Do you agree with John Atkinson (and me)?


 

Point 1: In the recent thread entitled ’How much is too much to spend on a system?’, I contributed this comment: "The hi-fi shouldn’t be worth more than one’s music library." I said that half-jokingly, a wisecrack that I knew might be disagreed with.

Point 2: In the 1990’s I became a regular customer at the Tower Records Classical Music Annex store in Sherman Oaks, California. The store manager knew a LOT about Classical music, but also made no secret of his distain for audiophiles, whom he viewed as caring more about the sound quality of recordings than their musical quality.

Point 3: In the early days of The Absolute Sound magazine, the writers occasionally mocked audiophiles who had a serious high end system, but whose record collections merely consisted of a small number of "demo" discs. Those audiophiles collect records that make their systems sound good, rather than assemble a system that makes their records sound good.

 

I make the above points as a preamble to the following:

In the past few months I have fallen behind in my reading of the monthly issues of Stereophile that arrive in my mailbox. Yesterday I finally got around to reading the editorial in the January issue, written by John Atkinson (filling in for current editor Jim Austin, who is recuperating from surgery, I believe). The final two paragraphs of the editorial read as follows:

 

"Back in the day, I did an analysis of Stereophile reviewers’ systems. The common factor was that all the reviewers’ collections of LPs and CDs cost a lot more than their systems. The same is true of me, even in these days of streaming."

"Isn’t that the way it should be for all music-loving audiophiles?"

 

Well, is it?

 

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While streaming is not my primary source, there are many discs I do not purchase, that in the past I would have purchased, but after a listen or two on streaming I feel no desire to hear again...throws the whole ridiculous equation off ... and i also have never known anyone with a very good system and very few discs...

I thought that editorial by John Atkinson rose to the level of courageous because he was basically saying that you don't need to spend crazy money to get great sound. That's hard for anybody in the hi-fi publishing business to say because of the risk of offending your high-end advertisers. Perhaps it is easier for John to risk it now that he is semi retired. I have heard similar remarks from noteworthy folks like David Hafler, Steve Guttenberg, Herb Watson and many others whom I respect. Sometimes you have to read between the lines a little bit to get the message. 

Veblin goods. We exist in a hobby that sells a lot of Veblin goods.

I still have a lot of vinyl going back to the 70's, and it's in great condition. I don't have any of the equipment from that time.  One thing the OP comments on is the "listen to the system vs the music".  Sorry, but this has always been a word salad I've never understood.  Can music possibly sound better on an inferior system?  And sure, some recordings make your system sound great.  Because they are great recordings.  Sometimes I wonder how much naval gazing goes on in this hobby. 😆