Can one ever be "done" in this hobby?

I don’t change HW much.  I replaced my DIY speakers two years ago after 25 years and the CD player (XA20ES) after 21 years.  I guess I’m blessed with poor ears and could never discern differences between much of the electronics and ancillaries.  

I keep tweaking my listening room acoustics although “the” final adjustment/ change should be finished in the next couple months.  Really.  I’m serious about that.  Done ;-)

I focus on the music.  Just got a book “1001 albums you must hear before you die” by Robert Dimery.  Rough count, I only have ~ 2% of his list.  This should keep my busy for a while.

Mike
I had a quick look at that same book but I am afraid there are a LOT of albums contained therein that I could just never enjoy listening to at all.

Good source though.

The other reference that I've used for a while to identify potential music purchases is Stereophile's "10 yrs of Records to Die For".  It covers most of the genres.  

Power handling and efficiency aren't necessarily related...like saying, "it's heavy, but it's green." I likely use a couple of watts to get my 99db speakers filling my ears and the room, and the peak capability of 'em is 400 watts. You can have a very efficient single 5" speaker that will explode from a steady 20 watts, and an inefficient speaker that will do 300 watts of uncompressed kick drum all day.

To the original post.

I actually think you can be done. But only if you beleive there are actually two different hobbies here. The audio hobby and the music hobby. I have to say I am mostly on the audio gear side. So as long as I focus on sound I will always be searching for something different and or better. That's why I constantly rotate speakers. I really like my power and pre amp so only on ocasion will I switch to my vintage Marantz, Sansui etc receivers. I have 3 TT's and switch them on ocasion as well. 

People who focus mainly on the music can be done with the Audio gear side. What is most important to them is the music. On what it is playing is not the most important thing, just that it is playing. Clearly evidenced by the mobile players now in millions of peoples hands. They are way better than what they used to be but not what most of on here would call great sound. Sure, "music people" if financially able,  will search for a system that suits their needs but it is still all about the music. 
So I would say in reality there is actually two different hobbies here joined by one commonality, the music.

I think I am going to put out a seperate post on the topic. Is this actually 2 different hobbies. 

I had a set for almost 20 years and last year changed all the components .

Me a couple of days ago: "I'm pretty much done. And happy."

Then I saw a glowing review of the very inexpensive Schiit Mani. Now I want one. I'm a sucker for something that is reasonably cheap and reasonably good.

So the answer to the original question: No. Not quite.

But, I also agree with the post above about music vs equipment. In truth I'm pretty close to be done with equipment. There may be minor purchased here and there. But on the music side, no I'll never be done. Always looking to new stuff. Always open to better recordings of stuff I already have.

"Can you determine which exotic car by the sound of this exhaust?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2QIlwyO2wk"

The sound at the end of Queen song "I'm in love with my car" is Alfa Romeo.

Quite right Glupson.
It was actually Roger Taylor's personal car in fact.
The only song he fully wrote on the night at the opera album and sang on.

5 house points sir!

uberwaltz,

Once upon a time, on an icy road, someone drove a bit too fast and crashed three other cars, including mine that I loved and still love. After waiting in icy rain and all that, I got in the car (it was movable but needed lots of, mostly, bodywork) and the song that started playing when I turned it on was...I’m in love with my car.

i am done.  stopped reading the magazine and now just enjoy the music.

I agree that “done” in this hobby means done for now... though I believe my current “now” may last a little longer than in the past.

My motto is: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I upgrade when things fall apart, but rarely. Usually I just fix it. 

The amount of time I have had the following components:

6 months - Semi-anechoic room - this is not something I set out to do. It’s a fringe benefit of putting r26 worth of insulation in the walls of and r72 worth of insulation in the studio/office of my new home, where my audio system is. I covered it with burlap instead of sheet rock. 
1 year - subwoofer system
4 to 30 years - cartridges
25 years - crossovers
34 years - tonearm
34 years - turntable; upgrade 5 years ago (VPI tables are upgradeable)
32 years - CD player 
30 years - preamp; upgraded with new caps 4 years ago
35 to 45 years - amps; upgraded with new caps, converted from pentode to triode 4 years ago by the same guy who built the amps 
41 years - speakers 

I did go through a few cartridges 30 years ago before I settled on the 4 that I have. The new one from 4 years ago was a replacement of a tired cartridge with the same brand but better model.

