I find myself "tuning out" anymore.....is the magic fading?

I sure have! For now!

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. 

Don't worry, life doesn't stay the exact same. Just give your attention to things you do enjoy. Then maybe in a while the audio thing will have more meaning again for you. 

I go through upgrade cycles. Frenetic activity... research, testing, purchasing, burning in, tweaking... then bliss. Bliss is listening without yearning for a new piece of equipment... knowledge that I have a fully optimized system on the forefront of best possible system at the state of technology / financial ability.

In the old days, I just could not wait for the new album, or coffee in the morning with a couple hours of music. Evenings, similar. No thought other than enjoyment of the music.

While I would continue to monitor Stereophile, and The Absolute Sound... but with casual interest. Years would pass. My financial condition would improve and slowly my interest in the next upgrade cycle would slowly emerge. For a year before, I would scan the magazines at a greater depth and interest. The I would begin the upgrade cycle.

Over time I have found the urge ceases me about every seven to ten years. They cycles take about two years.  In between, musical bliss.

Sounds to me like you've simply gotten off the merry go round that is CONSTANTLY being pushed in our hobby...Now instead of focusing on gear,it's time to seek out new & exciting music..At 65 y/o I am amazed at the world of new music my Pandora subscription has opened up to me..

Yep. I "finished" in 1996. Restarted now because one component decided it was no longer playing nice with the rest (50 Hz humming on one channel - only when connected to a specific pre-amp), so needed a new DAC. And now, the anxiety over 'do I need a subwoofer'? Or 'are my amp/pre/speakers/transport still good enough?' 'What about streaming?'

Enough already. I'm enjoying reading (some of) the posts on the forum, and some of the conversations, but I'm not willing to relapse into upgraditis.

I don't even think about getting new stuff. The music is the main source of enjoyment. Specifically new music discovery I find entertaining. Like hunting.

Sometimes a week or two will pass without turning on the stereo. No guilt and the desire returns in time. It happens naturally. Like having a girlfriend. "Absense makes the heart grow fonder" and sometimes tweaking is fun and can be an important part of the realtionship to prevent boredom.

Tuning out things in your life that don't matter or make things better somehow is a very healthy thing to do.  Congrats on that!

I just buy records now.

You're at the "Just listen and enjoy music" phase.

Kinda like retirement and thinking-"what now?" Enjoy life.

I'm there, but when that MD catalog shows up every  year, I always do an imaginary shopping  cart with $250K+  of stuff.

Once I drop the arm on a great LP,  new gear acquisition fades away. 

The only things of concern these days are just consumables-cartridge and tubes?

Buy some new music, treat yourself to a top shelf version of your favorite adult beverage, and have yourself a moment with your system.  Ultimately, the destination isn't really about audio. 

I feel pretty much the same way.  After so many years of anything, it can start to get old, including high end audio.  Although my love and passion for the music never gets old, the things you described about high end audio got old for me many years ago.  I've been filtering out most of the BS associated with the hobby for many years now.  At this juncture, I mainly concentrate on relaxing, enjoying and engrossing myself in the wonderful audio system I painstakingly and lovingly assembled together that brings me so much warmth and musical delight.  Life can be simple.  Happy listening.    

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.

The pendulum of suffering: when you get what you’re after, you’re bored. When you don’t get it, you’re frustrated. Either way, you lose. This is basic Schopenhauer, but it applies to the hobby of audio.

It's clear -- you're tired of chasing goals. That makes a lot of sense.

The path out of this is, as some here are saying, to shift to activities that don’t involve specific goals. Kieran Setiya writes about this in his recent book Midlife. Setiya, to crib from a recent piece on this, "argues that “atelic” activities — things we enjoy for their own sake — make us fulfilled. Too often, he states, we are consumed with “telic” activities: goal-driven projects that leave us unsatisfied in the present. (The terms derive from “telos,” the Greek word for “goal.”)

“What really matters is that some important things in your life, things you regard as sources of meaning, are atelic,” Setiya says. “Reading, or walking, or thinking about philosophy, or parenting, or spending time with your friends or family are activities that don’t have an endpoint built in. There isn’t a sense that in doing it you’re exhausting it, as if you could complete the project of hanging out with your friends.”

