@hilde45
Here's a little more than you asked for:
I grew up in NJ with family in Manhattan so concerts and music venues were a constant for us (small clubs, indoor/outdoor arenas, small/medium bars, medium/large dance clubs, parks, etc.). My parents loved music and put together a McIntosh system in the mid 70's.
Prior to my wife and I having children, in around 2004 I had a friend that started an audio business. He would occasionally ask for help going to set up bigger systems. The gear was phenomenal he was meticulous in detail, both in set-up and room acoustics.
This re-ignited my own passion for music reproduction (and I had a source to demo/try/buy new/used gear). When our kids were born we travelled some, but with more focus on work and family, music reproduction entered the picture and took hold.
With regard to your philosophical interests, I would say a mix of b and c. I've explored a few different topologies, some of which have called for major overhauls- big model 5's from Hanford with Minnesota made amps, two piece speakers from Quebec with small but hot amps from Yokahama. Not always just change for the sake of change. I've enjoyed exploring different approaches, and eventually honed in on higher efficiency speakers that are mostly at home with tubes, but also SS.
My pursuit in audio (for most) is listening- bringing the essence, or soul of someone- young, old, dead, likely famous but maybe not, into our own room. When done well, this is the hair standing up experience, or chills, etc. Many people do this with different systems- my goal is one system- in a living room, with my family.
This combination does it for me and I love it, but I enjoy hearing nuances in scale, power and flavors, as long as it retains the fun factor and I can do it responsibly. So maybe the speaker is the heart and the amp is the mind. Maybe solid state is like a crossfit workout and tubes are like yoga. It's all in what you allow the experience to bring. The (c) part for me is that I believe it can happen in so many ways. If I go out to a good restaurant, I want to eat what the chef likes to make. If I go deep sea fishing for yellowfin tuna, I'll try catch a mahi mahi for lunch. That's the variety and changing part for me. It's also nice when I come home from work and the Leben volume is at 12 O'clock and my wife is singing and our kids are dancing.
