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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.

 

 

 

 

128x128coralkong

Showing 1 response by whart

whart's avatar
whart
3,096 posts
 

I've been in and out of this pursuit since around 1970. There have been periods of my life where I didn't even have a system set up, though I stored the gear and LPs. I don't subscribe to, or read, the audio magazines any more, though there were periods early on when I was an avid reader. And there were times when I was consumed by the hobby in the process of improving a system, doing big home theater systems in my homes using projection (starting in the early '90s). 

My current main system started pretty much from scratch in around 2006-7 and the core of that system remains in place. I set up a vintage system based around several components I owned since the early to mid '70s. 

Much of my attention in the last decade plus has been focused on jazz from the early '70s--more the spiritual or astral stuff and soul jazz rather than "straight ahead" material, though I'm a fan of Art Pepper. 

I'd say it's normal for interest to wax and wane. Most of us are gear heads and get caught up in the sonics for their own sake--to me that's a trap and the analytic part of listening for improvements (some changes are just "different," not necessarily "better") detracts from taking in the music for its own sake. That said, I have musical preferences that change over time, and it's nice when the sonics of a recording/pressing bring out the best in a recorded performance. 

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