2. music
  3. 180954-178338

Hi-Fi and the Folly of Perfection

I wonder whether at a certain point the pursuit of absolute hi-fi is in danger of blending into a folly of perfection. As I sit listening to my--frankly madly expensive-- set up, my enjoyment of the music I should be listening to becomes plagued with doubts - should I shift my chair a few inches left or right to get a better focus on the stereo image? Should I toe the speakers in a little more? Should I move my wife closer to the corner of the room to improve bass response?

I sometimes philosophize that the audiophile bug is a special--pleasantly harmless--form of nostalgia; a thankfully less embarrassing analogue of the hankering certain middle-aged men have for absurdly inappropriate sports cars, motorbikes, or even second wives. . . .

I would illustrate what I mean with a personal story. The summer before I went off to university in 1982, I bought my first "system," an Amstrad 8080 stereo tuner and cassette player with detachable speakers that cost me about £30 from my local Woolworth:

This was the system I discovered music on; discovered my own musical tastes, and I suppose it's what set me on the path to where I am today with a set-up whose speaker wires could buy me fifteen or more Amstrads.

I know that, without question, the sound I hear coming from my speakers today is "better" in all sorts of ways than what I heard back in the 80's. But I do, in my more self-analytic moments, wonder if "better" is, well, better. How much is one's endless quest for audio perfection (a quest I adore and wouldn't give up for anything) actually a quest to listen again with the ears of that young man diligently respooling mangles cassettes with a pencil and a lot of patience?

I wonder if anyone else indulges in such lugubrious ruminations?

 

grauerbar
cd318
2,636 posts
 

@danoroo 

You're not the only one.

Just yesterday whilst doing the late Christmas shop I was telling my daughter just how much the rippled label on the honey jar was bothering me.

Unfortunately all of the jars had labels with that same rippled effect.

Now it could have been the intensity of the last minute shop and hoping that you can get everything essential on the list or it could have been a joke.

Or maybe I'm a little sick too.

Anyway, a couple of hours of listening to Christmas compilations seems to have helped with psychological readaptation.

For now.

danoroo
239 posts
 

@cd318  I understand completely.  Since I've been afflicted with audiophilia, me seeing wall art that is anything but perfectly level, is akin to having a severe itch at a place you just can't quite reach. :-)

grauerbar OP
25 posts
 

@danoroo You open a whole other can of interesting worms. I think there is definitely a degree to which we listen with our eyes. Listen to a set-up where the hi fi rack is perfectly centered between the speakers as opposed to one where it's not and a pound to a penny the sound stage will "appear" (loaded word) more securely focussed.

danoroo
239 posts
 

@grauerbar said: How much is one’s endless quest for audio perfection (a quest I adore and wouldn’t give up for anything) actually a quest to listen again with the ears of that young man diligently respooling mangles cassettes with a pencil and a lot of patience?

This statement had me reminiscing about the days of cleaning tape heads and transport wheels with q-tips and denatured alcohol, meticulously cleaning my stylus with a specialized brush and looking around my apartment and realizing that every non-porous surface in the place had a quarter inch of dust except the audio rack and loudspeaker tops which were pristine and spotless. I wonder if it’s actually the ritualistic tasks of equipment and media maintenance that I miss?

mahler123
3,318 posts
 

Another thread started by a Geezer ruminating that even though his first system from his early days had a small price tag, it gave him more pleasure than the megabucks systems he now uses.

   I used to wonder about that until I actually resurrected a close facsimile of my system from circa 1977.  No doubt some of the components were deteriorated from age, but it sounded like such junk compared even to my current midfi systems, let alone crown jewels.  When we are younger and are pains  are being formed the sense of pleasure measures with greater intensity.  We probably spent our later years trying to reproduce the intensity of that feeling

More to discover