$$$ vs music enjoyment

Elizabeth
The entire premise of the op's comments are useless.
Who cares?
The idea I am supposed to give a damn what some other fool besides myself does with their money is a waste of time.
Same could be said for ANY item at all. Cars,watches, golf clubs, clothes, you name it.
So what if there is no correlation between money spent and enjoyment? It is all relative, and has little to do with price, money spent at all.
Some kid with an old stick playing in a park can be happier than some other kid with his expensive toy anytime. It does not invalidate toys!
Maybe the op needs to sell his stereo and invest in a small $29 radio for his music....

You mean the person who commented on the article? He's not the OP...

The question I posed is whether, at least theoretically, there should be an increase in enjoyment between listening to music on a very expensive equipment vs. modestly priced one. It's not about how people spend their money, or why. However, I do think that the analogy between audio equipment and other luxury items is rather faulty. Watches, jewelry, even cars, are more of a status symbol than passion, at least for most. Certainly, many rich people have mega-buck systems as status symbols as well, but I'm talking about audiophiles who actually listen to music on their systems and feel passionate about it. Do they enjoy the music more than they did when they listened to the same record thousands of dollars earlier, for example? I think it's an interesting question.

Roxy54

What a stupid, blanket assessment. You just lost all credibility in this discussion.

Said a watch/jewelry salesman...Ok...

First of all, relax. I simply posed a question in my first post, but of course some have taken it in a completely different direction, as often happens here.

There are many people who would agree with me that expensive jewelry, watches and cars are predominantly status symbols and people who obtain them do not feel "passionate" about these items the same way audiophiles feel about their systems that they might have spent years to assemble with great care and effort, even if they are people of great means. Mike Lavigne converted a barn into a dream-come-true listening experience, but it took a lot of work and time. Fume all you want, but walking into a jeweler and buying a Rolex is not the same thing. The way luxury items are marketed only proves my point. In fact, many suggest that, if there is such a thing as decline or death of the high-end, it is partly due to the fact that audio industry has never marketed its products as status symbols like the high-end watch or jewelry makers have always done.

Zd542
"In fact, many suggest that, if there is such a thing as decline or death of the high-end, it is partly due to the fact that audio industry has never marketed its products as status symbols like the high-end watch or jewelry makers have always done. "

When you make the "many suggest...." comment, where are you getting that info from? Can you show me where I can find an example of someone saying this?

http://www.stereophile.com/content/rip-high-end-audio
There are several pages of discussion after the article, but I'm not sure why you find this controversial. Open any fashion or any magazine targeting middle and upper class, and you'll see multitude of ads for luxury items such as watches or jewelry. The luxury goods industry routinely utilizes celebrities and tv commercials filled with grand life imagery slotted carefully to market its products to the able public. They are selling an image and status first and foremost, not the product. Is this really news?

In_shore
Actusreus you say Why does the audiophile community feature so few musicians in this hobby, put that question to them , I think a common answer would be they have better things to spend their money on.

And what would those things be? We all have "better" things to spend money on - family, health, necessities. The answer is probably that they listen to music for a living so it's possible that they might not want to spend hours upon hours listening to more music when they get home, just like chefs probably don't want to cook and eat fancy dinners when they get home from work, or carpenters do not necessarily have to surround themselves with exquisite woodwork. But I would very much like to hear from musicians (but how if they are not audiophiles?), or those who have musician friends and can shed some light on the issue.

It seems these types of discussions invariably drift toward the debate of money spent vs. enjoyment, which is not the question I posed. The issue of whether you need to spend a fortune to enjoy your favorite music has been beaten to death and obviously the answer is you don't. However, as much as music has always been a big part of my life, I never enjoyed it as much as I have since I've assembled my modest system with a turntable at its center. And the post quoted in my original post made me wonder whether we in fact do enjoy the music ever more and more as we move up the price/quality ladder. The person quoted didn't think so, but I'm not so sure based on my experience. I'd simply like to hear what others think based upon their experience as they upgraded their equipment over the years. I'm not looking for a debate.

Yes, thank you for an excellent response, Frogman.

Photon,
Please note that the idea of an empirical test to determine increased enjoyment was not mine. The post I quoted in my original post simply made me wonder whether subjectively we in fact enjoy music/sound more as we go up in the level of playback. I do not know whether you can ascertain by monitoring brain activity whether a subject is enjoying one stimulus more than another, but with the technology available today I would actually not be surprised if in fact it would be possible to do just that. Insofar as I would find such an experiment fascinating, that is not what I'm proposing. What I'm talking about is a subjective evaluation of your own audiophile experience. As I mentioned, I definitely enjoy music more through my high-end system than I did when I listened through a decent CD-based system. I expect now that my enjoyment would be increased even more if I was able to improve my listening environment, buy a better turntable, tonearm, etc., which is the opposite of what the poster quoted maintained. I'd expect it to be the majority's experience, but there are some posts in this thread that suggest otherwise. Good discussion, though. Thank you for your input.

Thank you for an excellent and highly enjoyable post, Mrmb.

However, while the playback experience has improved, my love of music has remained just that.

I agree with essentially everything you wrote, but would only like to mention that for me personally becoming an audiophile actually opened up new music that I would never have discovered (or at least enjoyed) had I not got to listen to it on a high-end analog system. I have always been in love with music, but the relationship was taken to an entirely different level through high quality playback.