LoFi

Not surprised. Low expectations means you can't be disappointed.

It's like when a favourite song comes on your car radio. All you do is enjoy the moment.

@tony1954 ,

+1

Many a post's by the OP through the years have to led to this reality.

Low expectations means you can't be disappointed.

Words to live by.

Related wisdom: Live below your means.

@rvpiano I am away from home for a spell and my system is now a pair of Tribit Flowboxes bluetoothed from my laptop. I love the way I can move them around the room effortlessly (because they are battery powered) to try alternative speaker placement.

Precisely why I often find myself jealous of those who do not share our addiction.

It is easy to have your analytical side take over your system. You focus your minds eye on things you have never heard before or the ends of the sonic spectrum. It is exciting to hear stuff you haven’t heard before and then one goes to get more of that with the purchase of each new component. You are pleased with all that is new that is revealed. So, when you sit down to listen, you are inclined to listen to the new sounds. Scour old albums for new voices and sounds.

It’s very addictive But each step can take you one more step away from the music... from the emotional connection. This has happened to me. Suddenly finding that when I listened to my system I was using it as a microscope and not listening to the music.

What triggered me to realize my system had become a microscope was my experimentation with my headphone system. I bought a 300B headphone amp (see my systems). I always wanted to understand what all the fuss was about. I remember when I got it and put the incredible Takayuki 300B tubes in it and listened. I was simply astonished how real and musical and emotionally compelling the sound was, I just couldn't put it down. I am actually listening to that system now.

I went and turned on my main system... I was confronted with an incredibly detailed sounding microscope with absolutely no music in it... dry and emotionless... but every nuance of the venue and mastering was in my face. A fantastic $75K scientific instrument for audio analysis... I should have had a few oscilloscopes attached.

Well, that was the turning point in my main system... ultimately I replaced every piece of equipment with that made to reproduce music... intimate and emotional connected music. Now, if I go listen to my Tivoli radio, or even my office system, the taste I get makes me want to go power up my main system or headphone system.

Perhaps, something similar has happened to you?

@rvpiano 

Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise - an opportunity to make a course correction. 

So, what is broken or the problem with your system?

If I could jump into my purple Super Bee, pop in an 8 track tape, and ride around drinking beer with my friends, Tim and Alan, that would be heaven. Unfortunately, they both passed at a young age, but I still have those memories of cranking tunes. 

If I could jump into my purple Super Bee, pop in an 8 track tape, and ride around drinking beer with my friends, Tim and Alan, that would be heaven.

Yup.  I didn't know your friends, but I remember those days.  It was fun.  But it's like most anything--one thing leads to another.  

I would trade all of the gear that I have ever owned to have friends to listen with like I once had. Listening by myself has its own charms, but I really miss the listening/conversing of my late teens.

@stereo5 

That was my first thought...what's the problem?

Give it a while. The ears will begin to burn from the degradation in sound quality. 
 

Well, like they always say, "That was then and this is now."  

there is a connection component to listening to music that has little to do with the quality of the source. It's how we receive and hear and what it evokes. It's like reading words creates a world in our brain, hearing sounds creates a world of emotions in our psyche.

Well, sometimes I listen to music on iphone, not for long. You can hear the outlines but not real music, but you can imagine a lot of it since it's not there. There is no substitute for a good sound.

@stereo5 

I’m trying to find the problem.
The best guess is that I have a tube that went bad in my preamp.

.

I had my Odyssey Tempest preamp serviced recently. In preparation, i picked up an interim, APT Holman Pre.

To my chagrin the vintage Holman bested the OT ... not by a little

Why not pick up a temp unit?  

My record collection, my pride and joy, was wiped out in a flood in 1985.  By coincidence the flood occurred the night my triplets were born, August 6; also the anniversary of the Hiroshima bomb, so a portentous day.  I couldn’t afford to buy a CD player and LPs were disappearing from shops.  Even after I scraped enough loose change to buy a CDP the CDs were expensive.  The result was that in those pre streaming days most of my music came from my Pioneer collage dorm entry level AVR tuner.

  I am supposed to end this post by saying it’s the best audio that I ever had, that all the fancy gear I’ve since bought has never equaled the joy of that source through my Advent 3 speakers.  Sorry, no effing way.  Once I was able to start buying better stuff there has been no turning back.  Wanting to go back would be like a castaway on a desert island who having been rescued after years insists on ditching fine dining options for a meal of coconuts and raw jelly fish

@mahler123

Your lucky your not distracted or seduced by the sheer physical sound of your system.

