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Audio Hype!!

Well I have to be honest,I love high end equipment and all the fun tweaking,and trading,and trying out new stuff. However, it has much hype behind it because I think that we all understand by now that--we are never totally happy with any one piece of gear. By hype I mean we read great reviews of some cable and the miracles that it is suppose to create,but we know deep down(if you have any experiance in this hobby)that it never stands up to our expectations once we use it for some period of time--that is just an example but I believe this holds true to all equipment--and then we sell and try the next flavor of the week which is normally just a side step VS. an upgrade of the last piece we owned. Its a vicious cycle does it ever end?(I know that question is like asking why the earth exists and there is no answer)However, my question is have we just created this illusion of what we wish 99% of the products out their should do, while at the same time damaging our checkbooks to prove the illusion wrong?
matrix
dekay's avatar
dekay
5,556 posts
 
Well, if it will make any of you feel better, my wife's hobby is collecting souvenirs. Her plastic snowdome collection alone has cost more than $30,000 in the past 7 years. My main system right now, some of it purchased used cost under $4000.00. I find this hobby (hifi) to offer a lot more bang for the buck than my wife's. I would estimate that I have only spent $2K additional on stuff that I did not end up keeping and then either sold or gave away to family members. I realize that many of you have much more expensive systems, but just think of those 2500 or so crappy plastic souvenir snowdomes the next time you get bummed about the money.
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
Psieg- Lots of what you say is probably correct. However, not all of us have the ability or time for DIY. One thing this site does is allow us to dabble w/o spending huge sums. And I guess some folks get a lot of pleasure out of spending big $ on audio, others buy cars and others design and build audio (or cars). I imagine you get as much pleasure out of the design/build process as you do from listening (or maybe as much when you add in the pleasure of knowing how much $ you saved. Anyways, just my thoughts, but please try to be tolerant of those not as talented, skilled, or with as much free time (I envy all of the above). No flames here, though.
jacks0395
70 posts
 
But why would the magazines persuade us to buy junk? They are the most ethical people out there, right?
psieg82bf
6 posts
 
Swampwalker, I am being tolerant. For years I was working 60+-hour weeks and was a "checkbook" audiophile simply because I had money but no time. Even so, that didn't stop me from continuing my "education" in things electronics which started in grad school (Math) when I took a sophmore-level EE circuits course.

I agree with you. Not everyone can DIY. But I do think everyone can make themselves into an educated comsumer. I assume people in this hobby are reasonably bright from the simple fact that someone is paying you a big enough salary to be able to afford these audio baubles. That implies some level of intelligence.

Why trust an audio reviewer (ever wonder how one "qualifies" to be a reviewer?) or a dealer ("High End Done Right!") when you can trust yourself?
perfectimage
406 posts
 
This is interesting. What drives me is the unexpected quality of a piece. I have put several pieces in my system that just completely blow me away. I then always say to myself is this is that incredible how great is the next level? I will agree that living with a piece is different form hearing it in the show room but sometimes it really grows on you.
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