Is it ever enough?


It strikes me that continuing to tinker can be either positive or a negative for a given individual. When I make changes intending them as a remedy for something deficient, I don’t always know if that emerges from an inability to be satisfied and happy with what I have, or as a legitimate process of improvement.
For me, the question of when is my system excellent enough to simply sit back and listen to it for the rest of my life is difficult to ascertain.
Obviously, a lot of people don’t care about this and simply enjoy trying to perfect their sound, independent of any such concerns. And, of course, there’s nothing wrong with that, or it’s opposite, which I would call being satisfied on a budget, or perhaps having the benefit of less discerning ears in terms of budgetary effect.
Anyway, I’m curious, if anyone else is interested in this topic, to hear what they think. If the topic doesn’t interest you, you’re probably better off responding to someone else’s post.
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Showing 1 response by mijostyn

I have plenty of recordings that "suck" but the music is incredible. Most of them are just a product of their times. It is like looking at an antique. Take the trim off a stunning Philadelphia high boy and you will see the most awful dovetailing. It was viewed differently back then. 

Audio is a maze. You head down a path and run into a dead end. You turn around, take a different route and bump your nose again. Over time you learn what paths lead to a dead end and eventually find a right path. Hopefully, along the way you learn how things work and how to do manipulate the technology to your purpose. 

I started young. I got my first record player at the age of 4. My father had a great system in it's day making my own players sound like sh-t. So, I started down the path of improvement. I built my first Dynakit at the age of 13. Using a soldering iron was a necessity as I could not afford anything but kits. I had to earn the money to buy everything. Used equipment was the rule otherwise. It has been a long evolutionary process with several long periods of stasis (children are expensive.) I have always had an upgrade path in mind and I am on a roll again. Technology moves on and I am an early adopter. There is always room for improvement and I do not expect to stop any time soon. The kids are on their own and my wife and I do not have a very expensive lifestyle.  There is money to burn and I plan on burning it.