Can an “audiophile” ever be satisfied with a system?

@rvpiano,

’So, I believe it all comes down to your mental state, rather than the quality of your equipment. If you’re bored you look for something new, whether it warrants it or not. In other words, you create a problem where there isn’t any. That’s the nature of “ audiophilia.” 


I would tend to agree.

One half, the fun half of the journey is discovering what you want, and then finding it. The other half is often a problem of obsession that’s self created.

’Comparison is the thief of joy’ (Teddy Roosevelt) is one troubling quote that I recently can’t quite get out of my head.

Is life really like that scene out of ’Oliver’ where Fagin trips and watches as the contents of his jewel box slowly disappear into the muddy waters?

All about getting, but never fully enjoying?

Might be worth remembering that most audiophiles already have systems far superior to what the other 99% of the world’s population are using.

Perhaps a satisfied audiophile is really a contradiction in terms? With so much to love about this hobby, perhaps it’s also a difficult question to fully answer.

If we ever do.

My system is "good enough" to listen to piano and symphonic mass....

In the last years i put all energy in my listenings experiments to improve the system.... Now i listen to music without making listenings experiments most of the times...

Sound erase itself for the music....

I can imagine that people without too much limit about money can afford to be a peculiar kind of audiophile.... I do not, my goal was to create a "good enough" audio system at very low cost.... I succeed....

With my "good enough" system i smile to new music, not so much to sound improvement now....

My cheap system is the best i ever listen to...I listen to Tannoy dual gold monitor and Magnepan, believe it or not, because they are well embed, and these others 2 were not, my modest Mission Cyrus speakers beats them....And none of my 6 headphones is better than  my speakers.... It was the contrary 2 years ago....

Embed everything before upgrading something..... 

:)

@mijostyn Well, we should agree to disagree -- I see no reason that one (with the means) would not want to haul out, say, electrostatic speakers and amps for a few months and then put those away for "box" speakers and their amps. To move between different style  DAC's, too. Not all parts of the system would be swapped out for variety's sake, but the notion that this idea isn't a reasonable one for some seems wrong. I think Guttenberg is on to something, though it's not how I roll....now.

I answered my own question.
It is distracting and misleading to listen to a lot of old, so so LPs.
But when I put on those relatively few good recordings THEN I HEAR THE FULL POTENTIAL. And I do have quite a few of those.
The ones I really like, I play twice or more. BUT, I still hesitate to spend $600+ on three records from Better-Records thinking of my $15 good sounding ones. I have had about 50% luck with 180 gram reissues. I did try 2 Hot Stampers and was not impressed enough to keep them. One, a Super Hot for $99, I could not listen to side 2! Sure, a lot of it depends on liking the music.
The other bottom line is “good enough is good enough”.
But in upgrading there is a real effort to upgrade the sound. It is not merely “shopaholic”. I always think that I love the sound until I do even a small upgrade. With Covid I am listening to my system much more than ever. And because we are now not traveling, I am more inclined to buy.I do listen to digital when I watch Amazon and Netflix at night.
Then it is great but intellectual. But the TT rig is emotional.
“Wow, it sounds great” compared to “wow, I am speechless”.

Dittos to millercarbon. And others. Satisfaction isn't the goal for some of us. If I'm satisfied with the sound I might say to myself "fascinating," and then try the next interesting idea that comes along and that I can afford to implement. I still enjoy music quite a bit even when my system is configured in ways I'm not satisfied with, so the musical enjoyment remains consistent.