If you lost your stereo system would you still ???


Would you still be enthralled by the music. Enjoy and listen to it. How much difference does a fine stereo make to you. Lets say you would have a $500 to listen to. Are you too concerned about the accuracy or would you still listen because you love the nusic. I think I would still listen but would always want more. I think that whats drives us. The audio bug. A $5000 system is not good enough. A $10,000 is not good enough and so on. But what would you do if the $500 system is all you will have to live with. Will you abandon your hobby? I know I would spend less time. Mike
128x128blueranger
Back in the 70's, I was driving in my car listening to the AM jazz station. The DJ said: "Okay, jazz fans, get your cassette recorders ready because I'm going to play something really special for you now."

The something special turned out to be a recording of the great classical guitarist John Williams playing Rodrigo's Adagio from Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar and orchestra.

It was so beautiful that I pulled my car over, took out a pad and pen, wrote the performance down and headed for the nearest record store.

This is what I bought, and its still one of my favorite recordings of classical guitar in the entire collection. Highly recommended:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/JOHN-WILLIAMS-Greatest-Hits-The-Guitar-M-31407-Masterworks-LP-Vinyl-VG/1825...

Frank
It's all about the music for me. I can enjoy $100 speakers an $10,000 speakers. Just give me the right music!
I would take that crap system and set it up just like a high end rig and squeeze every drop of sound out of it.

Even a garbage system set up and tweeked can still image.

Try it at a friends house if they'll let you.
I have, (but they always push the speakers back against the walls after we're done)
Thanks R,I was starting to lose control what with all those flashbacks going past at the speed of light.The lines in the road just look like dots.YMMV,cheers,Bob
If we improve the buget to $1500 for the crap gear, I could do it. In my car (Toyota Camry) I listen to music for hours and the sonics bear no ill influence. Full enjoyment. If I could only rig up a system at least that good it would be easy to concentrate on the music, but I would frequently long for another $2000 (minimum) to help out a little.
As crazy as things are right now with a new house and getting back in to life back home after being in Iraq, finding time to sit and enjoy music from the "system" is few and far between. A radio that most would throw away (tooth-pick holds the volume knob so both speakers will work sometimes) sits in the garage and plays my favorite tunes. $500? Yeah I could do that, but it sure is fun not having to.
What kind of weed was that?We always used to say,I'd rather listen to a boombox and Thai or Columbian than a Mcintosh-Luxman system with nothing,YMMV,Bob
I'm an audiophile. I live for the listening session, good or bad. I bought an Acura TL solely for the stereo system. I sometimes think I want a second system of old 70's vintage crappy sounding equipment so I can reminisce what my system sounded like back when I spent all my money on weed...
My audio-cohort and I drove to Vegas for CES in said Acura listening to DVD audio and redbook, got to Vegas and blitzed both CES and HES even though I'm not in the industry (I had cards printed up two years ago). At one point I was having a critical listen in an elevator with a total stranger over Muzak.
I love motorcycles, too. My wife made me sell my R1 a year ago. I would buy a "beater" in a heartbeat if she'd let me, I'm jonesing so much for riding.
Does that answer your question?
I can be pretty damn happy with my Tivoli radio - sometimes it makes me kinda sick to think of it compared to my stereo, the enjoyment to dollar ratio it STOMPS my rig
If I lost my current system and couldn't replace it with something similar, I think I'd get a nice cassette player. Hey, you can get used cassettes for a buck or two, sometimes less.
I would leave the planned obsolescence of formats behind forever and not really care.
I've always enjoyed music, even before I had the "good" stuff. 8^)
I also have a vintage Marantz 2270 and Large Advent speakers. Sounds great. I grew up with this combo. One of my favorite sounds still.
Probably close to $500, maybe a little more on Ebay.
Yes. Probably only 33% of my listening is via the high end stuff. But when I do I listen to the big bucks system I seem to listen more and multi-task not at all. As long as I have control over the content I can listen on less revealing systems like the $139 Aiwa 3 disc changer beside the computer that I'm typing on now. Actually I'm considering replacing it with c-j and small Thiels soon...
I have an old Marantz receiver, Denon CDP, and a pair of Advents that still make me smile.
I use a vintage Marantz receiver and older Gershman speakers in a second room.
It is possible to have good sound for $500.
Regardless, it is the music that counts.
All music is live.Then its dead.Can only be live once.Then its on to CD,record,vinyl......still gets listened to no doubt.Thats why were here looking for playback machines.Can't rely on the Wind and not all people can sing very good,YMMV,Bob
Let me ask this question...
If the music you had to listen to was not live...would you still listen to music?
i do most of my listening in rental cars, so the answer is yes. no high end system in the world can compare hearing my cd's blairing from all sides in a garden variety chevy with the windows down in the summer.
I would go with a headphones. You can get a pretty decent headphone setup for $500. I didn't say good but, descent.