SOURCE: https://news.mit.edu/2017/how-philosophy-can-solve-your-midlife-crisis-1003

Have you listened to Yussef Kamaal Black Focus or Jaimie Branch Fly or Die?

It can be difficult to both realize and admit that our taste are changing, especially as we get older. Especially when we realize that the hobby or Pursuit that we have chased so diligently for years just no longer matters to us as much as it did. I think I'm at your stage as well and so far as I like still reading stereophile, but I have no urge to get any of this stuff that I ever see in there even if it's affordable.

And to illustrate this point I guess, a few months ago I rebuilt and refurbished my father-in-law's old pair of coral BX 200 speakers he had gotten when he was in Vietnam. They had been sitting in his garage for decades and he told me to take them and so I did and I restored the cabinets and the facing and replaced and upgraded the crossover and restored the tweeters as best I could and added dampening material and all that jazz and I've had them played in my system now for over a month with my normal reference 3A decapos sitting off to the side and I couldn't be happier.

So it's not a question of sound quality, it's just a question of listening.

My nightcap nearly every evening is playing a couple of albums, streaming or LPs…it doesn’t matter. It’s a wonderful way to relax and unwind. I’ve done it for as long as I can remember, I’d hate to lose that.

Discovering great music new to one’s self leads to more musical fulfillment/pleasure/enjoyment than does the purchase of most components, assuming one has already assembled a system of "adequate" quality, adequate being a matter of personal standards. IMO. That statement also assumes the system has been assembled to serve the music, rather than visa versa. Music first, or sound quality? Some of my favorite music is not of audiophile-grade sound quality.

How good can the equipment Get? When is there a Stop point? I got of the merry-go-round. I have the speakers that sound great to me. I have separates and plenty of Bi-Amped power. My room has been treated with the proper panels and RTA-ed with a Real time Analyzer. The speakers are nice and Flat at the No preamp in EQ with the 1/3 Octave EQ's set.  

What else can I do.........I Know........Just listen and enjoy. 

Even roller coaster rides get boring…

Or nauseating…

@coralkong Yes. To answer your question, has anyone got to the point where they’re just not interested. I think I’ve (almost) burnt out on buying new gear, because I’m running out of money. Also, better gear will not overcome the problems I’ve identified in my system, namely, the room! I’ve got a lot to do before buying new gear makes any sense. And, like many, it’s hard to get excited about gear that costs $10,000 to $14,000 (or more) for each piece. Add to that the fact that my septuagenarian ears are unlikely to discern the difference anyway. I’m still curious about the new technology that comes to market, but I’m just not as ‘involved’ as I used to be. For me, right now, it’s about making the most of the equipment I currently own. I feel the need to start ‘enjoying the music,’ as so many advise. It’s not all about acquisition, it’s about enjoyment too. (Although acquisition is certainly a lot of fun.)

Time for a break @coralkong 

you’ve been listening too hard  reading too many posts

do some other stuff. Read few good books, watch good movies, travel, see a live band, go to a classical concert, get a dog :)

It will come back. 

Step away from all of it for six months.  Find another hobby to enjoy to fill in for a while. I did this a year ago for different reasons. It helped to enjoy it again later. 

when you get what you’re after, you’re bored. When you don’t get it, you’re frustrated

so true. Maybe you are just normal @coralkong not crazy like some of us.

There is a lot of peace in not having FOMA and upgrade-itis

I think whining destroys art.. 

I stepped off the crazy chain awhile back...became obvious that SOTA was unobtanium at the practical level and would likely remain such short of a lotto win.

'Not likely', and gaps of having anything up and charming drove me to 'selective acquisitions':  If it appealed to me in some fashion with a price rational through free.
It worked...well, reasonably pleasant to the ears overall.

A bit large all in one place; it could re-emerge into 4 systems, all of which would even out as for what it'd consist of.
Which may happen later this year, but a screed for a later day..

Friend OP, take the tip to take a break... distract for awhile, consider what you'd really like to do with the musics in your life, where and what.
Doesn't have to be Perfect; that only happens IRL.

