Do you agree with John Atkinson (and me)?

A clarification of my viewpoint on the topic:

I made my comment in the ’How much is too much to spend on a system’ thread was made NOT because I consider "The hi-fi shouldn’t be worth more than one’s music library" to be "right" or "correct", but merely because I thought it to be an idea that should be included in the conversation. It can be argued that a $10,000 (or even $100,000) system and a 1,000 piece record collection makes more sense than does a $1,000 system and a 10,000 piece record collection!

I consider the pursuit of building an audiophile-level hi-fi to be a noble one, and one not separate from amassing an extensive music library (while that term might strike some---you know who you are ---as pretentious, I prefer it to record collection, which to me has a negative connotation. I don’t "collect" records, I buy them to allow me access to the music they contain).

The Classical store manager I mentioned above was (I believe) unaware of the fact that a superior reproduction system allows the listener to better appreciate (and in some instances better understand) the music heard through the system, perhaps as a result of him having never heard a really good system. Especially in Classical music, which often has many musical lines being played at relatively low volume. Those lines are easily masked by the lack of transparency in a poor hi-fi, robbing the listener of the full measure of the music.

In fact, the sound of music is inseparable from the music itself. Yes, a conductor’s ability to lead his orchestra (the above store manager loved Leonard Bernstein, referring to him as Lenny) and the abilities of the orchestra’s musicians play the major role in determining the quality of a performance, but so does the literal sound they make. As does the sound quality of the recording of the music.

John Atkinson’s original ’back in the day’ analysis of his writer’s systems and record collections was done before the advent of streaming, and when he now says "The same is true of me, even in these days of streaming", he loses me. How can the relationship between the cost of one’s hi-fi and the worth of their music collection be calculated when one has access to every recording available via streaming?

This is not a new topic. In the 1970s I hung out with Gordon Holt and I still recall that when he got a phone call from a reader he'd ask about their record collection. And too many times he owned about 10 records, all of them audiophile sound approved rather than music approved.

No, I do not agree.

The expenditures are both independent variables, subject to uncorrelated pricing structures.

I am tempted to sneer at your Tower Records store manager who I assume is listening to the garbage put out by a poor man's shitty low fi sound system.

And the TAS writers who mocked owners of high end systems seem completely out of touch with audiophiles like me who simply enjoy having good equipment.  (And whose purchases are important to their jobs.)

Some of the most rabid audiophiles also own very large record collections. Michael Fremer has a quite nice system and a massive music library. But my gawd, what a mess of a listening room!

@jwei: When I heard a really good system for the first time (Decca pickup, ARC electronics, ESL loudspeakers), I found the sound being produced to be thrilling in and of itself, like live music. No shame in that. And hearing records sound better than you had before can lead one to listen to music more, the best premise of all for having a good system.

I have (approx.) 3,000 LPs, 2,500 CDs, and 1,500 Hi-Res downloads - and a subscription to Presto Music streaming.  The streaming SQ never seems quite as good.

Of those 7,000 albums there are a probably two hundred that I listen to most frequently in the course of a year - but every so often I dig into the shelves, almost at random, for something different.

My appreciation of the performances is certainly increased by having a pretty good setup,  I have friends who have huge collections, and greater knowledge of music than I, but poor taste in gear, and the listening experience does not compare, the emotion of the performance does not come through in the same way.