She's partially right for sure, but there's some fun in the OCD practices, and the rest of the story is that your tinkering does produce positive results, but she is not tuned in to fine sonic nuances, because it's not her area of interest.
Audiophilia: Is it the pursuit of audio excellence or just a desire to tinker.
So my wife made this observation after I spent a couple hours fiddle farting with cables, connections and speaker placements. She said is this hobby/obsession your desire for audio excellence, or just you like tinkering with stuff, tweaking your system and feeding your OCD?
She said you try this and try that and guess what it all sound the same to me. She really knows me and my OCD.
Enjoy your Sunday.
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Personally I feed this need by building. Whether it is speakers or cables, I find it more satisfying to make something than buying something. I encourage all audiophiles to at least once in their hobby lifetime to build at least 1 speaker kit. They are affordable and rewarding in ways far better than being armchair critics. |
I like to fiddle with my stuff to see if I can improve its sound in some way. Over the years the experimentation has had very positive results, if not in the actual sound, at least in my listening skills. But I rarely go to market for new stuff. My last major purchase was speakers I bought 10 years ago. I got a big attic and lots of stuff. |
@erik_squires I agree and get the same levels of satisfaction doing overhauls on old Cummings and Cat diesel engines for friends. I may get a kit from that fellow on youtube GR Research. @roxy54 You have met my wife 😄 No you are 100% right and she focuses her OCD on planning trips for the two of us. |
Most audiophiles tinker WITHOUT a method ...
And a method suppose a set of priorities ...
Then their quest for best sound is impeded by ignorance and the tentations offered daily by market conditioning with premature and often unnecessary upgrades erroneously presented as THE solution ...I commit this sin by omission for a decade myself ...😁
Upgrades are not solution EVER, save if it is done because the components are not synergetical to begin with ; upgrades done BEFORE understanding what priorities matter in audio when the components purchase has ended with a relatively synergetical system at first listen , upgrades done BEFORE understanding how to embed rightfully the three working dimensions of any system at any price , electrically, mechanically and especially acoustically , Upgrades done BEFORE this understanding are meaningless and costly and deceiving most of the times ... To justify it , people called that their "tastes"... There is no RULING taste concept in acoustic ...It is a marketing trick ...
Then instead of tinkering randomlessly we must read basic acoustics and think about the way to decrease the vibration /resonance level , the ways to decrease the signal/noise ratio and shielding about EMI etc ...
Study, experiment and dont buy BEFORE understanding what you had done right or wrong with a basically synergetical not too costly system first ...
Psycho-acoustics science regulate the gear and the correlated audio experience minimum acoustic satisfaction levels and the optimal one ... Learn some basic ... Forget reviewers speaking about upgrade when you had already a basic system ......
Objectivist as subjectivist are dead wrong because they focus on gear pieces , be it with objective measures or subjective branded name products with higher price tag dont matter ... We must focus on acoustics science and no it is not merely about room acoustic panels here but about the scientific concepts and experiments proposed in acoustic basic ..
Vibrations will affect your experience ans signals noise ratio too at any price anyway ...
It is better to be creative and being the source of our own happiness in audiophile experience then being a passive compulsive customer hypnotized by price tag and perpetually frustrated ...
Take one experiment and one problem at a time and had fun without purchasing anything ... Dont buy costly tweaks replicate them in your own way ...
Pick the only method : Electrical, mechanical and acoustical controls experiments ... What i call " embeddings" to be understood...
Guess why objectivist as subjectivist put times to times a "tin foil hat" on me ?
😁😊
When you are done as i am right now, the time to upgrade if you want too is there , now you will know why, how and with what as i do ...
But my low cost system is so good i dont bother with the nerxt meaningful upgrade which can only be a BACCH filters system coupled with a better dac ... I will stay headphone based with it because my low cost speakers are so satisfying right now that even if they can be upgraded easily i am not tempted to do it ... As you see i know exactly what to do next ... I learned it in evaluating acoustic factors in the audio experience by the way i learned how to control them to some degree , and the improvement of the S.Q. ratio with price ...
By the way "excellence in sound" exist at all price levels in the limits prescribed by the design potential of each component and his right or wrong embeddings and synergy with the other components in some environment .. ...
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