But as you can see, the foundation of the system has been fairly stable, or “done” for about 35 years.  At 35 years, it feels like a member of the family. 

I am done.

I was done before and just sat and enjoyed the music for about 15 years, with a system that I was happy with. I cancelled my subscriptions of both the main audio mags in 2003 and never missed the never ending monotonous 'lifted one more veil' BS for 'only' $40K invested.  I just sat and listened to my system ad increased my music collection.

When I moved three years ago, I had the opportunity to create a new main system and did so, retaining only my analogue front end from my old main system (many components flowed downhill and are used in one of the other two reasonably serious systems I maintain).  It took me a couple of years to reach a point that I was happy with, and now I am there.  I foresee no further 'upgrades' in my future.

I have observed over many years that attempting to be in the 'bleeding edge' of advance in audio doesn't guarantee you good sound, although it does ensure an empty wallet. There is a lot of quite inferior sound at audio shows generated by gear with stratospheric price tags.

The guy sitting listening to original Quad electrostatics driven by 1950s amplification is certainly missing the bottom octaves of the music, but I'm not so sure that he is missing out on the music itself.

Now playing with what I would have thought were subtle tweaks for pennies.

However not so subtle at all.

Raised my phono stage up and placed ceramic cones under it.

More detail but a little etched and definitely a loss of bottom end slam.

Placed Les Davis 3D2 pads under said ceramic cones.

Holy crap!

Truly impressed, have all the extra detail AND even more bottom slam than previous and mids brought forward a little.
Overall a very pleasant and immersive presentation.

Never would have thought such small changes at chumpchange level could yield such pleasing effects.

Always learning.......

Oh and i do have a Shakti Stone sitting on top near the rear as well.

The concept of "being done" with audio reminds me of the famous line by Mark Twain regarding smoking.  He said, "Quitting smoking is the easiest thing in the world to do; I've done it hundreds of times!"
Personally, I've been "done" upgrading my system at least half a dozen times, as is my present state.  Oh.....wait.......I just saw this awesome refurbished Revox reel to reel deck...........

Lmao.

Glad it is not just me who is cursed with the addiction of scouring the classified listings even when I need nothing new.

It is good fun though!

My habit of constant experimentation and upgrade stopped a few months ago, when I decided to stop seeing all my "audiophile" friends, after drawing the conclusion that whatever $$$$$$ they spent to "improve" are like brewing coffee on an camp fire using $20 dollar bills.

A team of skilled deprogrammers is standing by.  😳 😳 😳 😳

Shirley you mean " are standing by"?

😇😇😇

Geez whiz, Uber, you flunked English? 

Did you just call Jeff, Shirley/????lol...

Yarp....lol.

And in the land that invented the lingo it would most definitely be are, not is.

Course all bets are off over here.....

😲😲😲😲

Mind I suppose it could be either thinking on, just depends how you wanted to inflect?

😕😕😕

Uber, are you pretending to be uneducated? Because if you are you’re doing an excellent job.

You really should wait for the full unredacted post GK 

Lol

Anyways enough off topic waffle and fluff, back to the meat and potatoes!

Day 18 and still clean!

Withdrawal symptoms have receded.

Back to irregular programming.

uberwaltz,

Do you happen to know which Alfa Romeo was Roger Taylor's? Maybe they tuned them all the same, but the song end always sounded like my friend's Junior. It was actually a guess from those times.

Would "irregular programming" be considered as some cousin of "deprogramming"?

Sorry Uber, Geoff is correct. Since it is a team of deprogrammers, team being singular, ’is’ is correct. Man, am I bored. Or is it boring....?

Geoff is right?
Uh! I may just have to cut my fingers off.

Going to have to think about the question and get back to you......

Glupson

Sorry I do not know what model Alfa, surely Google has the answer?

@uber- well, it had to happen eventually...:)

Carpathian ( reminds me of Ghostbusters!)

I guess so, one of my favourite sayings is applicable here


Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while.....

It was a lucky guess.

Unreceivedogma I also have stabilized my system over the years in my main audio system
.
SME IV modified tonearm - 30 years
Amp/Pre-Amp/Phono pre-amp - 20 years
Audio Interface SUT - 35 years (maybe a 
Cartridge Benz Ruby - 13 years (time soon for a replacement)
VPI TNT VI+ - 13 years
VPI 19-4 turntable (for 78s) - 38 years
Legacy Focus - 20 years (maybe upgrade in the future)
EAR Acute - 12 years (maybe separate high end DAC in future)
Cabling - I'm a beta tester but only 3 sets of speaker cables in 20 years
Stillpoints - both original and mostly current models when they were first introduced
Synergistic Research HFTs, Fuses and Outlets-when they were first introduced
Shakti Hallographs - 2 pair 15 years
Townsend Seismic Sink - 13 years
Walker Talisman - 13 years
Equipment Stands - 22 years
Omega E- Mats - when they were first introduced
The Gate - future purchase?

