The Horror
After getting back home from “The Show” in Costa Mesa, California this past weekend, I walked over to my stereo system and turned it on. And silently wept. I had held out a feint hope that my cross-over modified 1.7i Maggies and mighty Parasound A21+, fed from a Prima Luna 300 tube preamplifier could somehow manage a slight shimmer of resemblance to the robust setups I witnessed at the SHOW. Not—- on— your —-life. Not even close. I slumped into my over-stuffed couch and stared long and hard at the thing I created: an anemic concoction of false hopes and wishful thinking. The horror, the truth: entry into serious audiophile listening begins with purchase of speakers that cost the price of the car I had to finance for 4 years, closely followed with the added expense of beefy sophisticated electronics and wiring, not a gaggle of cheap wanna-be plastic and tweeks. I so wanted to belong, but that’s turned out to be just a fever dream I’ve got to wake up from. Maybe one day, if ever I have the nerve to rob a bank, find Jimmy Hoffa, or survive a head-on collision from a sleepy Amazon driver, I might make it. Maybe. Feel free to play the violin with two fingers.
Coming up on 10 years now......not a single rig or anything at any show has blown my stuff out of the water. In fact, I start laughing at the flaccidity of how million dollar rigs have sounded. It is your rigid belief systems (purity, depriving yourself of necessary tools, brand fanboyism, spending up the wrong tree, etc) that will keep you disgruntled forever. Ya gotta have a malleable, adaptive mind. |
@audiodidact - have you recovered yet? Maybe listen to lo-fi for awhile before returning to your rig. Hope you don't need the suicide prevention line |
That’s interesting OP and unfortunate. Over the years, I’ve observed the experience for most audiophiles attending shows is actually the opposite of yours. Most of us go, perhaps expect to be blown away by something, A lot of surprisingly unimpressive sound, And come home to fire up the system Thinking “ You know my system actually sounds really good Attending the show. I’m glad I own it.”
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