Stewart Smalley, that stings a bit—because I often enough choose what I want to hear for the recording quality rather than the performance quality or even the music's own intrinsic quality. I mean, I do have recordings that sound great on my system but are insipid musically, and I do periodically listen to them. That is to say, I find it thrilling that a technology can reproduce something like a symphony orchestra in my living room with astonishingly convincing realism. Never mind the music; that fact is compelling in its own right.

Finally, though, the music is what matters. But musical taste is very personal, and not frankly all that easy to share even with close friends. This forum, it seems to me, rarely is interesting when the music itself is at issue. And that makes sense, when you think about it. We have very different backgrounds, different levels of musical knowledge, and different tastes in music—but we all love good sound quality. Of course, even there, taste counts for a lot. But still, more expensive equipment does, usually, sound better, "system synergy" is a thing that needs to be learned, and inexpensive tweaks can sometimes bring very satisfying results. That's what I come to this forum for more than anything else: advice on ways I can improve my sound quality without spending a lot. 

Anyway, thanks for the (mostly) friendly responses here. In case anyone's interested, I'm going to make my "virtual system" public now.

audphile1 no harm done, no offense taken. Farts happen.

And a correction, by the way. As my overlong narrative concludes, $4,000 is a more accurate estimate of what I paid for the components in my system than $3,000. I guess I should read my own words more carefully. 

Wow. I had not anticipated that posting my Virtual System would result in accusations of being a troll. If grislybutter had read the (admittedly excessively long) narrative, he'd know that the many speakers in the photos were mostly borrowed, and those I own were bought used for a song from friends. As mahgister correctly points out, the quote of "$3,000" applies to my main system, which is very clearly laid out in that same narrative. Don't we all take whatever opportunity we can to compare what we already have to what might perhaps take our systems up a notch? Am I a "troll" because I have friends who are also fond of audio equipment and are willing to loan me things to try in my own home? As the kids say: whatever.

As for looking for "sympathy," the word means something like "fellow feeling" (in German, "mitgefühl," literally "feeling-with"). I'm not looking for pity! I'm wondering if others on this forum find themselves conflicted by the tension that surely exists between a love of music, and a love of music reproduction (that is, a love of the technology that makes listening to recorded music such a close approximation of hearing it live). Several have made comparisons to their love of performance cars—another thing I get. But the same tension is evident there. Do you love your car because of its 0-60 time, or it's Nurburgring standing, or because you actually drive it to its limit yourself, and appreciate viscerally what the numbers signify? The latter is analogous to a love of music, the former to (pure) audiophilia. 

So, since my motives for this post have been questioned, let me clarify. I do love audio equipment for its own sake. I have for more than 50 years. But...the equipment is ultimately a tool that enables us to hear great music with as little compromise as possible. Speaking for myself, I feel I often lose sight of that; worse, that this site encourages loosing sight of that. So maybe I don't belong here—even though I do love audio equipment in its own right.

This has, in any case, been an interesting experiment in communication. Once again, thank you to those who have been generous and welcoming, despite my reservations and the possible ambiguity of my motives. 

The above was posted before I had a chance to read the response from audphile1. Yes, you are "overthinking this" if you think my post was "designed to cause a stir" or smells of trolling. I've just explained how the "follow up pictures" DO, in fact, align with what I'd originally said. I'm fortunate to have friends that share this audiophile passion, and who have been generous both in loaning me things and selling me things. My "reference system" cost me less than $3,000. That's a fact. I'm sorry if you have not been so successful in your system building.

The take-away for me from this attempt to engage in a frank conversation about our supposedly common audio passion has more, sadly, to do with the contentious nature of dialog these days than it does with the specific topic.

Oh, and about millercarbon. He was something of a troll, I'll grant. Arrogant, in your face—but well-informed, articulate, and helpful with particular problems if one contacted him privately. His posts, infuriating as they often were (and that Einstein thumbnail was just puerile), were almost always interesting and informative. And witty. He was the main reason I joined this forum, even though we almost never agreed. For what it's worth, that's what I think genuine dialog should be: the ability to appreciate someone with radically different politics and worldview than one's own, and to engage productively with such a person in constructive exchanges of ideas anyway.

What makes one an "audiophile" seems to have got stuck on how much one spends on audio equipment. I’ll grant, that’s certainly not irrelevant. But, as several have said (notably, mahgister, who sounds this theme regularly on this forum), the cost of one’s equipment is not the main criterion. Concern for sound quality is, however one strives to achieve that goal.

But my post was meant to raise issues with even that quest, which is why I wondered aloud, as it were, whether or not I belong on this forum. Yes, I care about and delight in sound quality! To that extent, obviously, I’m an audiophile. But my deeper concern is that such attention is really misplaced. Enjoying certain recordings, despite their being musically insipid, just because they are well recorded...well, now that strikes me as misguided (and I am guilty of it). Very few of the musicians I know care much at all about sound quality.

So I’m kind of conflicted. That’s where the Stewart Smalley comment strikes home. Get over it! Stop whining! Enjoy the music, or enjoy the sound quality of your system, or both—who cares! I get that.

The fact is that, although I have loved audio equipment most of my life, I haven’t been in a position to afford really good stuff until relatively recently. And, furthermore, the kind of conversations that dominate our audio club meetings, and this forum, I’m not really able to contribute much to. I just don’t know enough about the equipment that’s available, much less about the electrical engineering principles that goes into it. For me, it really is all about the music.

To say "it’s all about the music" is, of course, a commonplace among audiophiles. But this isn’t really a forum about music. The only threads about "the music" I’ve found interesting are those that suggest especially good-sounding recordings, not those that discuss matters of interpretation (in "classical" music) or those that share enthusiasms for this or that genre or artist.

Megabyte's comment is one of the things that worries me here...

FWIW, I composed a LONG reply to these very many responses to my original message—but something was wrong with my account status when I tried to post it, I went to my account to fix the problem, and lost the entire thing. Took me well over an hour, and I’m kind of busy with other things right now, so I didn't try to re-write it. Of course, I contacted the admin to see if it could be recovered, but it couldn’t; a glitch of some kind on their end, apparently.

Anyway...I will again make my Virtual System public. It was for a few days, then I hid it again. But emergingsoul asked, as did someone else a couple of pages back, so what the heck. BTW, emergingsoul: I wish I had "a very calm soul" (Leonard Cohen wishes for the same in his next life; I forget which song). But you’re right about not having a TV where my main system is, and where our instruments are played. We’re lucky to have a separate room (a "media room" and library) for the TV—and a second audio system there.