AUDIOPHILE OR JUST CRAZY ?


FELLAS,
I have been building and putting together systems since the sixties when I build my first health kit FM tuner ! Yes it was a father and son project my dad got me for my 11th birthday in 1967 .I have been in pursuit of the best sound system ever since, thanks to my dad who had the loudest HIFI in the neighborhood ! None of the neighbors ever complained ! i could mow the yard and hear Elvis, playing at the same time ! I have spent fortunes, in audio equipment ever since my first job .I was that kid who could spend all day at the audio superstore, looking watching listening to the systems in the speaker audition room ! The audio stores are far and few in-between these days, but here is my problem ! In the early nineties i purchased an Onkyo Grand Integra M-508 power Amp @ 225 wpc and a Onkyo P-308 pre amplifier .Went solid state, got my first R2R pioneer 909  audio reverse and a Thorens td 166 mkii turntable with a shure mm cartridge ! A Nakamichi dual Cassette deck , oh yes ! I forgot to mention my Klipsch Cornwall speakers with 15 in woofers and horns ! I was on top of the world ! None of my friends or family could touch the sound that came from that system !  
In the early 2000, i felt last decade, and got back into the tubes, with Conrad Johnson ! Since 2004 I have spent over $45,00.00 k on nothing but the best equipment money can buy ! I am still not as Thrilled as I was over Thirty years ago !
discussed , I sold everything for penny's on the dollar ! Everything except my old Onkyo m-508 and p-308, an old ADC graphic EQ , kept my old AR turntable one of Eric's Sound of the wood, and my klipsch  La Sacla's ALL Vintage Audio old ass equipment and I am the happiest i have ever been ! It is music to my years after spend $$$$$$ and never being satisfied !!!! Am I crazy or what ? I call myself EXPERIANCED ! 

128x128geurds

Showing 5 responses by mahgister

Reading all these posts about audiophiles confort me in my journey...

I succeed it seems, upgrading seems to me unnecessary, in contrary to the beginnings of my journey 7 years ago where i think frantically for the best product possible...

 7 years ago i was thinking that being an audiophile consist in looking for the greatest brand name possible...I was confusing S.Q. with price...

2 years ago i embarked in intensive listenings feed back expetiments with homemade low cost devices...

My audio system was put on another level of S.Q. deemed impossible  to reach ,even by me many years ago...





Dont upgrade, learn how to embed everything right...

After that it is even possible that any costly upgrade will appear a complete lost of money...

This is my experience...

Happy New Year...






« Syntax and rethoric are the clothes the beggar or the rich, the healthy or the sick take when they wrote their words; ignoring that veiling a part of ourself with our language, we also unveil another part of ourself using it... Language is the best hiding place and the most open one for us to be seen at the same time. »- Anonymus Smith
Bottom line is that high end gear from years past is still high end gear.
My Sansui AU 7700 was considered one of the best amplifier in the world at his price level (450 dollars in 1978) Today there exist better BUT at a very higher cost but even then with NOTHING  at any price that mimic his flexibility...

I paid it peanuts and i am amazed by details retrievals and tube sounding for a S.S. amplifier.... No fatigue, only ecstasy... I even bought another one in case....😁
The music of my youth has never ever sounded better than today at  69 years old... No comparison at all.... It is my audio room that make that happen... Not my inexistant  bat ears or low cost system....
Thanks ! Very interesting testimony and unortodhox one indeed...

You are not crazy!

All  audio forums are about selling and buying to so called " upgrade"....

 My personal experience with the same system for years:
 
Mission Cyrus speakers781 (50 bucks used)
Sansui Au 7700 amplifier (100 bucks used +recap for the same amount of money)
Starting point systems NOS dac ( too low price to be mentioned ny bid on Ebay)

 Why i dont give a dam for upgrade?

Because the worst half-truth there is in audio is the supposed fact that costly electronic components will buy you the audiophile experience...

An half truth is worst than a lie....

Electronic components design is mature and gave to us many high quality components in the last 60 years... Then buying used and vintage is the way.... New costly coponents are better, yes, but the truth is the improvement is not worth the money invested most of the times for the majority of people... WHY?

Because the greates improvement in audio instead of an upgrade is most of the times these modifications in these 3 dimensions where an audio system is immersed in, what i called"embeddings controls:

  A-How much noise pollute the electrical grid of the audio room coming from the house grid...high noise floor destruct the timbre and imaging...

B-How much vibrations and also resonance affect my speakers, and even the rest of the gear? Same negative effect, these uncontrolled vibrations and untamed resonance will decrease S.Q.

C-And the very fundamental fact to add to these very 2 important one: is my room acoustic good? This factor, so much important were the others, this one is crux of the matter...

 then you are perfectly sane to prefer to listen to music instead of spending big money.....