What is your audio axiom?

Trust Your Ears

"Have your priorities straight. Purchase a house before building your dream system."

If it sounds good, it’s good music. ~ Duke Ellington

What I say to myself: "50% is the room, stupid."

I'd tell them that the most important thing is the music; I didn't enjoy songs any less as a teenager listening on a cheap clock-radio than I do now hearing them on a true audiophile system and a room with wall-to-wall carpet and no side-walls. But I'd also suggest to give a listen if they can to a good sound system; they might find a new pleasure.... 

Music first. And there is no absolute sound, only the sound you prefer. 

There is no spoon.

Everything is built to a price point. 

+1 @middlemass 

"If I liked it I would be disappointed."

Oh, and here's a short video that explains everything about this hobby...

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1165258265363533

DeKay

Recognize when to take the win.

Listen for yourself 

"Wow"

run away

"WHO CARES WHAT IT COSTS...... "what are the payments?"

@2psyop +1

My take … Recording technology and quality is the limiting factor to achieving a realistic reproduction of the performance or studio sound engineers intent.  The system, while important, is secondary.  
 

My #2 …  

+1 @jji666 

My take … Appreciation of the performance and composition is the primary goal.  The system is only the means to achieve that goal.  

The right sound is what makes you happy

Enjoy the music first - and appreciate the gear you have now. Take it slow. If funds are a concern, always consider buying used.

1) Variation in music/recordings is greater than variation in gear.

2) If sound differences of gear are not obvious*, they are not there or are irrelevant because of 1)

* based on "Statistics proves the obvious"

Patience, listen, research, learn. This is a long term pursuit that can be incredibly rewarding. However you have to be comfortable with ambiguity and learn to listen and hear. Each turn can be rewarding. Early days are the hardest until you get the basics down: not believing marketing hype, measurements, and in "Giant Killers". Sound quality comes in different flavors... highly detailed, punchy, natural and musical. The later is likely to be the most satisfying long term... but lots of folks like sound spectacular system. Figure out what you like... but realize it will change over time. 

Not one thing, and only a tiny sliver.

" buy lightly used and your money will go twice as far".

Lots of great top advice. Nice stuff.

“It’s both worth it and not worth it.”

“It’s worth it” - what audiophiles tell themselves when purchasing a component 

“it’s not worth it” - how audiophiles view many/most above budget components

….now, what about your spouse? 😉

@dweller Very sage advice but in many parts of the country thats a bit of a reach. Why wait to begin the journey toward the dream system? 

I always tell myself "do not comment on streamer or pricey cables discussions". 

Entire towns have been burnt down over disagreements about the value of [x] dollar interconnects.   

90% of what you read on this forum or any audiophile forum is BS.

Be sure you can audition the equipment in your listening room connected to your system before buying or buy but be able to return for no or a low cost.  A good store, retailer or manufacturer will usually let you.  If not, buyer beware.  You could get stuck with a piece of equipment you don’t like. 

@larsman 

How do you have a room with no sidewalls? Isn't that outdoors?

Don’t be seduced by the hype.  Use your ears and don’t be afraid to say when the naked emperor is before you 

There is always a time and place for achieving our goals in life.We all start at the bottom of the ladder but as we progress and experience life, we will lean towards our passions and whatever makes us feel good.If music is your thing, I say listen to the music first and later if you have the means to experiment with different components, by all means go for it, life is short.

My audio axiom is Relax. 

90% of what you read on this forum or any audiophile forum is BS

10% value is better than the average for what mankind produces in general

@ozzy62 - it would seem that way, yeah? But in my apartment I've got a long livingroom and I have my gear set up width-wise, not length-wise, so on one side I've got about 15 feet until the window wall, and on the other side about 10 feet from the opening that leads to the front door. So while there are technically walls, they are far enough away so as not to affect the sound. 

The recording is 75% of the experience, the other half is mental - Yogi Berra 

Maybe these are not audiophile shibboleths but they work. 

Don’t call somebody’s baby ugly. 

Every time I find it, I loose it. 

Assume nothing!

“If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” Yogi Berra

"if nobody is in the listening room, is there a soundstage?"

(Yogi Berra?)

There no such thing as too many speakers as long as they all sound different. 

@2psyop 

"If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” Yogi Berra

+1 Perfect!

Regards,

barts

I continually fool myself I'm done upgrading or changing things, don't know if a 'true' audiophile is ever done? Just purchased another SET amp to add to the collection, don't need it yet somehow I find myself the new owner of yet another audio component. The need to taste different flavors replaces absolute need.

