Audiophilism is a hobby

That’s true. We all have different sensitivities and needs from our systems in order to be able to get a visceral feel from the music. We’re all unique in that regard....my wife and girls are just as happy with a crappy stock car radio, but I rarely listen to it,,,,it sounds like noise to me.

Many of us are fascinated by all the sciences involved with what makes the gear tick, and/or what’s required of the gear to allow us to get past the physics of the gear and lost in the music. It is indeed a "sub-hobby" within the audiophilia world, and it can be a very diverse journey by itself.

I suspect sub-hobbies are a part of many hobbies.

It really needs some diagnostic coding. Medical bills will be extremely high especially for those that in the need of constant upgrades. 

It was not really a hobby for me to have a really good sound experience, It was a life or death question almost, a passionnate obsession.

Because i was retired and i had time more and more to listen to music, i was not happy with a mediocre sound on all acoustics aspects..

 

Then my hobby self transformed from listening the music to listening my system...😁

Not a pleasant experience at all. because this focus may kill musical enjoyment .😁

 

Then without being conscious of it i begun to read about "tweaks"... At first minerals and quarz tweaks ... Then i explore all minerals effects on sound... i bought many stones... It was more fun than changing cable and more instructive...😊

 

Then i explored vibrations and resonance controls in my non satisfying 9 headphones of many types... I succeeded in modifying them all for the better ... But i was not satisfied...I takes speakers experiments anew after selling my Tannoy which were too big and after few trying experiences with few brand names i settle for the best Mission speakers.

I was not happy with them either anyway...😁

Then the real hobby begun, i read about acoustics concepts in scientific articles and few books and this inspired my set of tempting new experiments...

Each new concepts inspired me for a new experiment.

I discovered my new hobby : acoustics experiments in my dedicated room full time each day...

This last 2 years...

I used a balance of reflective-absorbing- and diffusive surfaces and devices... All homemade for cost reason ... 😁

I used secondary but very powerful devices at low cost as a grid of Schumann generators.. Ionizers too ...My own shielding device for cables and gear and speakers...

I used a very huge grid of tuned by ears and hands 100 Helmoltz resonators at the end of the process... Size of them and their parts being critical, and i used specific location distribution in the room ... The grid was like a snake head and tail near each of the speakers drivers and around the room and near my listening position. i used a foldable screen (wood one) with the right surface materials as an acoustic lens ...

In short at the end my soundfield was ambiophonic, holographic detailed as headphone with completely out of the head soundstage ... All my headphones were like trash can compared to this...

For the first time i listened to the original recording acoustics trade off choices of the recording engineer in so much details that differences betwwen albums were stunning...

Even bad albums were interesting because i could hear the acoustics original choices in my room as if i was there, it works specially well with many well recorded one ... My room was no more a nuisance or an impediment ...

 

Then i loose my room ... And my speakers ...😂

 

 

I was so sad i quit audiogon for a year...I had nothing to say anymore... 😂

 

I came back after extensive experiment on a select headphone i never optimize completely before and which was promising.... It takes me 6 months working on it : the AKG K340 the only world hybrid with an acoustic set of resonators inside... very hard for me to understand its working i even read the Dr. Gorike patent 😊...It was not easy to optimize it and make it shine... But i succeed3ed and this headphone now gave me a speaker like sound "outside of the head" if the recording is made in Great Hall or church or well done in studio...

 

But i wanted speakers too ... The problem i did not have money as usual for buying costly good one... The only one i had was the one i hated for 12 years since i bought them. They had universal good reviews but were trash to my ears i never used them for music.😁

But acoustics and Helmholtz helped me ...😊

Speakers are resonators and with a porthole they are perfect Helmholtz resonators... But Why the porthole designers present us with a neck of zero lenght ?

For marketing and esthetical reason not acoustic reasons ... 😁 Some creative designers use internal labyrinthic porthole... This inspired me ...

Then i modified them by adding a complex bundles of straws of different size behind inside the porthole from 3 feet lenght to few inches with slight variation in diameter... i used my ears as for my room resonators for the tuning...the fun part...

The improvement were going from trash to TOP speakers with 80 hertz instead of 50 hertz now ... no frequencies bad interaction ...A timbre natural and detailed... A soundfield encompassing which beat all my headphones save the mighty AKG K340 modified which go from 25 hertz and is my first audiophile tool of choice now...

But the tweeter guide wave form i modified it too... At the end i also tune the speakers with damping load, vibrations/resonance materials under them and around them a shield of my own design.... others homemade tweaks too with min erals and shumann cheap generators...

i designed them for near listening in a dedicated acoustic corner of my basement... It was perfect ...

At the end i could listen music on them and they beat almost my past speakers or rival them on many acoustics aspects...

Think about it : low cost active modified chinese speakers : M-Audio AV40

 

Lesson : I had learned acoustics, i did not  need other hobby now save listening music 5 hours each day....I walk , cycle and read ...

 

Acoustics rules audio not price tags ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, as we know, too often the hobby becomes so engrossing that it closes off the world of music we deeply care for, resulting in a sum negative. On the other hand, music can be gloriously enhanced by good sound.
The trick is to recognize the difference between the music and the hobby.

@rvpiano

Unfortunately, as we know, too often the hobby becomes so engrossing that it closes off the enjoyment of the world music we deeply care for, resulting in a sum negative. On the other hand, music can be gloriously enhanced by good sound.

The trick is to recognize the difference between the music and the hobby.

100% agree with that. While I admit I lost site of the music on more than one occasion on this trip, ultimately the whole journey has led me to place I’m very happy to be, and I really don’t regret how I got here. what I learned, the sweat equity, or the excursions involved.  I suppose we all have a different map, and a different destination.  Happy trails!