Please Educate Me

Oh, Paul6001....You walked into what looked like a garden and hit a land mine with the first footfall....:(  The welcome wagon that looked like a Volvo turned out to be a full-boat survivalist Humvee full of hungry survivalists....with clubs of spikes.

Bunch of junkyard dogs with analog gear that simply are well-honed flint spears spinning plastic grooved discs more fragile than porcelain, feeding 'fire bottle' tech from the grand-dad dimension...

Speakers?  I won't 'go there'. No....

(*L* Now that I've ticked off most of the gathered mob...."You guys are So Superstitious....It's just this little chromium switch here....*click*...)

I grew up with analog.  Slogged through upgrading to some degree, until the pricing for even 'low' high end went over the $ for a decent car....

...which is about when the Era of Digital Domains began.
It didn't require a degree in EE to read the spray paint on the B&M wall, y'all.

Analog is (and has been for awhile now....get 'woke') reaching it's apogee.  The 'tech' has gotten to the point that you NEED $10K IC's and cables to tweak the last .001% out of that stack.

I admire the tech involved.  Do I want that involvement? 
Oh, hell, no.

The majority of what y'all are listening to is so steeped in digital that you'd literally have to bird dog that LP from the day it's mastered in the studio, and be on a first name basis with the artists And the engineer (ignore his mix board....and the 'puter sopping it up) as well.  And it gets worse, unless you DIY it from there, kidding yourself.

We're Way Beyond playing a Stroh violin into a Edison megaphone scraping a wax disc.

That, and reading a gaggle of aging boomers trying to ignore the fact that their ears are Failing.

NO.  You can not hear what you used to.  It's simple science (remember Science?  It's what The Chump ignored, and has dragged us all into a hell of a virus that is already mutating faster than can be kept up with.)

I'm wearing aids.  I can outhear you.  I now know what I've been missing.

They're digital.  My gear is mostly digital.  Most of the source is, too.

Speakers?  Analog.  We're exciting air.  The last link has to be, until we get a USB plug in your skull...and that's being worked on NOW.

Like the young lady said...

"Right Here, Right Now."

Yes, MC....You've a Nice System....for a modern Antique.
I don't have to turn the lights off to enjoy my pile of garbage.

Have a nice day, J

No wonder the 'newbies' turn and run away.....get attacked for semantics and 'is that a question?'

Quit shoveling the grave of audiophilia while moaning about it dying.

«Always face your wife if asking a question»-Groucho Marx

@mahgister....I've done that...it's almost as dangerous as not...*L*

mahgister, well said...and 40+ yrs. into our relationship, I don’t lie.

That said, misinterpretation and/or assumption by either can still intrude.
I suspect that couples can see the same issue, but describe/conceive of it in their own fashion. But I don’t, nor necessarily want, my spouse to see the world as I may Exactly anyway...
I really don’t want to live with a clone I don’t think another of Me would see things the same fashion anyhow.

Extending that observation, I think that applying that ’here’ can also be at the root of many of the fracas we read.
If I was to amass identical equipment, from source to speaker, with all between, playing any sort of source material in as duplicated an environment as practical...
...I would wager that I still would not respond to what I hear and perceive with the same observations as the owner of the duplications' original.

I don’t think it’s possible...unless one or the other makes a reference and/or comment about a given detail. And even that may or may not be noticed by the ’other’. And, even then, that detail may not be considered a flaw, or even an improvement.

Science and technology aside for a moment, this is where taste and preference elbow the former pair aside.

We read where ’this (preamp, amp, DAC, CdP, IC, cable,etc.) made/didn’t an improvement, leading to a ’swap’ to Something Else.

This ’SE’ did/didn’t, and may have began (or not) another hunt for perceived ’Nirvana’, whatever one sees ’it’ as being.

...and that’s OK, either way.

Anyone is more than welcome to listen to what I have and do with it.
If they have any commentary, pro or no, I’m happy to hear it.
I welcome commentary and critique’, really.
But you have to come here and listen to it.
I expect the same from y’all.
Obviously, not terribly practical.

Spouse says I live in a ’conditional world’; this=that, IF.

I’ve yet to hear an argument that overcomes that.

(But that’s just MHO, and I’m happy with it.)

...just another 'nite on the 'net.....*g*

Btw....I'm not an angry anything....bemused, sometimes amused, slave of my muse, but not meaning abuse except in a general sense when I make some....sense, that is. *s*

Paul, swing accepted but felt free to duck... ;)

Being meatless entities as opposed to IRL is irritating....look, I'd rather have a drink or share a blunt with any and all instead of 'all this'.  We could obviously 'read' each other and either come to common ground or avoid as needed.....

The OP states a rather open-ended commentary, and we all go off on our particular tangents; responses vary as typical and as expected.

Such is SOP for 'Gon.  Personally, I'm pretty pragmatic about audio and my approach to it.  I don't strive for the perfection that I know (IMHO) doesn't exist.  Too much between me and the performers at the mic or pickups in the studio or the venue.  What I employ to listen to that is a varied bunch of items that makes pleasant enough sounds to amuse me.

'You' may run from 'here' screaming or laughing; I'd rather 'you' pause and tell me what/why/YHO and discuss much; previous offerings accepted or declined.

As to Why we put ourselves through any/all of this is runs around the reefs of philosophy centric to music and the enjoyment of.

Spending time and pixels on the How is fine.
But whether 500 or 150K$...if it makes you smile and transported to the Other....by the Music, and not the How....

Wonderful.
Enjoy.
J