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Am I a burning out audiophile????

...or am i simply a music lover to begin with???

Disregarding the debate that could potentially be born from the statement above, I sit here in my 18x18x8 room listening to Diana Krall's 'When I look in your eyes' through a pair of Totem Winds powered by a Krell kav-400xi and Jolida JD100a source. It sounds great, it truly does! It does so many things right and so little wrong! Why then, do I have the question in the back of my mind - 'is this system as musically engaging as my past system was?'

Tonally, it's better. It goes deeper. It's more accurate, smooth, well balanced, etc. etc. etc.

The prior system the back of my mind questions is that of the Totem Arros powered by a PrimaLuna Prologue Two with Cairn Fog source in a 9x11x8 room. If memory serves me correct - pure magic! What I thought at the time (and am wondering now) was the epidomy of emotional involvement!

Q.1 - am I only remembering the 'good times' with the prior system? (like how we photograph only the good times of our life and wax nostalgic about how great things used to be)

The move to the upgraded system was initiated by my desire to listen to more music with my wife. Today, (and last night, and the night before...) I still find myself listening by myself. Regardless of the extra chairs in larger space!

I also wanted to simplify and combine my seperate systems (5.1HT and 2-channel) into one higher-end 2-channel dual purpose system. The result is great sound, but perhaps not the most musically enagaging two-channel nor the most enveloping, impactful HT either? As a dual purpose system it performs great, but it isn't send ingtingles down my spine or have me toe-tapping like the smaller Arro system did.

Q.2 - have I gone too far??? Have I treaded into water where I have to think about the music too much to enjoy it??? Am I asking too much of a single system???

The road from system #1 to system #2 has had a lot of in-between systems that have just led to frustration and/or musical dissatifaction, but too much too get into detail here...

Q.3 - which brings us back to where I started; am I a burning out audiophile??? Am I simply thinking about this too much???

I don't know what I expect in response to this babble? I don't know if these questions are even 'real' or simply part of a rhetorical rant? Anyway, thanks for listening and feel free to post and thoughts or comments....
jh2os
bdgregory
1,710 posts
 
there have been many good points made above, so I don't know if this will contribute much. I find however that a great cure for my system sounding average and lacking that magic, is to leave town for a few days. When I return home, the listening sessions are always magicical once again.
timrhu
2,779 posts
 
I the smaller room your system was set up for nearfield listening. Is this the case in your current setup? I find nearfield listening more involving. Could this be part of the problem.
muzcal
66 posts
 
A good case for keeping the old stuff and "trying" the new before making a final decision. You can always go back and compare.
shoe
204 posts
 
I had a Cairn Fog for a few months, I upgraded to a more expensive player but both my wife and I agreed that the Fog was more pleasant to listen to. And, many times I wish I still had the Naim Nait 5i here, but it's gone too...
I understand brother.
french_fries
815 posts
 
well, have you ever been to an audio show, or visited a local store, where a system that exceeds all logic and common sense
(i.e.- an enormous pair of speakers driven by enormous monoblocks, ditto for the preamp, cdp, wire, whatever) is demonstrated for your pleasure and envy? and then you think about "what if" you actually owned such a system, would all those watts and spl's be truly satisfying in the long term,
or would it just be "too loud"; as to fidelity, it might be great at times, or, like owning a large telescope in a city with too much ambient light and dirty air, you can't see much anyway through all the grime and grit (as in mediocre recordings). of course, hi-rez cd's could solve some of the problems you're likely to encounter (if the industry would get up off of its dumb ass and make thousands of titles available- and after a relatively short period of time people would start buying them). plus all those watts could be put to good use if you want the full effect of symphonic music in your home.
OTOH, i sure was having fun with a pair of ADS L-810 speakers and SAE components years ago (playing tons of vinyl on a thorens 160). absolutely no complaints, and no desire to get anything else (no cd's as of yet thank God) unless something actually broke. SO, how can you replace "SATISFIED" with "this new power cord is so much better than the last one i had, even if it cost $2000, it's worth every penny..."?
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