Early on in my audiophile journey in discover/learning phase, seeking out the knowledgeable and hearing as many systems as possible, exciting times, full of desire for all the things I didn't have, Then went into acquiring phase, thus, began the merry go round, discovering what I wanted out of my own system. There were many success and failures during this phase, luckily I was able to see the failures as learning experience, finding listening bliss was an elusive goal, but I couldn't give up, I could just as well call this the addiction phase. Over time I learned and acquired and/or modified equipment to my exact listening preferences to the point where I'm pretty much settled on a end game system, still making small, incremental changes not so much out of need, rather to maintain my interest in audiophile hobby. I"ve attained the sound quality I always dreamed of, the audiophile in me keeps the addiction going. It will likely take circumstances beyond my control to end my pursuit of change really for change sake.
I find myself "tuning out" anymore.....is the magic fading?
I think I might have hit a plateau in my audiophile/hi-fi journey.
I'm not saying that I don't enjoy listening to my system and music, I certainly do.
However, (and not trying to turn this into a b*tch session), I am REALLY tired of a lot of things that go along with this hobby.
It dawned on me when I received (unsolicited, mind you) a copy of Stereophile and a MusicDirect catalog the other day in the mail.
I can't find a single thing in either magazine that I actually want. Nothing. Even the pretty ad pictures just don't do it for me.
I used to subscribe to several YouTube audio influencer channels. I can't hardly sit through any of them anymore without grimacing. Everything is the "latest/greatest/gotta have it" product. Not only do I just not really trust you any more, but I find myself simply not interested in what you are peddling.
How many different speakers are you going to audition? Jeez.....buy a set and enjoy them. They can't ALL be the speakers you've ever heard.
Even on here, I find discussions of whether or not some tweak works or doesn't work (cables/fuses/magic rocks, whatever....) to be boring and not worth the time to respond. They might work for you, might not work, I don't care.
Any discussions using the term "Snake Oil" will be summarily dismissed from any future consideration of thought.
Which DAC is the best? How come I still listen to CDs when you can rip all your music to a HD? You NEED a turntable! Your amp is old and sucks. Buy some new speaker cables. Double blind test your interconnects and you'll see.... The Pink Panther brigade says if I measure it, it must be true. (Your ears be d*mned!) You NEED to do this/that or the other thing....because I said so.
Maybe some day I'll get the "upgrade-itis" bug again, but at this point, I'm just not interested. Jaded might be a good word, I don't know....burnt out? Overload?
Anyway, rant over. Was just wondering if anyone else ever got to this point.