Basically, I have maintained most of my components for decades with more recent tweaks adding their abilities.  I used to change equipment more often because I was dissatisfied with the sound but there are many tweaks that I added which could have improved their abilities.   Sure, I'd like a Kronos turntable and $10-$15K cartridge to go along with my 25,000 LPs.   There is also a possible SUT upgrade to the  Zesto Andros Allasso which uses even higher end Jensen transformers and uses them to adjust impedance rather than my using a resistor in my Audio Interface.  

fleschler, the irony for you is that all that time and expense and you still have a long way to go. The reason I say that is because the problems with scattered laser light and the vibrating and fluttering CD can not (rpt not) be recovered by anything you do downstream. Not cables, tweaks, speakers, fuses, room treatment. The information that’s lost as soon as the laser strikes the CD is gone forever. That’s the very first thing that happens - Distortion and noise. And it has always been so. Everybody is used to by now. That’s why audiophiles deep down inside are dissatisfied with their sound, they know deep down there’s got to be more to it than this.  😛

Please, no angry emails telling me have much everyone loves their system’s sound.

Depends on how far the technology can and will go. I think 🤔 as a headphone and loud speaker user you can stay put for quite a while if everything in your soundchain has some degree of performing on an elite level. 

The audio world really shifts every 7 to 10 years in terms of huge leaps in audio tech performance and quality. 

So if it's a hobby that you enjoy, why would anyone want to be done?  Honestly, I have no desire to "be done".  It's exploration and new experiences.

I desire to be “done” because audio is a means to an end. The end is an appreciation of the music. 

I have got my system up to where, while I know it’s not likely the best, it’s at least 90% there. 

I have 5,800 LPs. It will take me years to go through all of them just on what I currently have.

After a while, like whats the point of fussing with it? Records having the wide range of engineering quality that they do, there’s enuf fussing around with each LP as it is. 

There’s a famous quote, something about repeating the same things over and over again and getting the same results. Was it Einstein? 😛

I believe it was his cousin, Alfred E Neuman.

Some very sound reasoning there Dogma.

Can I put you down for 5800lps on my " how much vinyl do you have " thread?

Einstein? I coulda swore it was you, geof. 

uberwaltz, 

sure. 

About 200 78s
about 200 45s

I still have 4,000 LPs and 2,000 78s in storage which I haven't auditioned yet.  I have sold 18,000 LPs & 78s over the last 35 years.  I made up my own criteria for keeping a recording-I have to want to play it 3 times annually (cannot be done in actuality as I have 25,000 LPs, 7,000 78s and 7,000 CDs).  

My cable manufacturing friend has improved his CD playback immensely using his new COS Engineering H1 DAC.  It beats the pants off our very analog (warm) sounding all in one CD players (EAR Acute and highly modified Pioneer DV 05).  It could be that he added immense power supply caps, superior A/C cabling and vibration resistant material to the chassis to allow the dual laser Pioneer to track the CD more accurately.  It beat out a Meridian Ultra DAC in a high end system with an Audio Research CD transport (a recent player).  

My other friend Frank/Oregonpapa has extremely modified the same Pioneer DV-05 with Synergistic Research fuses and PP total contact, omega e-mats and now the gate to also wildly improve his CD sound to high end status.

uberwaltz,

If thoughts on one Italian website are anything to believe, it was Spider.

@glupson, as related to Italian cars 'spyder' simply means it was a convertible. So I'm afraid the mystery and search continues......

Years back I owned a Fiat Pininfarina Spyder 2000. I quickly learned that ’Fiat’ is the Italian word for rust, and the acronym "Fix it again, Tony...!"

I’m a party pooper! Deprogrammers at full alert 🚨 

I am afraid I may have to agree with some of your post there MG.
And yes also admit part culpability to that end, usually when GK gets involved we end up spiraling downhill at a rapid rate of knots.
I do appreciate all the serious and on topic posts this thread has garnered to date as well though.