My Poop theory by kublakhan


I’m willing to bet all of you have had this experience and keep on having it, am I right? Have I said what the experience is yet? (Reading back, reading back…no, I didn’t). Ok, here’s the experience: You get a new piece of gear, be it some new cables, new speakers whatever, and the sound difference is extraordinary. You can’t believe what a beautiful improvement the item has made. Then, days, weeks, months later you find yourself remembering back to the good old days when you first got the piece and smiled ear to ear every time you listened to music through it. What happened, you say to yourself? I LIKE my system, but I no longer smile as I used to.

So okay, you go to audiogon.com and search out some answers. Answers which almost always cost money and a lot of hassle with research and this that and the other thing. Then you fixate on the new ‘solution’ buy the item and WOW, that is what was missing! And you write your ‘gon review of how stupid everyone is for not having used this xlr cable or that capacitor, etc….you get my drift. But the cycle continues. And continues.

Thanks for all of you who are still with me because here is where my ‘poop’ theory comes into play and it’s what we call in scriptwriting (and good sex) ‘the payoff.’ The poop theory (I’d use a stronger term for ‘poop’ by the way but audiogon already deleted one of my posts for vulgarity. I wrote a synonym for ‘posterior cavity’). Anyway, the poop theory says that if you put someone in a room full of …poop… they will cringe from the smell. But after a while, they will no longer notice the smell. At all. Can this theory be at work with us freakish audiophiles? I think perhaps so. After a while some part of our body gets accustomed to the poop (which in this case would be good, like a new preamp) and we no longer notice it. We need the poop back and we search for the poop (this time read like, you know… ‘the skinny’) on audiogon. We spend our money and time and finally, shazam! Once again we smell the poop …but the sh*t starts right up after a period of time. When will it all end? When will we all stop to smell the poop?

I write this because I’m now bored out of my mind with my system. And I’m refusing to pour more money into it. So now what? Look for new music I suppose – that’s the cheapest poop I can think of. I don’t know. I just know I miss the stench of a pair of newly retubed ARC monoblock 300s.

We’re all doomed. The cycle continues. I’m willing to bet all of you have had this experience and keep on having it, am I right? Have I said what the experience is yet?
kublakhan
If you cant do as Bluenose suggest, have 2 systems, one (your best) that sounds like real life or as close as you can get, and one that is more analytical, highly detaled. When the magic wears off your best system, spend some time listening to the analytical system. You can enjoy it for what it is and be analytical about your source components and software (ie, listen with whatever side of the brain that is). Then after some time, go back to your best system, where real music resides, listen with the other side of your brain, relax and enjoy the music.
I like Paulwp's strategy the best, and there have been times when I've maintained two systems for that exact purpose. I just sold my speakers from sys #2 and now, after only a month or so, I have the urge to get another set of speakers to start the cycle again. My only problem is that over time, I tend to make little tweaks and changes that result in the two systems sounding progressively more and more alike. When the time comes that I can hardly tell them apart, I sell off the "lesser" of the two and start the process again. And here I go again! :)
just like your wife,damn smelly poop!but wait,its been a month now,come on honey?man that was good!just like when it was new : ).isnt it amazing how much alike women and stereo's are?
kublakhan: it's really too bad casettes have fallen out of favor. still, with a nakamichi dragon, you might be able to test your theory on a "poop deck." -kelly