Love the gear (or listening to it) as much or more than the music? Sacrilege!
Back when I was in graduate school, an Art History doctoral student and I used to go to the art museum together. We saw some amazing paintings. But she was just as interested in their frames or their lack thereof.
In audiophile circles, in my limited experience, the drum that beats is always the same — "Remember, this is about the *music*." Or, "Too many audiophiles forget that the real goal is the enjoyment of music." Etc. There's also a variant — "Too many audiophiles are just listening to the gear, not the music." The finger only wags in one direction.
So...while no one would ever assert that it's ok to *only* love the gear (or listening to the gear, mainly), I wonder how many would be willing to admit that they love the gear as much or even more than the music? Is that something you have ever heard someone admit — or have admitted yourself? Because sometimes the music is pretty ugly and the gear is pretty beautiful.
Yeah, you gotta be free to do what pushes your buttons, but I'd go nuts if the only thing I cared about in audio was physical fidelity. As seductive as sound itself may be, music is at a whole 'nother level of pleasure.
I freely admit I love gear almost as much as the music BUT not at the expense OF the music. While I've never bought any piece of gear based solely on appearance my system did end up with gear that just happens to look like a supermodel with the voice of an angel...
Thinking about this question -- and the tension it can provoke in answering it -- I was reminded of that old book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The book meant to use the notion of "quality" to explode the false division between Romantic and Classical standpoints. One can be romantic about a motorcycle, and maintaining it -- it doesn’t have to be *just* a "machine" that has a remote ("Classical") structure to it. It was designed by someone who expressed their emotion-rooted sense of quality in it; this emerges in the active process of maintaining and repairing them. I can see the same appreciation being extended to audio gear, but it’s much harder to risk disrespecting the collective (and Romantic) love of music in the process.
I’ll admit it. I might love the gear as much as the music but when your setup starts getting pretty dialed in, you love the music and can get lost in it, which in turn, makes me love the gear even more.
I actually started to develop feelings for those Fritz Carrera BE’s I was reviewing. Kind of like how people fall in love with certain cars they’ve owned. I shed a few tears (as a grown man) when I had to sell my favorite motorcycle in order to not make my Mom cry every time I showed up to her house on it.
When I was 12 years old putting together my first system with money I earned, my best friend at the time pointed out to me that I loved the equipment more than the music; it was definitely true at that time. My first stereo was an Onkyo TX-SV515 Pro, Pioneer Laserdisc Player, Onkyo CD player, Paradigm 3se mkii speakers with paradigm center channel and paradigm atoms for the rear. Not bad for a 12 year old saving up money from mowing lawns, picking up dog poop, and then prewiring new homes for audio that my Mom had sold.
If I still had that Triumph 650 desert sled that I spent hours on in Mojave Desert races, I’d have it restored, and just lean it up against the wall in the family room. It would be there not to be ridden, but just to be admired. Above it, hanging on the wall, had I not sold it, would be the Bob Jackson, all Campy Record equipped, and 753 tubed frame road bike that I no longer could ride. The fond memories brought back of the tens of thousands of miles collectively put on both machines would be delightful.
On the audio equipment ... At this point, I have no idea what my electronics sound like because they no longer have any sound of their own that I can discern. Its just music all the time, spewing forth from a magical music machine, allowing a true performance to unfold in the listening room.
Looking at 'ugly' gear does not help really to enjoy music, - in my estimate. I'd find it as distracting as an ugly frame on a beautiful picture.
As another example, beautiful crafted e.g. wind surfing gear, in my experience, always worked better (for me) than ugly gear. As a rule, what looks good, works well. 👍
So... there seems always this subjective/romantic element involved.
Some say e.g. 'Boulder' (and Levinson?) gear is sounding cold (soulless?) - yet in my estimate it is exquisitly crafted... Actually once had the opportunity to visit the Boulder factory and see the care and dedication involved - yet certainly very high tech compared to a point-to-point manual soldering process of some highly priced e.g. Japanese equipment.
