I don't have "clutter" as in I'm not tripping over equipment. My music room is clutter free.
My closets are another story...
Wish I hadn't read this post.
Regards,
barts
Audiophiles and De-cluttering -- your journey toward both psychic and sonic improvement
Every audiophile knows that we want more signal and less noise. We seek it in our systems and our rooms. We want the power, elegance, and simplicity needed to produce immersive listening.
I'm now at the point where I want less -- fewer options, less clutter, more openness. And that means re-considering assumptions about audio.
For me, this is going to start with power cords. I simply don't hear much difference from the special cords I got and they're awkward to use. I'm thinking of beginning my de-cluttering path with them. Next, the back up equipment -- older DAC's, extra speaker cables, etc. And, most controversially, I expect to get rid of my home theater speakers in lieu of a high-performance soundbar.
Anyway, those are just my ideas.
What have YOU done to de-clutter your audio life?
What did you give up and how did it help or hurt your pursuit of audio satisfaction?
Did peace of mind make listening more enjoyable?
For what it's worth, here's are some excerpts from a recent article on decluttering from the NYT. I found it helpful.
Ms. Yamashita and Ms. Kondo approach decluttering in different ways. In Ms. Kondo’s books and Netflix series, she offers easy-to-follow techniques for organizing, wrapped in her signature cheer and positivity. Keep items that make you happy and thank those that do not before tossing them away, she instructs.
Ms. Yamashita is more abstract, philosophical and probing — less approachable, converts of the Marie Kondo school argue. When sorting through what to keep or toss away, Ms. Yamashita pushes her clients to think about why they are attached to certain items, and to examine what overabundance and obsession do to their emotional states.
“For me, danshari is not about tidying up, organizing or tossing away things that don’t spark joy,” Ms. Yamashita said, slurping soba noodles out of sesame broth at a restaurant in Tokyo. “It is about returning people to a state in which parting with things feels natural.”
“When people’s homes and minds get clogged up with too many things, they begin to fester,” she continued. “It’s like how you eat and then release — it is a normal part of our existence.”
“Danshari is about creating an exit and getting that flow back,” she added.
From a session with a client:
“You’re noticing there are too many things out in the open, but we need to probe deeper into the fact that you have so much stuff,” Ms. Yamashita said midway through their cleaning.
“I think my mind is cluttered,” Ms. Kojima replied, from work and elsewhere. “I have so many things constantly being jammed into my head,” she said.
Ms. Yamashita pressed: “Obviously, no one can see inside your head, but it’s visible, in this space.” She then gestured at the living room. “Can you see how the challenges you’re dealing with in your head are physically manifested here?” she asked.
“I think the problem is that I can’t even recognize when there’s too much,” Ms. Kojima said.
SOURCE: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/16/business/hideko-yamashita-decluttering-danshari.html
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@mahler123 wrote:
+1 @tony1954 wrote:
This is grossly incorrect. Obviously the bar is pretty low among some here with regard to Home Theater sound reproduction, certainly when it comes to the core, meat and potatoes 2-channel sound (which is vastly preferred in my book vs. a malnourished 5.1 or more setup). Even streaming a movie would be able to expose the difference a good pair of fairly full-range, resolving and dynamically capable speakers would do, but with Blu-ray/4K UHD physical format discs you'll be treated with the full frequency spectrum, dynamic range and resolution that would see many if not most of the music oriented, typically size and sensitivity restricted hifi speakers meeting their limits at ref. volume, and that in more than one way when being tasked with reproducing the complex and often very demanding soundtracks of movies. Put bluntly: if you had heard what a proper, full-range speaker setup could do reproducing movie tracks you'd know the difference full well, but the question seems to be whether it really matters to audiophiles at large and whatever priorities they have. Still, compared to such, a sound bar - indeed any sound bar - will fall short in ways that, to put it mildly, aren't subtle. The best of them may be impressive for their size, easy to install-factor and if one is used to the sound coming from the TV itself, but in the bigger scheme of things can't escape the fact they are merely a convenient and aesthetically pleasing solution. If that's enough for whoever chooses sound bars, peace, but it goes to show the criteria for what passes as good movie sound reproduction varies a lot, also with regard to how many channels are required for this. If anything most hifi speakers are unqualified for a fuller realization of the core 2-channel sound of movie soundtracks; they compress too easily - meaning they'll also distort more, they're LF-frequency range limited, and being mostly direct radiating speakers their directivity pattern isn't suitable either. My contention is however that mainspeakers meeting these criteria will benefit in regards to what serves music reproduction as well; the two areas of sound reproduction here aren't mutually exclusive, but rather complement each other. My 2-channel music and movie speaker system is a fully active, 3-way setup (4-way with the passively integrated tweeters), with the main speakers actually being professional cinema speakers intended for large auditorium coverage (but which sum well at the LP in a domestic environment) and augmented with a pair of tapped horn subs that extend down to 20-25Hz at full tilt (~125dB's). Contrary to what some may believe this system is dialed in for music first and foremost at average SPL's around 75-80dB's (with peaks higher than that), while being naturally and uninhibitedly at home with movie soundtrack reproduction to boot. This is also where the decluttering part and chosen compromise of mine comes in: where I fail to realize the full intent of the filmmakers and their sound design is omitting the surround and center channels, and while adding more channels for a full surround setup + center channel (which for my needs would require an extra main speaker similar to the ones I use) would make a worthwhile difference, I wouldn't want to do it half-hearted. Not to mention that the physical presence of surround and center channels with passive, vibrating cones in the same listening room isn't ideal when it comes to 2-channel music reproduction only. As such, yes, music and movie sound systems would be better off in each their separate spacings, but kept as a 2-channel approach aren't in the least incompatible, au contraire. |
“The” most important decluttering change I made is a hard rule I now follow with each new purchase. “For every component/item I buy I must sell one”.
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