Are You An Audiophile Or A Music Lover?


Try to imagine yourself in the following fantasy:

In your youth you foolishly make a deal with Satan whereby he immediately gives you whatever you desire (wealth, talent, fame, etc.). You in turn grant Satan the right that at some future date he can take from you something you value. Years later you're sitting in your professionally designed, acoustically perfect music room listening to a selection from your 10,000+ music collection on your $500,000+ system. Suddenly there's a knock on the door. It's his Satanic Majesty and it's payback time. You think he's going to take your soul, but surprisingly he gives you a choice. You can either keep your system, but you'll only be able to listen to a single piece of music - forever, or you can keep the 10,000+ music collection, but you can only listen to it over a sub $100 boombox - again, forever. Which would you chose?

Bonus points if you made your deal with the devil after midnight at the crossroads.
128x128onhwy61
For me, that's a no-brainer: I'd take the music over the sound system any day...
Let's give an amen to that Sdcampbell. Gotta have the music....you know, this would make a great starting chapter to a Dean Koontz novel.
I'd give up the system and keep the music collection. Then, I'd sell the boombox on Ebay (assume proceeds are ~$75).

Finally, I'd hit the yard sales and find a vintage tube receiver with phono stage for $40, an abused Rega P2 for $25, and an Optimus 3400 CD for $10.

In the future, I'd save my pennies for maintenance and very small upgrades.
I'm a music lover, but I hear small details and misperformance of the reproducing equipment and always aim to get rid of that with either upgrades or tweaks whichever I consider as a neccessity.
My most expencive component in my system is my analogue record collection(arround 750 vinyls right now)
Gthrushl seems to think he can play games with the Devil. His soul is toast.

Your question's too easy: An audio system is useless without music, and one record is functionally equivalent to no records. So I suspect everyone will say they'd keep the music.

A more interesting question would be: how large a music collection would you need to make you choose to keep the system instead? Boombox plus unlimited records vs. audiophile system and 25 records might be a tougher choice for some people. Audiophile system plus 100 records would definitely tempt some people (me included).
I'd offer him my soul. After all, most of the world's greatest dead musicians probably reside somewhere in Hell.
Gotta give him the system, a clear no-brainer, given that I can be moved by a piece of music on a car stereo. With my luck, the only music he'd let me listen to on the system would be disco, anyway!
Music for sure :) For the sub $100 dollar boom box, I would look everywhere for the cheapest DIY stuff and put together a very nice system that I would be proud of building. This would be kinda fun too!
Aah! the "Crossroads"-- seems like I've been there-- at least in my nightmares, and of course the movie-- great soundtrack by Ry Cooder;>) Seems like some above have changed the rules of your game, ie you specified "boombox only" for listening. As those above though, I've gotta' go with the music and hope I could find a high end boombox for less than $100.

BTW '61, it's threads like this one that make this forum interesting, so thanks. A steady diet of technical questions/concerns gets old, IMO. Cheers. Craig
$100 boombox! That's what I listen to now.

It's realy not bad if you get an excellent power cord and conditioner.

Sincerely, I remain
Bomarc makes a very good observation. Even if I was only allowed a single record, I could be tempted if it was something like "Hendrix: Every Note He Ever Played".

BTW, you boombox would contain a CD player, cassette recorder, AM/FM, karaoke mic, graphic EQ and by special request, a detachable IEC power cord
Music and boombox. I would, of course, first ask for a fiddlin' contest, which would make the scenario moot. Charlie Daniell.
I had a pretty good laugh thanks to Clueless's remark.
I too would take the music and the boom box with a modified power cord.

By the way is the 10,000+ music collection in CD format or LP. Got Milk?

Jimmy
I'd give him the music; cut the system down to a $490,000 system; and then replace the $10,000 of music. I could live with only a $490K system.
I'd ask God in his grace and mercy to make the devil's deal null and void. He is able.

But if God chooses for me to test my resolve, I'd sell the ungodly priced system, keep the discs and have fun buying used reasonably priced equipment on audiogon. $15,000 ought to buy me 95% of the original system.

Tom
Keep the music and ditch the equipment, like everyone else.

Do I get double bonus points? I made my decision at midnight at the crossroads after killing a man in Memphis.
Sugar has a pretty good solution to this dilemma-- must be either a lawyer or used car salesman;>) Would the horned bugger allow this? Cheers. Craig
I would imagine old Nick would be over subscribed with Car Salesman and Lawyers...........
You're close Craig: A CPA (Tax Director). Knew there must be a loophole. Have to deal with those horned buggers at Treasury regularly.
You guys are dreaming. The devil won't give you a choice--and if he did--he'ld still take the one that you couldn't live without.
Onhwy61 - Well knowing my nature, I would have probably taken the wealth or talent over the fame and certainly can't think of any other options that would be more appealing than either of those two, even as a youth. Question is which one would it have been. Maybe I'm thinking this one too much through, but my guess is the wealth.

At the point Lucifer poses the dilemma to me, I'm sure I would have to pick the music with the boombox. Unfortunately for "hi-end listening" that would only leave me with the unlimited live music at my disposal at any venue any time any place in the world. Tough choice, but sometimes in life we have to make sacrifices.