Why do we demand so much from our systems?

I am completely satisfied even if upgrading is always possible ...

Why ?

Because there is a treshold of mininmal acoustic satisfaction...

This minimal threshold is not when you reach more details perception , it is when all details are not there for their own sake but they are there musically, organically and dont impede the global musical impression and do not grab any attention for themselves ...The Room/system is then balanced....

This minimal threshold is defined not by gear price but by acoustics concepts , timbre, dynamic, transients, distortion, immersiveness, bass etc all acoustics concepts you must learn to control IN A ROOM....

There exist also a marginal upgrading improvement most confuse with minimal and maximal acoustic satisfaction threshold...And some go from marginal improvement to another upgrading marginal improvement in some race toward more costlier which they called : high end ...most of the times it is not...All high end system need a high end acoustic room for example not a costlier speakers upgrade... 😁

One thing is sure, when a system is really "musical" and acoustically satisfying in a minimal or maximal way (with a dedicated room acoustic) all albums are so interesting even the badly recorded , that listening music takes all your time and money...

half the time if not most of the times upgrading a piece of gear or even your system only reveal that you dont have learned what is electrical,mechanical and acoustical controls and then ,instead of learning how, you succumb to the tentation of the market publicity... It is very easy if you had the money...It is way harder to learn acoustic and use a dedicated acoustic room and sometimes it is costlier as mike lavigne said so about his dedicated room ...

You can say for sure that i am wrong and a poor dude unable to afford a 100,000 bucks system in his living room and you can claim that i am envious... Some did .😁

You can think otherwise also and realize that acoustic is the main key not the system price tags called High-end... ( anyway my headphone system is high end by the way )😊

Remember that i do not pretend that my ACTUAL minimally satisfied acoustic threshold rival the maximal threshold... I only claim that many people with costlier system are way under the maximal satisfaction threshold because they bought costlier design without paying attention to the acoustics, and electrical and mechanical controls with their past less costlier systems ...

Ask yourself why someone in acoustic ectasy will throw so much money to "upgrade" ? this only means that his system is not able to give acoustic ectasy for sure... When the sound grab our attention instead of the music , our system lack something that most of the times cannot be reach only by improvised costlier upgrades suggested by marketing ...

We must learn how to put what we already own at his OPTIMAL level BEFORE upgrading ...

All this is contested by some proud owner of 100,000 bucks system calling any 1000 bucks system low-fi...😁 Sorry but audio is knowledge and acoustics not price tags bragging... And in the many cases when someone system is better than mine by design , be sure that i am not so much far behind and it is me who smile with a 1000 bucks system compared to their money investment... We are not all budget open here ...

Learning something is more fun than owning something always ...

When the sound different aspects are acoustically balanced, they vanish behind the immersiveness of the music... The last thing you think about in ectasy is : with what very costlier piece must i upgrade tomorrow ? 😁

People  OFTEN upgrade when they are no more satisfied and bored by music because their system is not well embedded ...they are not in ectasy for sure... They think the only way is buying more and more...

Acoustics is the audio main key... Electrical and mechanical control the other key... upgrading is not a key, it is the explicit confession that a system is not balanced and you dont know how to correct it save buying more at higher price...

For sure we dont have all the time and the room to learn the acoustic basic, then we can define High end audio by price tags investment... Most do that...

I dont....

 

 

 

 

Seems to me, @emergingsoul that you may be after a moving target. How revealing do you want, and what’s your indicator(s) for revealing? If it’s purely listening-derived through time as you encounter new products, you’re in a head game against yourself. That could be a hard one to win.

You gave half an equation - you liked stuff easily during uni and didn’t judge it so strictly. What about now? No system description from you and no criteria for what you value in a playback listening experience, means most folks don’t have much to directly compare their own experiences with (hence part of the reason for more time needed to prevent some of their long answers, eh?). 😉

@willyht interesting approach re: easing into volume, Stairway to Heaven-style. I’m the opposite; since I don’t make time for listening every day, I like to open up with a bang. More of a live music type-of-enjoyment that gives me. Then I modulate through lower, softer tracks, back-and-forth. To each their own and all, eh?

@mitch2 gotta be restrained with how to cut costs on our emptiness-nurse options. Where I live, I can listen to countless hifi brands within a handful of blocks for free when the urge strikes, but drinking alcohol means buying it, and liquor has a 100% import tax where I live. Sometimes there are multiple great options available, but zero cheap options for purchase! 😉

Personally, the Hifi pursuit, after picking up the Hifi hobby again after some 25 yes out of the loop, has turned to one of exploration to find out what sound qualities and characteristics I now like.

Back in the early 90s, after hearing an friend of a friend's elaborate Naim set-up, and what was possible, I eventually bought a Naim (Olive) bi-amped set up with Epos 11s. Fast forward; got married, sold my rig, got divorced in early 2000s.

When I did pick up the hobby again, nearly 3 yes ago, I went Naima again, as I loved my system from the 90s, and what it gave me. But, no. I found, now in my mind 50s, the Naim sound just wasn't doing it for me.

Perplexed by this, my journey is now a case of;

 "I Don’t Know What I’m Looking For, But I’ll Know When I’ve Found It"

...and I must say, I'm having a blast looking for it 😂

What's with this "we" stuff? I've enjoyed every single audio setup I've ever had and have improved the quality of all of it over many decades for FUN. I'm certain many other of the somewhat less tightly wound among us feel the same. If I'm trying out a new thing like a cable or speaker or something and I don't like it I can simply change it without descending into a puddle of psychotic angst. Get out more...meditate...join a cult...rev your Porsche up to the redline in every gear and calmly explain it to the cop who stopped you...he'll understand.

@wolf_garcia

"We" is short for "We narcissists."