The Meaning of (Audiophile) Life

[MattyW]

Sorry,  sh*t joke.

[Bisguittin]

I love "semantic" discussions more than most. We as humans have developed language to communicate nuance, and by any measure human experience is nearly 100% nuance. Unfortunately, ofttimes I think the words are incapable of painting the actual picture. Sitting, listening, beng immersed in fine music stretches the ability of spoken language. I love valves, but the magic of the music...................WOW!

[audiofeline]

I've become an audiophile from wanting to enjoy music with the best reproduction.  Unfortunately, I haven't had the financial resources to buy the equipment I really wanted, so a lot of my learning was motivated to be able to get the best out of my current hifi system and to educate myself on the next upgrade - so the money invested will give a long-term improvement to the system. 

 

I've now progressively upgraded my system so it's at the level I always desired.  That's not to say that I haven't enjoyed listening to much better systems at the hifi show and audiophile friends' systems.  Despite having experienced those greener pastures and having the desire to own one, I'm still content with what I have. 

 

And that is the bottom line in my audiophile journey.  At all points of the path, with whatever quality equipment is owned at the time, the most important thing is to get maximum enjoyment from the music it reproduces.  I listen to the music, not the equipment. 

 

[MattyW]

5 minutes ago, audiofeline said:

I've become an audiophile from wanting to enjoy music with the best reproduction.  Unfortunately, I haven't had the financial resources to buy the equipment I really wanted, so a lot of my learning was motivated to be able to get the best out of my current hifi system and to educate myself on the next upgrade - so the money invested will give a long-term improvement to the system. 

 

I've now progressively upgraded my system so it's at the level I always desired.  That's not to say that I haven't enjoyed listening to much better systems at the hifi show and audiophile friends' systems.  Despite having experienced those greener pastures and having the desire to own one, I'm still content with what I have. 

 

And that is the bottom line in my audiophile journey.  At all points of the path, with whatever quality equipment is owned at the time, the most important thing is to get maximum enjoyment from the music it reproduces.  I listen to the music, not the equipment. 

 

Take a look at the range of DAC's and phono stages from Abbas Audio in the Ukraine. A sister company to SW1X (same circuit designer) and their gear is most commonly compared with Audio Note. A small fraction of the cost though 

[Sabercat]

Great thread - lots of good comments here. I've come to be at peace with myself as a gear addicted audiophilaholic; I love music, I love unwrapping and smelling new electronics and I love the anticipation of warming it all up and putting them together to create an audio experience. I know there will never be an end game, I know there will always be something new, and I'll always want it even if I cannot afford it.....the arrival at eventually acquiring something you desired, even second hand years later, is still a wonderful hit to savour.

 

The truest way I have come to define music heard through different systems, is to think of the audio components in the playback chain as instruments in their own right. After all the artist recorded the music in a studio, the studio processed it using mixers, added effects, added filters and EQ (often with lots of noisy old op-amps and cheap capacitors most likely) and then it was converted to a storage format before being pressed to vinyl or a CD or a digital file. All those steps add colour, add character to the music...there is no shame in replaying it with any system -whether designed to be "transparent" or not, the original studio acoustic sound if there was one is long gone, so just revel in and enjoy the theatre of sound your system produces, whatever it cost and whatever the branding and whatever the reviewing pundits may claim. It's all subjective. It's all good - if you personally like how it sounds.....of course well engineered feels better, often sounds better to many and is usually more expensive !  

Edited February 10, 2020 by Sabercat

[MAST88]

As said by Justin Bieber-As Long As You Love Me; 'The grass is not greener on the other side, its greener where you water it', the best solution for audiophiles is to stay within your hifi room, build it, listen to it and it only, tweak it and listen to it some more until you believe it is the world's best sound system, then go on SNA and comment about other people systems on how they are not the world's best sound systems...Then you have reached Audio Nirvana.

Edited April 11, 2020 by MAST88

[HypnoToad]

It's about MyFi not HiFi, being happy with what I have is my goal.

 

 

[Colin Rutter]

I love all these posts.

To me an Audiophile is someone who believes his obsession with hi-fi is somehow of some interest to his fellow human beings. This is the delusion of the "real" Audiophile.

Perhaps a new spelling and pronunciation should be Audiopyle, as it conveys  a true representation of where they cause pain. 

This should get me kicked off for at least another month .

