I have learned, most of all, that I am not a true audiophile.
I am, first of all, a passionate for music that drools for nice gear.
I love the discovery of new music, so I listen to radio (FM or internet) a lot more than to my other sources. And when my DJ mood strikes I enjoy spending hours spinning vinyl or CDs while dancing or at least moving around with the sound. I do it alone and I do it with friends - and it gets better with some nice drinks and snacks on the side.
Not a party guy, not a head-banger going crazy regardless what's playing, just a physical way of enjoying the music. And yes, paying attention to and vibrating with details like "that note" or "that silence". But never caring about textures, attack and decay and so on and so on (all the jargons used by reviewers and the so called audiophiles).
Me and my friends, all related to music in a professional way (musicians, singers, sound technicians...), we don't seat to listen to the difference between cables and speakers and all that. We simply enjoy the music and the so many interpretations by fine musicians and singers.
And of course, we all know that better equipment reveals more from the recordings; but we also have a strong belief that after a certain point (component true quality rather than price tag) the improvement made to the sound is close to none.
So yes, we (myself in particular) enjoy owning nice sounding equipment, affordable to our pockets, but realized a long time ago that most of what we read and hear from audiophile reviewers, magazines, listeners, companies, is a lot of fairy dust and snake oil.
So I guess what my audiophile experience taught me about myself was that I am very realistic and logical about the audiophile world and that I know my limits when it comes to spending money in order to get satisfaction from listening to music.
I am, first of all, a passionate for music that drools for nice gear.
I love the discovery of new music, so I listen to radio (FM or internet) a lot more than to my other sources. And when my DJ mood strikes I enjoy spending hours spinning vinyl or CDs while dancing or at least moving around with the sound. I do it alone and I do it with friends - and it gets better with some nice drinks and snacks on the side.
Not a party guy, not a head-banger going crazy regardless what's playing, just a physical way of enjoying the music. And yes, paying attention to and vibrating with details like "that note" or "that silence". But never caring about textures, attack and decay and so on and so on (all the jargons used by reviewers and the so called audiophiles).
Me and my friends, all related to music in a professional way (musicians, singers, sound technicians...), we don't seat to listen to the difference between cables and speakers and all that. We simply enjoy the music and the so many interpretations by fine musicians and singers.
And of course, we all know that better equipment reveals more from the recordings; but we also have a strong belief that after a certain point (component true quality rather than price tag) the improvement made to the sound is close to none.
So yes, we (myself in particular) enjoy owning nice sounding equipment, affordable to our pockets, but realized a long time ago that most of what we read and hear from audiophile reviewers, magazines, listeners, companies, is a lot of fairy dust and snake oil.
So I guess what my audiophile experience taught me about myself was that I am very realistic and logical about the audiophile world and that I know my limits when it comes to spending money in order to get satisfaction from listening to music.