... will 'ugly' music*) sound better to ones ears, coming from 'beautiful' gear?!?
*) I'm thinking here of e.g. Bela Bartok's Violin and Piano oeuvres... or some way out and totally dissonant 'free Jazz'...
Not even the most amazing gear would help me to find its -quality-, to suffer it for more than a short while. Really.
So your doctorant friend can be understood perhaps, appeciating rather a frame than the picture, or simply commenting on its absents on some others?
Personally, I just don't suffer 'ugly' easily, though age, by necessity, makes one more tolerant, methinks...
If your kitchen radio could make it sound like there were musicians in the room with you, would you miss having the system that you do? If the answer is yes then you are not 50-50, you are closer to 100/0.
Let's talk about this marvelous kitchen-top radio! I WANT one of these! It be a lot more 'green' than my all class A gear, not so? Save me some more electricity! Dishes I do myself, no problem. Am I wrong to decline any ideas suggesting a BOSE? Been there of sorts years back and it was 'deeply disappointing'... So, if the sound matches my system, is at its very best at present, I'd surely still let it go - so long that kitchen radio looks a bit sexy, at least 😌. Does that still make me 100/0 then, because no like no ugly looking kitchen radio...? 🤔
My Primaluna integrated looks like I stole it from a 1950's doctor's office. My Sony SACD player is the veritable epitome of the anonymous, rectangular electronics box. My NOLA speakers are gorgeously finished but they still look as if I purchased them from a Circuit City, who knows when. My SOTA Sapphire looks time-warped from the height of the bad taste Seventies. My snake pit of cables is veritably laughable. Of my components, only the Alphason tonearm has physical panache. Retro and amusingly overwrought, it deserves to be on the inner sleeve of a Thomas Dolby album. As the Dolb sings in one of his tunes, it "blinds me with science." None of this matters, though. The sound they all emit is seductive and lovely. And oh yeah, my silver-faced Mytek BB may be tiny but it looks decidedly elegant -- simultaneously well sorted out and luxurious.
I do audiophilia in a superior fashion by making many systems, not expending much on media, paying very close attention to the electronics and listening closely to them, seeking variety in experiences, and not being satisfied with what I consider average playback. Only when the system is performing at a very high level am I content and enjoy the music. But, when that happens, which is often nowadays, after years of striving, I enjoy music as never before.
I am a System Builder. :)
Oh, wait, for the benefit of all the Chintziphiles, Musicians, Pro Audio techs, Music Lovers, and Mediaphiles, I forgot to add YMMV. ;)
Back in the late 70's/early 80's I was a salesman at some high-end shops in the DC area and I learned that people who seemed to be listening to the equipment not the music hardly ever bought anything. So I took a lead from my more experienced co-workers and set the customer up in one of our sound rooms, showed them how they could switch from one speaker to another and let them do their thing.
I'll never forget a small number of customers saying that they intended to purchase an amplifier when "digital" amps became available. This is 1978!
Hm, I was years back often trailing behind a charming 'fiend' (no spelling error) who practically always when he went into shops or attending system audition only to share afterwards how crap everything sounded and was. He never had the money at all, ever, to even consider buying even to least of equipment on offer. So, that way he was in the clear as all was sheit in his opinion. In his defence he played pretty good on a concert piano, which when he also auditioned, where just so, so as well. Never good enough, not any, to his expert assessments. I think sales men must have seriously hated the guy. Charming as he was in their face. He himself had really crappy looking gear but to him it was better than anything else on offer. I think he was a music lover - alsa a sightly psychopathic one. I survived this acquaintance, including my 'crappy' ML system. Though he'd messed up my X350.5's bias settings and dc offset, seriously, and only much, much later did this bad deed transpire. After a most laborious and *very* time consuming correction, my system didn't only still look nice - it also played more musical than ever. The moral of the story? Be very mindful of apparent experts who you invite to advise and trust, to fiddle with your gear! 😎🙄
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