Everything after is just an illusion. ;)

It sounds like contentment has you worried. Don't let a good thing get you down. Enjoy it while it lasts!

Yes, everyone I know who is in the hobby of Audio has had to Take a Break. When it hit me, a long time ago, I mothballed the whole thing for several years. More recently, whenever I feel like I am sliding back into complacency (with Audio/Music) I have Completely Dismantled, meticulously cleaned, straightened, repaired, painted, treated contacts, tested tubes… whatever seemed doable and re-assembled. It is shocking how long it takes, what ills are “discovered “ and how differently the whole contraption can be re-assembled. Improvements, yes, failed ideas, sometimes, but the important thing is the Exercise of re-evaluation coupled with the Time it takes (could be days, weeks, months…?) can rekindle your interest. The worst that can happen is you have newly prepared equipment for the Used Market.

I remember when the big screen rear projection tv years before Super Bowl in 1985..And then movies and then you needed 6 or 7 speakers with a Big Amp and then a Super Subwoofer..Yikes...And of course the next 15 year trying to better your sound ..Never Ending...Remember going to Bryn Mawr Stereo 3 times in one day to get speakers that sounded really good ..Ended up with Mirage Bi Polar and had them for 30 years..Then saw advertisement for 45 days for tube amp and took me 3 months to pull plug and when it arrived I was shocked what I never heard out of a solid-state that come out of this and of course those 30 year old speakers had to go also..then sent back the tube amp to upgrade in 2019 and was even more impressed with detail never knew existed in the music I heard all those years..Then at 73 years old I made my final upgrade to higher end Amp and still more impressed...But there are days I play system and sure sounds nice but feels like its missing something but another week goes by it sounds beautiful.. Song selection and mood play big part of what we hear at a moment and a week or two or month later it comes together...Just not equipment it is our soul and how we feel at times just like food and how one day you eat something and eat it again you tire of it.

Just take a break and breathe and try later..

PS I am going through this myself now on 6 yr old DAC that sounds beautiful but wonder if I am missing something with purchase of new one ..Never ending wondering what you will hear ??

Sounds like you've gotten the BB King flu... The Thrill Is Gone...

My audio fascination started when I was around eight and my adult cousin put a pair of Olsen headphones on my head and I was hooked. I have since then bought and sold many components to get to the entry level system I'm now enjoying.  I sometimes think I want these new speakers or that new amp, but I haven't pulled the trigger in years. The last audio purchase I made was buying a pair of 6 foot demo Kimber 4TC speaker cables for $40.

I have been at it for a while, and go in and out of phases of engagement both with the gear end and the actual music end as well.  At the end of the day I still love it and the discovery of new music takes me back to that wide eyed feeling of discovery that I experienced in 3rd grade when I got my first tapes.  

Now though at 50 years old, I like to think of my system as comfort, or an old friend that always has my back, but one that can also still teach me something.  I change, and so the system changes.  It's still fun, and there is still a lot to learn, but that learning does not have to take center stage all the time, it's there for me when I need it.  

Take whatever money you might have spent on a new whatever and use it to spend a month in Rome and Tuscany, or Paris, or wherever.

It will change you and leave you with memories that a new amplifier just can't.

I'm in complete agreement with everything the OP brought up and have been for quite some time. From what I could glean from the many fine responses is that there's a lot more who feel the same way. That, and I learned a new word today, 'atelic'. Thanks @hilde45 for that one. 

All the best,
Nonoise

Cannabis is legal in my state so I enjoy some in a stew or pastry with a glass of wine on Friday night and my system sounds lovely. I particularly love watching TV with music on watching ads muted with people looking ridiculous. 

After learning about room acoustics and seeing/hearing results firsthand, my obsession with this hobby completely disappeared. Since then I've broken a lot of audiophile 'rules', learned from the home theater community (who generally have more empirical discussions), and moved to a multi channel system (not home theater).

2 channel stereo is more like an instrument to me rather than ultimate sound reproduction. And with that goal gone, I can appreciate the restrictions/compromises made in designing a technologically simple but robust all analog system.

