It's Great Having So Many Choices (?)

A long time ago, someone said to me that having choices causes stress. If the doctor tells you that you need a procedure right now or you’re going to die (or worse) there is less stress because there is no choice. But if the doctor tells you that you "really should go check this out because maybe ...." You start stressing out over whether to do it. I bring this up because of something that happened to me recently. I was selling a pair of speakers locally and this very nice guy (as all audiophiles are of course) comes over to listen for a few hours. He really likes my system and he’s very impressed with my dac. He leaves without buying, but the next day he calls and picks up the speakers. Smart guy - don’t impulse buy. So when he comes over, we start talking about DACs and he is in the market for a new one. I said that he really liked my DAC, he could afford it, he listened for hours and why don’t you just buy the same one? Mine is not for sale, so I had no sinister motives. So he starts rattling off all these names, Denafrips, RME and a bunch of others and I told him I just didn’t know. But I could see the stress and frustration in his demeanor and I was thinking about it.

Why wouldn’t someone just buy something they listened to in person for hours, with the exact speakers you just bought and know with certainty that you liked? And you can afford it, so $$ is not the issue. It made me remember what my friend told me about how choices cause stress. And now, with so many products available on the internet, the audiophile is faced with so many options that it has become much more difficult and stressful to make a buying decision.

So are more choices good? Of course. How could any rational person say that more choices aren’t better. That’s stupidity. But unfortunately, the human brain reacts in strange ways. Truly, man is the only animal on earth that can be given everything they want and still not be happy. Perhaps that’s why civilization has progressed to where it has, at least technologically. If we were satisfied with what we had, we’d all be sitting around in the dark. Maybe not the worst thing.