Try working in a vacant unheated building with water dripping everywhere from the failed roof and I can assure you that a bluetooth tailgate speaker sounds pretty great :)

My first decent system some 50 years ago was from Radio Shack. I enjoyed it immensely until I heard a Magneplanar/Audio Research system at a stereo shop. I enjoyed that immensely till I heard ... you get the idea. Going back to the basics is not a bad idea. I think now I'm to the point where I can accept just about any system for what it is. Nevertheless, when I have the time to do some focused listening the big system has no substitutes. 

The music just seems to hold together in my mind better without the distraction of the SQ which I have poured so much of my energy, time and money into. 
I’m not ready to give it up though.  It’s too much fun.

Hmmm a hobby about sound where the sound actually getting better is a problem sounds like quite a problem! Human nature I guess.

Yep!

I am supposed to end this post by saying it’s the best audio that I ever had, that all the fancy gear I’ve since bought has never equaled the joy of that source through my Advent 3 speakers. Sorry, no effing way. Once I was able to start buying better stuff there has been no turning back. Wanting to go back would be like a castaway on a desert island who having been rescued after years insists on ditching fine dining options for a meal of coconuts and raw jelly fish

Exactly!

I remember the old days--people would come over and we would go through the LPs or find an 8-track and we would put something on and pop open some beers and the cake pan would come out from underneath a sofa and someone would roll a joint or the bong would come out . . . it was a lot of fun, but that kind of listening had a limited shelf life. It was a lot of fun, but if it hadn’t have evolved, it wouldn’t still be my hobby. I will never know The Holy Grail or be able to reach out and actually touch the music that I am listening to, but I am a lot closer now than I ever was then.

@devinplombier *L*  Been kinda there, did somewhat that sort of thing.... ;)

My pixel phone driving a pair of 'puter dinkies does just fine if I'm working somewhere else than the big pile....
Still distracting, but that can be leveled at a lot around me....

At one point in this string the OP said:  "I’m trying to find the problem.
The best guess is that I have a tube that went bad in my preamp"   

I have the same problem, but since my audiologist says it is not my hammer, anvil or stirrup I may have to look into getting my interconnects upgraded...

Get a pair of Sony's 360 reality headphones. It is more enjoyable than all this hifi crap somedays.

Or Temu sells some in-ears for 20 bucks that are kinda jawdropping (shop like a billionaire....i always knew there was a billionaire in ya).

 Alexa - any sonic tweaking? Add a subwoofer?

No subwoofers yet.
But listening to the radio I realize this a classic case of missing the forest for the trees.
Too much sonic detail to hear a composition as a whole.
This is true especially for classical music (bigger forest) which tends to be more complex than other types of music

I strongly suggest that you stick with lo-fi to avoid any dissatisfaction when switching back to hi-fi. Like my son (no kidding), who enjoys lofi much better and care less about hifi. My best half also enjoys WQXR better than anything else. I am the minority who can not live without hifi.

I don’t think OP’s issue is low-fi vs hi-fi. It is the wrong approach of hifi, which focuses on some soundstage, separation and how things are spread out in it, pinpointing whatever. It makes an analytical mind go crazy, takes you out the music.

About a month ago, i watched an orchestra in a grand acoustical hall, not too far from where i live. There was not even a remote instance of not being fully enveloped immersed in the music, almost transcendental, while watching a dense orchestra.

To do that type of envelopment and immersion at home (that shuts down the analytical mind) at home, one may need to resort to some atmos/multichannel/object based audio....I recall 10 years ago, it was the classical guys who were switching over first. But, of course, it requires a larger space, more expense, setup complexity, etc.

Or the other extreme is to get a bluetooth boombox or transitor radio to completely kill all expectations and lower standards drastically... so it becomes enjoyable again.

I strongly suggest that you stick with lo-fi to avoid any dissatisfaction when switching back to hi-fi. Like my son (no kidding), he enjoys lofi much better. My best half also enjoys WQXR better than anything else.

deep_333,

You know, I’m actually thinking of something like that. I realize how much music I’ve been missing, and how much I’m enjoying music now, and how this hobby has corrupted my senses.

It seems a shame after all the dedication and expense I’ve invested to dump everything and start over. But this Hifi addiction has been ingrained in me for so many years it seems almost impossible to break. I’ll have to find some solution that includes both listening methods but not at the same time.
Or, break the addiction. (Not likely.)

I recently got a WiiM Amp for the bedroom.  It feeds a pair of old NHT floorstanders.  The loudspeaker positioning is determined entirely by practical room considerations and not by sound quality.  There are no room treatments.  The source material is uncompressed AIFF files on a USB thumb drive.  It's not high end sound, but it's thoroughly enjoyable.

Previous to the WiiM streamer/amplifier I tried playing the USB files through a Sony soundbar.  It was listenable, but not very enjoyable.  Too much of the music was stripped from the sound.

