How does one get off the merry-go-round?


I'm interested in hearing from or about music lovers who have dropped out of the audio "hobby." I don't mean you were content with your system for 6 weeks. I mean, you stood pat for a long time, or--even better--you downsized...maybe got rid of your separates and got an integrated.

(I suppose if you did this, you probably aren't reading these forums any more.)

If this sounds like a cry for help, well, I dunno. Not really. I'm just curious. My thoughts have been running to things like integrated amps and small equipment racks and whatnot even as I continue to experiment and upgrade with vigor (I'm taking the room correction plunge, for example.) Just want to hear what people have to say on the subject.

---dan
drubin

Showing 3 responses by chashmal

Come on, you know its a disease. Just roll with it and die with dignity like the rest of us.
Love of music is joy. Love of equipment is materialism. Love of music with great equipment makes the joy shine brighter, but when you start thinking about the gear too much it all turns to crap in your head. Just enjoy the music like you did when you were 20 and let the great gear do its job. Then music can be music again.

I have experienced this many times, and I have learned the hard way. Now I have great gear but I just concentrate on Coltrane, Bach, Webern, Schoenberg, Cecil Taylor, and Jimi Hendrix.
Could it be that materialism creeps in to our love of music a subtle and quiet way, like a thief in the night, slowly robbing us of the vast expanse of an artform. I say BEWARE! Music is so big, so deep, so amazingly profound. Equipment is merely seductive. Come on guys, which would you really choose? Of course the answer is to have both. Right. That's coming from a guy who just spent thousands on an SET amp and made his wife crazy with it. So I am guilty. I could have lived with my $1000 Audio Refinement SS amp and loved it, but no, I had to upgrade. So maybe this is my confessional. However no matter how deep I go I will always love music the same. No $8000 amplifier can make me love music more.

Signed,
An Addict