How competitive are you with your system?

I think it’s stupid to compare or worse rank my system with anyone else. Sounds like teenager stuff. Just enjoy the music without stupid games that make one look like they are 12 years old.

Weird. Yes I agree. For myself I have a listening environment that gives me much enjoyment, relaxation, fun and something I look forward to do, listen to music in all its wonderful glory and nuances. Why would I want to bring competition into it? It seems to me…to be counterproductive. I have been part of groups including other audiophiles who are really tremendous and cool. We listen and enjoy and sometimes share advice, often we offer unfamiliar artists and songs to explore new music. Above all we enjoy our time with the music. If I were really into competition or ranking, I wouldn’t really be able to enjoy the hobby the way I do. As for others who have a competitive nature, try something different and just enjoy the music??

IMO a large part of the problem of things like “ranking one’s personal audio system” against another one or the idea of comparison or competition is this. Whatever audio system you build is an assembly of wires, capacitors, transistors, transformers, circuit boards and electronic parts. That’s it. It makes music just like a saxophone or flute or guitar. Many people treat it like it’s special and precious. The idea becomes something like “ my child is smarter than your child” or “my kid is a better football player than your kid”. Take stock and analyze your life and try to figure out “why” you made your stereo the most important thing. There should be many things that come before it. If it all blew away in a storm tomorrow it could be replaced. Not to mention the childish nature of the ranking idea. Unfortunately when I see comments like that I wonder about the maturity of the audiophile thinking like that. A fellow friend and audiophile of mine built a beautiful system for himself and he put it simply, “it’s a hobby”. Certainly not his family or career or something else.

As I have said in my earlier post, often what happens to audiophiles and their precious audio systems is the child analogy, “my kid is smarter than your kid”. You can see that evolve here quite clearly. If you enjoy your equipment and system is all the comparison (noise and distortion) really necessary. From my point of view, it looks childish. If competition is good? Then why all the fighting back and forth?