I spent somewhere between $500 and $1k on my headphone setup when the main rig had to go because of the arrival of twin boys.

I like to listen to music but, enjoy it more when the system is more revealing.
I downsized my system because I was spending less time listening, but I still listen, whether it's in the sweet spot or in the background.

Sometimes I enjoy listening to the system I have out in the garage more, even though it's FM only, but that may be more a result of being in my own little world.
I’ve found out just what I’ll do if my main rig went away… I’d adjust. Some way or t’other. I’d slide into something far less expensive too, I’m pretty sure.

I’m not entirely sure it is because I love music though. It probably is however. I know this because during the “Sweet jumpijn’ Jellyfish!”, past year, I’ve been making a lot of changes around here and my main deal has been all but shelved. Just sitting there covered up with towels. Since Feb. 08 it might have been played 30 hours. Maybe.

I kept getting more and more despondent & disinterested in music by and large. But I never put it together. My ongoing disinterest in music, and the absence of fine sounding tunes being played regularly..

Yesterday I decided to disconnect the main speakers from the HT deal and just use the tubes at last, primarily because I wanted to see how the new NAS drive + PC as source would do with better gear running the show.

Whoa!

After working out some network sharing bugs…. It was such a major improvement I was stupefied by how long it had been since I had sat down to listen without listening in a critical way. Actually I was mystified by why I had gone so long without firing up my first string players!

Not only had I forgotten how much better the sound was that routinely had been my near only venue for music… I was remarkably and pleasantly mesmerized by the sheer degree of improvement that came by way of purely HDD – PC+ DAC sounds. Not to mention the convenient variety of music just a click away now.

… and it was great fun too.

I had simply gotten used to watching TV & movies via the HT sys, and listening to tunes only sporadically thru it these past months.

The diffs were so astounding, it still amazes me how when my focus to other areas became entrenched, that I lost track of the feeling which came from hearing music in a pretty good system so often…. And then to just quit doing it altogether! Wow.

Maybe I had even gone to the point of taking that rig for granted, and quit appreciating it’s capabilities, performance level and it’s impact on myself.
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Wow. How I managed that I have no clue.

Play your rig often… if you don’t, you might forget just how good it really is and what it means to you in other areas, and try not to take it for granted.

…. OR shelve it for six or eight months and then get amazed all over again.
Yup A lot of the time I listen to music over my computer and don't even turn on my main system. I love music for the sake of the music. I also play classical piano so I guess that sums it all up for me.
Tpsonic , If you were in Cleveland doing the listening , Maggotbrain can still be heard same time same station [ Mr. Classic ]
Listening to a lesser system is kinda like whackin' off.....it ain't like the real thing but it still satisfies.
I was just thinking of Maggotbrain a couple days ago.Remember it was a little record inside the Parliament/Funkadelic album?Cool,Bob
I remember being out late on Saturday nights.The local radio station had a tradition of playing the same tune at Midnight each week.
Funkadelic's Maggotbrain.
....and I was not offended,...
Music, or the love of music, is the raison d'etre for the system, not the other way around. Of course I'd still listen on whatever means available. I cannot imagine life without music.
I can still remember camping out in the woods in upstate NY by a beautiful waterfall with some high school buddies in the late 1970's and I brought my super cheapo General Electric portable cassette player, made around the year 1971, and we played some tapes of the old Genesis and I can't remember what else but I remember enjoying that music in that environment at that time as much as my tweaked out system(s) today
Gawdbless....your response is accurate to a T and is exactly how I feel about music too. And by the way even after we get lowered into the ground like the song says "The Band Played On".
I have a backup el cheapo consisting of quality components from thrift shops, and a few decent priced pieces from ebay. Most all vintage stuff though. If I can find an original Nakamichi MB cd player I'll be all set. I'll probably set it up in the bedroom, so any ladies out there come on by and check it out. wink wink
hi gawdbless:

this is my very last statement on the subject:

all stereo systems are inaccurate, period, since all components are inaccurate.

the music is more important to feeling happy when listening than sound quality. you can connect with a walkman or a $100,000 stereo. while they don't sound the same, the emotions and joy from listening to the music can be the same, if you are open minded.

there is sometimes a tendency to confuse music appreciation with sound appreciation. listen to an 78 rpm of enrico caruso. i hope you will enjoy it even though the sound quality may be less than ideal.
Please please do not mention the 'accuracy', you may get MrT adding his pure unadulterated wrist slitting induced, mind numbing drivel to this thread, all in a philosophical way though.

I love the music on whatever I am listening on at the time, car stereo, boom box, headphone set whilst walking the dogs etc. I love music, pure and simple. I will only give up music when I am either being cremated or being lowered into the ground.
I enjoy music through a Sony and JVC boombox.There is more of an emersive factor to the other systems,but you can't take them with you.It's the soundtrack to your life.