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DO AUDIOPHILES EVER LISTEN TO MUSIC?

I have'nt checked the archives on this and maybe it's been said before, but I was just thinking, when was the last time I or other audiophile nuts like myself, just listened to the music( No Doobie Brother pun intended). I just recently sold my Quicksilver Mono blocks and sometimes I don't know what to do with myself because I bought a Sim Integrated amp and there aren't any tubes to change. I still manage to pull my speakers out and toe them in or is that out. No I think I'll put them back the way they were yesterday because I know that I noticed a little more bass, but I did notice that the speakers did image better when I pulled them out further. I just think I should sell this amp or get another tube amp because I can modify it by putting some of these extra tubes I kept just in case I bought another one. Well, at least for now I can keep swapping my 10 brands of inter connects to see if that makes a difference. It has to or else I wouldn't have so many pairs. If I can just save enough money for that new 24/96 dac, I'll have the perfect system. I dont have a digital cable so I'll see what Stereophile recommends. I think I'll get some room treatments to cure the brightness or just tear down my drapes to liven up the room. If I just kept those tubes everything would be O.K at least for another day. Am I alone in this or are there maybe one,two or maybe three hundred people who feel the same way as I do. The only time I really listen to music is at my friends house when he has his old Onkyo receiver and Pioneer changer going on random play. It may not sound great but it's fun and I can actually listen to a whole song. This audiophile business is a chore and a pain in the butt, but I would'nt change it for anything else in the world. How about you? Any comments?
chipster
redkiwi
1,092 posts
 
In answer to the question - I listen to music (this is as opposed to evaluating the system) on my system for between one hour and three hours every day - this is me sitting in the listening seat, sometimes reading.
carl_eber
1,425 posts
 
We all "just listen to the music", when the sound is good. With a little work, the sound is great.
waldhorner3fc4
76 posts
 
I've become so obsessed with equipment that I now divide my listening time exclusively between frequency sweeps and pink noise. I grew tired of white noise years ago. Seriously, I have suggested that if you're still able to get into a piece of music when listening to it on a portable mono radio, there remains some hope for you. If the focus of critical listening is predominately the hardware rather than the music, then perhaps not. However, the subject usually at hand here is audiophilia (with occasional tangents into politics, one-upsmanship and insults) and not philharmonia.
frogman
7,370 posts
 
Great post Waldhorner. Is it any surprise that the majority of audiophiles are men? Audio as a hobby is oftentimes turned into some sort of macho pursuit. Which is why the technical aspects of all this become some sort of standard that some will use to dictate what we can hear and cannot. Does anyone else see the similarity and the humor in the way that we sometimes use all of the technical jargon very much the same way that say, a serious baseball fan rattles off oftentimes very obscure and arguably irrelevant stats about a player. I guess it's in our nature. You should hear a conversation among musucians, yes musicians, about mouthpieces, reeds, instruments etc. The similarities are many. You have those that focus on the brand of reed or mouthpiece or instrument and most obsessively on having their instruments adjusted just so to the extent that they very much believe that if all of those things are not optimized, their performance will be ruined. Then there are those that acknowledge the importance of these things and put a reasonable amount of energy into it but never lose sight af the fact that the power of music will (if the artist has any to convey) transcend the technical issues. Happy listening.
raguirre
120 posts
 
Frogman - My roomate plays guitar and boy do I feel what you're saying. We have a deal, I can't use the word 'soundstage' when music is playing and he can't talk about the merits of different wood cuts for guitar bodies. We're still not in agreement about room treatments, though.
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