Have fun, with which ever system you built and are listening to.  Relish a world of satisfaction rather than relentless critique and unsettled search.
I apply that axiom to travel.  I enjoy whatever level I’m at to include living and working overseas.  It’s all good and I’ve been doing it for decades.

This idea of unique and/or individual recording quality variation is something that has really come into focus for me in recent years. I derive enjoyment from the nearly endless variation in recording qualities, by this I mean paying attention to the choices of producers/engineers in producing a work of art. We are not merely listening to musicians with these recordings, so many others involved to presenting these works of art. 

My scale of judgement has far surpassed just good and/or bad, mostly I just turn off the judgement and let the presentation come to me, listening sessions far more satisfying when one turns off the judgement cap. Some believe the more resolving a system becomes the more the warts will reveal themselves, no doubt this true so then it becomes how one perceives those warts. 

"I love re-mastering really old material. All those guys wore ties to work." Rudy Van Gelder

Excellent post/topic @2psyop, lots of good stuff here.  I am reminded of a favorite piece of advice from Animal House:

Boon: I gotta work on my game.

Otter: No, no, no, don't think of it as work. The whole point is just to enjoy yourself.

Which camp are you in….music or illusion?

“The quality of any given recording will make or break the listening experience” is illogical. The quality of the music transcends the quality of the recording or the illusion of the system reproducing the music.

I know many music lovers who value lower quality recordings and rare bootleg records. Some collect rare events like concerts illegally obtained from primitive cassette recorders over perfect studio albums. Others have radio shows made on early mono reel to reel recorders that even the radio stations have erased.
 

Music in the home is not made any more superior because of the gear it’s played through. If the source is a bad performance, it remains a bad performance. Real music lovers are not 100% obsessed or worried about the recording quality. If you can’t accept that then chuck away all your old archival recordings in low fidelity, and never even consider listening to the original greats.

Sorry OP but in my opinion you have your priorities all wrong with recordings being paramount. The recording is not the defining point for a true music lover.

The real question is are you a music lover or just out for a listening experience….. two different things and which ball you want to fetch.

All valid responses and all are appreciated. No criticisms at all. I do agree with many here about music as the paramount issue or significant part of the listening experience. If someone likes “not ideal recordings” or enjoys music that is not necessarily high fidelity it is not something that bothers me all that much. The question I posed is more in line with the high fidelity or audiophile experience. Given two identical albums ( just an example) that were recorded well but one sounded better because my perception of the recording makes it sound more live, organic, true to the artist intent or desired listener experience. I would prefer that one. Of the recordings I listen to, the better sounding ones, are more appealing to ME. That’s why I proposed the thread topic because I thought it would be enlightening and informative to expand that question to other Audiogon audiophiles.

BTW everyone here has different priorities with regard to listening to music. It’s a big world with different people and different ways of doing things. That’s a big part of this forum. Share, learn and grow. Of course listening to music is important to all of us.

Appreciation of the performance, together with sound quality of system and recordings is not mutually exclusive. To presume music appreciation transcends sound quality of our systems and recordings is to diminish audiophiles and our pursuit of SQ.

The point of this pursuit is to enjoy and/or appreciate these three components of musical recordings when played on high end systems. If you can't have appreciation of all three things simultaneously you have issues with your system and/or perspective. I don't need perfect or even high quality recordings to appreciate both sound quality and musical performance. Flaws are ever present, the secret is to have a system and mindful perspective that allows one to accept these flaws without judgement. To ignore the qualities of sound both the recording and my system delivers would be a negation of everything I strive for as an audiophile.

When I built my first pair of speakers, I was at the JBL profession dealer. I was purchasing upgrade components going from Two way, to three way speakers. The manager was with a guy dressed in a suit and they approached me in conversation. The suit asked me why I don't buy better speakers than building them myself?  I told him,  "You have never heard my system, or speakers I built." Being a young, proud collage man I was proud of what I made, and had heard many systems costing much more than mine, but was 10x more invested to sound better. So my response back to the man in the suit was " I bet my JBL 14" aquadag woofer, my LE 20 which I am upgrading sounds better than anything you have! 

 His response. I am the JBL district manager, and I commend you on your great skills, your love for Hi Fi audio at its finest using our speaker components, and I bet they sound great with that LE 14 as the foundation. May I suggest the components best in your price range for the upgrade? And away we went.

Wow!

Let the music be your guide.
It’s the surest path to ultimate satisfaction.

@mylogic + 1 - Indeed, I enjoyed music no less when I was a teenager listening to it on a transistor radio. A new Beatles song was every bit as thrilling on that. It's a different experience today, but enjoyment of songs is the same.