[Guest DrSK]

I'd never heard the term 'audiophile' until I got called it by a mountain biking mate who dropped by to hear the speakers I couldn't shut up about to anyone who'd stand near me. This was 4 years ago. 

 

For me this was a natural evolution of loving music and music always relates to a time and place, it is completely interwoven with memories throughout my life. There is a soundtrack to everything. 

 

My life sound track started on a mono AM radio then progressed to home made cabinets by myself and dad using single drivers in my early teens. The drivers were put away by my dad from old 70s or earlier cabinets that got binned who thought his son at some point might need them in a few years or so. They got driven by an equally old 70s amp and, Akai tape deck.

 

And when my parents were out their 80s NAD paired with Teledyne era Acoustic Research speakers sounded amazing and my uncles reel to reel set up blew my mind. 

 

My own cassette tapes got tangled and tapes stretched and snapped. I got used to the short silent patch where I'd used cellotape to join the tape back together. 

 

The joy of single driver system from something I'd built with my dad got me through undergraduate university in the late 1990s in New Zealand. 

 

Music was (is) my morning coffee and night cap. And companion in the day. 

 

In 2000,and still a student I heard speakers I wanted to own. Pioneer CS-801s. I was at a party with a mate of a mate and my mate and the mate of the mates Jack Russell. I only knew my mate, most people were stoned.

 

A week later the stoner needed cash fast and my mate suggested I bought his complete stereo which I did for $500 including his TV. I then had issues with the police as the TV had hire purchase debt owning but got that sorted. A few weeks later the guy was in jail for 5 years on other charges. And turns out my mate of a mate only attended and took his Jack Russell with the sole purpose of stealing the guys drug stash. He'd brought and trained his Jack Russell specifically to sniff out weed, which he took to the parties, purely to steal drugs from fringe people. Such was university and life in New Zealand. 

 

Was in nirvana for a couple of years with the system and played a bit of them too. But started to notice occasional resonance from the cabinet and was completing a PhD in acoustic system design. 

 

Then big life changes, moved country, split with my ex, and somehow ended up in a Sydney apartment. Shifting my gear to Australia cost too much and found myself owning Logitech 5.1 computer speakers running off a laptop and cringing for music.

 

After getting lucky a few times I bought a house and finally owned speakers again. Bought Lenehan ML1+Rs off Gumtree for a song after hearing a work colleagues.

 

Had an aborted attempt at a HT but hated the sound for the money. Decided to go back to stereo for a while and bought ML2+Rs and left a Gumtree notification search running for more Lenehan to build up a system but kept the AVR.

 

Then Gumtree (instead of finding speakers) threw up a search for a power amplifer that apparently paired well with Lenehan ML2+Rs. Rang Mike Lenehan who confirmed the seller was legit and knew his stuff and ended up owning an early Metaxas Soliloquy. Borrowed a pre amp and mind blown.

 

With further budget and nearly 4 years since the aborted HT I obtained a Gieseler Konverter DAC/Pre.

 

By now the mate dropping by had grown a few extra mountain bikers and the 'Audiophile Dirt Bag' evenings had taken off. 

 

I'm now trapped in a cycle of enjoyment that turns to overly critical. This results in a break and a reset or more tweaks. The break sees me using my less critical system in the family room where I am far more forgiving in the compromised space and lesser gear. 

 

For me it is like wine. Enjoyment that can turn analytical after a while to a point where it affects enjoyment and I begin to climb the slope of diminishing returns. The cure is the break, reset or a diminishing return purchase or tweak. Or mates smiles when they enjoy it. Things are at their best when my analytical mind is at ease. 

 

Sometimes I miss the simplicity of those terrible home made cabinets with single drivers I built with my dad. The ones where for years the speaker came loose because we ran out of screws, such was the excitement of installing them in my shelf and getting my stereo running. The music takes me back there. 

 

Music is memory. The system is just the transport to any time and place.

 

I think this is why I'm called an audiophile. 

 

Edited April 12, 2020 by DrSK

[djmt]

Hearing that drops off a cliff at 2k and increasingly annoying tinnitus yet "hear" I am. 

[wen]

First system at 16, exceprional hearing in my youth, age has not been kind, tinitus for last 15 yrs, hearing aids now, but still tweaking aways and trying to get the best out of what i have

[TeeDot]

I would say that the meaning audiophile is pretty different for boomers when compared to zoomers. But it at the end of the day the base of it is still the same.  That they want to get the best quality you can to get upto a certain point where the quality doesn't change.