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HiFi satisfaction and/ or Musical enjoyment

Have you ever asked yourself if these are the same or different objectives?

For me I had an epiphany after over 25 years of chasing perfection that enjoying music is different than owning the best hifi gear. This happened when I grabbed an a used Pathos integrated, BS Node and Forte IV for my second system in my open floor plan.

I found myself listening much more to my 2nd system and nowhere near as much in my dedicated treated room with a reference level system costing >25x the price of my downstairs system.

 

After I realized my behavior I began a self assessment:

A.) Lower expectations are more easy exceeded

B.) The system is less resolving therefore average to poor recordings are still enjoyable
C.) I listened to entire tracks or albums that I wanted to listen to vs what sounded the most impressive on my reference HiFi system. Damn it is nice to listen to the music that you love.

 

Does it matter how you become satisfied with audio reproduction or just that you get there?

For me it just matters that I am happy and if I can get there with modestly priced gear and in this economy be subject to far less of a depreciation hit… hey that is a win win.

 

Below are a few other things that I learned about “my” preferences

1.) I prefer high sensitivity large speakers due to their ability to create realism (no replacement for displacement)

2.) Paper cones over any exotic materials

3.) High tech cabinet materials are great but I have no issue with properly braced MDF or plywood

4.) Wide dispersion designs (look for Klippel data on a speaker that you are interested in and see the horizontal dispersion)

5.) Soundstage scale and tone take the cake for me… throw a huge stage due to #4 above and nail tone and we will call it a day

 

So what did I do about this Audio crisis of mine? Sold all of the HiFi gear and grabbed some Cornwall IVs and some used gear to drive them at a fully depreciated price. Are Cornwalls perfect? Nope. Is any speaker? Nope. Screw it I am now a man free from HiFi BS and listening to music.

xp200dr

Showing 1 response by doyle3433

doyle3433's avatar
doyle3433
333 posts
 

Where did OP go? Did he/she not stick around because of the less than supportive responsive comments at first? Still being a newb with only a couple hundred posts compared with others in the thousands, I can relate. Early on I may have sometimes come away miffed that something I posted was met with criticism or ridicule. In those moments I had a choice, ether fade away or keep plowing ahead in a form I generally enjoy, in a hobby I truly love.

one of my dads legacies to me and my brother was he taught us how to sail. We as a family have hundred of hours of amazing memories. My dad’s sailboat was pretty stout, slow and made up of rigging and gear that was either well worn or found second hand. Did that in any way decrease our enjoyment? Absolutely not! There were several of of my dad’s friends who had the latest Jboats, with all the high dollar gear. They used to try and get under my dad’s skin about how much faster or better their boats were. Didn’t bother my dad one bit. And this was back in the day when someone actually had to have the guts to say it right to his face 😜.
He was in love with the experience, not the gadgets. And I would argue just as good under sail as anyone. He had a saying that I use all the time, and it’s applicable in many situations. “If your house falls down, do you blame he hammer or the carpenter?”

I guess my point is I know what music i like, what I like about my system, and just enjoy the process and AG. I try and do the next right thing, treat others with kindness, and if I dont have anything nice to say, I say nothing.

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