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.
