LoFi


My sound system is down for repairs (I don’t know for how long). I’m now reduced to listening to music on Alexa’s transmission of WQXR, New York’s classical music station, in LoFi. Surprisingly, I’m getting into the music more easily. Without the distraction of sonic values, I’m able to totally concentrate on the music itself. I don’t need Hifi and soundstaging to “get” the musical message. it brings me back to my youth when I listened on a table radio and first fell in love with music. I find that I now can follow a piece of music from beginning to end more easily.

Not that I’m ready to give up the hobby. Just an interesting observation.

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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).