@coralkong 

I to have into music since the sixties and bettering my equipment since the early seventies.  Back then I did a lot of buying and selling and building amps, preamps and speakers. By the Eighties my job consumed my life and I barely had any time for the hobby so I pretty much stopped and most of my listening was through earbuds.  I went part time for a while before I finally retired.  In the last few years I have been back doing all the reading, watching YouTube and going to the few highend stores in my area. I started getting a couple of magazines about fifteen years ago as well. And slowly the fun of the hunt all came back. Almost everything in my three systems (a cheap office system, a system that’s all from the eighties featuring some Acoustat Model X’s and a Audio Research Sp9mkll preamp and the main system that I am extremely happy with ( see my profile description).  Almost everything is used or open box and with the new to me preamp and amps, I’ve been doing some tube rolling.  But for me, the music always has come first and no matter if I’m listening to a boombox or a Walkman, I have never stopped listening and that’s why I don’t think I could ever really be bored.  There’s always something new(to me) to listen to as well as those desert island albums that I never get bored of.

I really do hope that you’re not so “Tuned Out” that you can’t still find enjoyment relaxing and listening to some tunes with your favorite beverage.

All the best.

Maybe you are after a new sound, speaking of Paris. 

 

incorrigable

58 posts

02-08-2025 at 02:34pm 

Cannabis is legal in my state so I enjoy some in a stew or pastry with a glass of wine on Friday night and my system sounds lovely. I particularly love watching TV with music on watching ads muted with people looking ridiculous. 

sounds more like some stew in cannabis as opposed to some cannabis in stew

Thank you for posting your thoughts...I feel your frustration at a profound level as I just hate what marketing departments are doing to obfuscating real understanding of what a given product actually offers. Now when I evaluate a new product I look at the features, the specs, and avoid as much of the hyperbole as possible. I have been burned by marketing hype in spite of my efforts to avoid it. It really grates on me that marketing departments are not more honest, but I realize they totally are not honest. Its mostly BS and while I can navigate bs to get to the truth, I do not enjoy it at all. I am in the unique position of buying within the next year or so the equipment I will mostly live with for the rest of my days. This is a daunting task given the level of BS in todays marketing material. Choosing stuff that actually performs vs equipment that just is marketing BS is much more difficult that it used to be. So we are taking a very cautious approach to new equipment in every category. No where am I more afraid that in the TV/display category...so much poorly built equipment and then shipped via the gorillas at UPS to your home only to be broken and completely non functional on initial start up. So many reviews that complain about gorilla installers and shipping and handling. People who have tried 3, 4, even 5 times to get a working tv only to be disappointed by the poor handling of the shipping company. OMG it is just rampant the level of disregard for the fragility of these displays and the subesequent mishandling is beyond moronic. Its very hard to justify buying a display of any significant size.

lets hear it for cannabis...it  is partly how I survived college...and it may be part of how I navigate old age. We will see. Right now, not at all.

@coralkong this is simply a hobby, but a non-standardize highly subjective one with many opinions.  It takes much effort to sift through to find one’s ideal fear within budget.  One should get enjoyment from their hobbies, it’s not unusual for interest to fade.  Wishing you the best

I understand what you’re saying.  All the new equipment coming out and FOMO can be too much.  I enjoy reading about new gear even though I’ll never own it.  When it gets to be too much, unplug from the noise and play the music you love.  As Hans says, enjoy the music.  

After 50 years in this hobby I have experienced this jaded aspect of chasing audio gear many times. However, I think that you can apply this to anything in life. People eventually get bored of repetition. With audio the chase for the Holy Grail of audio systems begins in earnest, however, once we realize that there is no such thing, we tend to become jaded towards what is otherwise a very enjoyable hobby.

The same can be true of listening to music daily. Sometimes it’s nice to step away for a bit, which tends to rejuvenate your senses and allow you to start fresh.

The older I get as my hearing ages, the more I focus on simply enjoying the music itself, rather than attempting to intensly listen to the sounds that my hifi system makes.

Of course this is just my personal opinion and should be taken with a grain of sand.

There’s a great album by Timothy Leary titled - turn on, tune in, drop out. It's carried by qobuz.

Maybe this would be helpful.