From an 8-9 to a 5
I started in this hobby forty plus years ago when I realized that their was this whole other approach to audio than the Pioneer, Technics, Teac, Bose Altec, products that dealers around me sold. And it happened when my older brother came home from his first year in college with a new stereo system and I was hooked. Maybe I was an 8 or 9 then and stayed that way for many many years. Things changed when I first walked into a specialty shop in town and taught me over the years to listen to equipment with the best possible setup and to make my own decisions and mind up as to what I thought was good and not what others tell me as I have definitely noticed happens a lot on Audigon discussions. One thing at the dealer I noticed was their opinion of rags like The Absolute Sound. They referred to it as a comic book and laughed and laughed at the articles in it. Maybe in my forties I packed away everything in a move, built a nice wall shelf between the kitchen. living room and purchased a Cambridge CD 88 and used that for ten years. Obsession now a 6. One day I just decided to setup the stereo. I really don't change anything out in my system unless it's broke and about five-six years back it seemed like my whole setup started to fail over a two week period, some gear from wear and some by accident. So I started a reset on the whole system. Buying gear. Liking some purchases, but finding some lacking one way or another. Two things occurred to me, I was purchasing things that were good but thought that they weren't what I really wanted not to mention some of my older gear thinking was not repairable and had them repaired. I now have a system I like and an excess of equipment to get rid of. So today I'm a solid 5 and not really obsessed anymore. Other things like being at the beach cottage in Union Pier Michigan with a Tivoli Pal or my Beosystem 10 portable rank a solid 10 on my obsession meter.