I call my hi-fi system "The lab". It has nothing to do with music. I just like playing with gear and see it sounds.

I’ll never forget my first experience with modern hi-fi. It was Monitor Audio Silver and Creek electronics. "I’m hearing too much" was my reaction. But isn’t that what hi-fi is all about, high fidelity? If you’re not spending a lot of money on high-fidelity, then what ARE you spending it on?

Sure, you can spend 100K if you want to fill a large room with high volume, full range sound. But that is not necessarily better sound.

I remember what Elizabeth said about high-end. It should sound like a boom box but better. Hopefully much, much better.

It occurs to me that no one on this forum is in it for the music only no matter what is said.
After all it’s called Audio gon.

There are plenty of other music sites.

@rvpiano If you are already heavily invested in conventional 2 channel hifi, conduct an experiment...which is moving yourself closer into nearfield 4, 5 or 6ft from speakers and adjust toe-in. Determine if some additional level of envelopment/immersion is being created by the soundfield, trying to shut down the analytical mind.

If that's the case, BACCH  processing (by Dr. Choueiri) might be a solution at your regular listening distance...i.e., it can launch you deeper into the recordings..way inside, no longer sitting on the analytical fence periphery.

Or if you are too pressed for space w.r.t a big multichannel rig,, you could even try some nearfield multichannel like the following example.

Guy in the video is using some cheap gear, but, it is to get the general idea.

https://youtu.be/aGUs_FS7n8w?si=WbisatTuNFPuw63Z

I know hifi speaker and amp designers who sell you hifi stuff, but, will only do their personal listening (for enjoyment) with above mentioned deviations from hifi stereo purism.

deep_333,

You know, I’m actually thinking of something like that. I realize how much music I’ve been missing, and how much I’m enjoying music now, and how this hobby has corrupted my senses.

It seems a shame after all the dedication and expense I’ve invested to dump everything and start over. But this Hifi addiction has been ingrained in me for so many years it seems almost impossible to break. I’ll have to find some solution that includes both listening methods but not at the same time.

Or, break the addiction. (Not likely.)

@deep_333 

Thanks very much for your interest and suggestions.  You definitely have the right idea. 
I’m not sure I can utilize near field with my current setup, but it’s a great idea and worth a try. 
I’ll look into the BACCH processing system you mention.  Sounds interesting.

It’s really amazing how far technology has come that, for $89.99 you can buy an Alexa Echo that actually portrays classical music decently.  Amazing clarity and differentiation between instruments. The musical message is capable of being transmitted very effectively.

Question for everyone - what would you use to put together a lofi, musical system?

I have a Marshall Bluetooth speaker fed from my phone over Pandora or my TV. Sounds way better than it should. A couple hundred bucks all in.

@cdc In today’s market, you could easily find a low-end yet at least mid-fi combo with your eyes closed (but mind open). You could do RC+PEQ with it. Huge SS and alot fun.

Wiim Pro+ -> Fosi v3 -> Sony SSCS5 for $350.

Not a bad idea.

@russ69 ,

I have the same speaker and do the same thing. Great for dinner background music. I also dig the retro amp look.

I always like reading @rvpiano 's threads.  he always has solid points that make you think. and the more you think, the more valid his points are.   he incites great responses, too.  well done, RV.  Keep up the great threads.   Hope you find a solution to your issue. 

@shtinkydog 

Why,  Thank you.

My first "real" system was a pair of Audio Physic Step speakers, driven by a Bryston B60 amp, with a VPI Scout TT. The sound from this setup would cause me to stop what I was doing (usually tying trout flies) and just freakin listen. My son, in high school at the time, would bring his buddies over when I was not home ( I would have killed him if I had known) and play LP's. They were in total awe. I've "upgraded" many times since , and  usually there was a noticeable improvementt, some minor, and some better. However, all those combined did not compare to the "WOW", I got from that first set up.

We recently finished our Florida winter home, a small 750 SQ/F home. We stay here through the winters, my big rig is home in the north. With limited space I assembled a modest system that has 4 ceiling speakers for front and rear and a $250 center channel speaker. The Yamaha AV has internal streamer/DAC. It's set to "all channel" so there is no stereo image. We enjoy it for a background music, and it serves us well and the music is very enjoyable. I get it, there is no critical listening with it, just music. It does reveal that Qobuz sounds far better that Sirius on it and it also still reveals that poor 70's recordings are ...well still poor. I miss the Big Rig, absence makes the heart grow fonder.

@fthompson251 ,

Where in Florida did you build?

@thecarpathian   Titusville near the Cape. A 55+ community on a golf course.