What are your goals with this hobby?

[PHC1]

Thanks for sharing your experience Tom. What a journey!

I have also dabbled in DIY while going to electronic school and then working in electronics. Read a few books, designed and built my own speakers. Friends heard them, asked for the same. Done. One pair is still in use today. It was fun but obviously nowhere near the level of the cabinetry, quality of drivers or design of today's speakers. But they sounded pretty damn good with decent drivers. Madisound and Parts Express had great cabinets and drivers from various manufacturers as well as all the acoustic stuffing and everything else one needed for a speaker build.

Also built a few primitive headphone amps. Mostly on breadboards but a few in a case. Can't say I enjoyed the results as much. Cheap solid state sounds very sterile. So I never got around to building a speaker amp but may still do that for fun these days. There are nice kits out there.

As to the main point, I have also gone through phases where gear came and went but failed to engage. Some moves were a waste of money, others did not cost anything since bought and sold preowned. Can't say I learned much from the experience other than a "different presentation" is often just that, a different presentation. Still no clue as to how to gauge what is actually better since it is all subjective and so vague.

Magazine reviews are designed to funnel the story to a happy end and an obvious conclusion. That is not reality IMHO. However, having lots of exposure to different gear sure does give one a good understanding of the type of sound one prefers. In the end, I think that is way more important than any standard, definition or a stereotype gear brands are known or being reviewed positively and enthusiastically for obvious reasons.

At this point, I can honestly say I have no plans. Just listening to a whole bunch of music, discovering new performers daily, falling in love with stuff I used to like all over again, being less impressed or moved with others... Perhaps not having a plan is also a testament to being in a good place with a hobby.

[jimtranr]

Goals and Guiding Principles:

1. Do no harm.
2. Treat the audio system as just that, an integrated system of electronics, transducers, their electrical and physical links, the room in which they reside, and the ear/brain mechanism that receives and interprets their output.
3. Understand that any recording is itself a product of technical artistry whose "accuracy" and quality in conveying a given performance is dependent on the production values of the engineers, producers, artists, and labels who create and release it.
4. Develop and implement an acquisition plan that gives due consideration to system synergy, budgetary constraints, and, not least, the virtue of patience in bringing the plan to full fruition.
5. Ignore the siren song of you-just-gotta-have-the-"flavor of the month."
6. Ignore the ostinato drumbeat of pontifications insisting that one should not believe his or her lying ears.
7. Remember that the object of the enterprise is to enjoy the music
8. Above all, try to make some sense of it and do the best we know.*

* With a nod to lyricist Richard Wilbur's observations in "Make Our Garden Grow" from Leonard Bernstein's Candide.

[Canonicus]

Just want to be happy with my music. Should i spend more money to find that elusive state?....God i hope not..between Covid and shut-downs im not ready to spend another dime unless i absolutely have too.

[PHC1]

Nice list Jim. Very methodical.

Not that I didn’t notice you sneaking in a poke at me. So here us something to glance at. Something that should be very obvious as we were always told and strived for. Notice the credentials of the listeners participating in the study. Now imagine hearing a difference in something as subtle as two power cords..

https://kirkville.com/well-crafted-s...n-music-files/

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by Canonicus

Just want to be happy with my music. Should i spend more money to find that elusive state?....God i hope not..between Covid and shut-downs im not ready to spend another dime unless i absolutely have too.

It hasn’t been easy on many, many folks. Hopefully it will all get back to normal soon.

[bart]

Originally Posted by George Prentice

Then about ten years ago I started going to the symphony regularly... season tickets. I managed to move into 7th row center... well actually in the Oregon Symphony hall 8th row left center is better... 7th row is a bit too low. Anyway, this subconsciously started to give me an objective yardstick with which to compare my system. It was completely subconscious... but i switched from ribbon speakers... where trying to capture that sound space and "magic" of transparenc to Sonus Faber. I liked the seamless audio spectrum and natural sound of them. I migrated to better versions and my system closed on reproducing natural unamplified instruments.

I spent a lot of time thinking about rock and other music that is never heard unamplified. Realizing, I think, that one would probably have to get a set of JBL or other speakers to accurately reproduce the genre of the time. I also realized I hate the distortion related to concerts... My system now does a good job of all different kind music while not optimizing any category too much. But is very good at natural sounding.

My goal remains the same: the most pleasing musical sound... rhythm and pace have always been really important to me... if you don't have that you have dry unemotional sound reproduction. Incredible levels of detail are not important if it takes away from the emotional expression. But it has converged somewhat accidentally on reproduction of high fidelity of the original. But with less emphasis on the edges of the sound space as on the musical sounds themselves. The edges of the soudspace is no longer obvious in my system but the natural sounds just come out of silence and take up a large extended sound stage. The lack of the excess high frequency that defined it... I say good to have it gone... it would show up in other placed and cause fatigue.

I could probably write pages on the subject. That is just a quick unstructured response.

George, this approach parallels mine.
My wife and I go to 20-25 concerts a year, mostly classical, a few jazz and blues, and we want to reproduce our experience there as closely as possible in our living room.
Nothing beats the live experience: you see the musicians, no you rather feel them. There is a connection that is almost always much more intense than a listening session at home.
But quite often, what our system reproduces is really able to move me to my core. And that's what I look for in this hobby.

I heard all the gear I bought.
We even went further.
For our Vivid speakers, we travelled to England to hear them, as they were not yet demoed in our country.
That way we met Laurence Dickie, we even became kind of friends (he's stayed with us a couple of times) which adds to the connection we have with our gear.
Same goes for our tube amps.
And we've met and spoken to the producers of our streamer on several occasions too.

It's a beautiful hobby, and I adore the music, but I also like to know more about the gear.
AudioAficionado has brought me friendship and a lot of very agreeable experiences: we've got several visitors from the States and Europe, and we visited members and the Master himself on both sides of the big pond.
Every day, I get inspired by what my audio buddies here post in the music threads.

Music and all things related to it - we have organised concerts also in our house - are really important in the life of my wife and me.
It heals us and uplifts us.
It amuses us, touches us, makes us curious to find out more.

Goal reached, every day!

[PHC1]

Excellent post Bart. Thanks for sharing your experiences. It can be a very rewarding hobby in many ways indeed. I’ve also made quite a few friends through audio as well as other hobby forums. Common interests do have a way to bond people. I also admire how you are into music as a couple. My wife enjoys music being played although not necessarily participating unless we agree on a listening evening over wine and cheese. I think that’s good enough for now

[bart]

Originally Posted by PHC1

Excellent post Bart. Thanks for sharing your experiences. It can be a very rewarding hobby in many ways indeed. I’ve also made quite a few friends through audio as well as other hobby forums. Common interests do have a way to bond people. I also admire how you are into music as a couple. My wife enjoys music being played although not necessarily participating unless we agree on a listening evening over wine and cheese. I think that’s good enough for now

Wine, cheese, music and *** are a terrific combination!

[joel_hifi]

The first time I took my son to a classical music concert, he was about 8 year old... 5 minutes into the concert he looked at me and told me... «*Dad... those violons sound exactly like your speakers*».
My audiophile goal was fulfilled

[bart]

Originally Posted by joel_hifi

The first time I took my son to a classical music concert, he was about 8 year old... 5 minutes into the concert he looked at me and told me... «*Dad... those violons sound exactly like your speakers*».
My audiophile goal was fulfilled

Joel, you must have felt good!