How does one get off the merry-go-round?

Not certain I was as hooked as some but an old friend pulled me off with an experience close to Detlofs. My tweaker friend sat me down to his system based on an old Dynaco 70 that he tweaked a little and speakers that he made for under $750 (scanspeak drivers). I think Vance Dickason claims you can make 10k speakers for under 1k. Well, if you know what you are doing, I think you can lower that to $750. He made a few comments about the caps he used on his tweeters and fired her up and well... it was embarrasing to think about the money I had in my system. I have since spent a little time with the old Dynacos and in my opinion, all marketing and modern "improvements" aside, they stand up to 90% of the stuff sold at at 10-20 times the price.

I do not think that this is in any way unique to audio. I used to race bicycles and had a fair amount of experience in a cycle shop. The bicycle companies are so pressed to differentiate themselves from one another, and convince you to but theirs, that they throw out a steady stream of BS that has little to do with anything. They actually avoid the obvious and simple which is proven and effective for the gimmick of the week. I had to leave the business because it was hard to present the industry line with a straight face. Granted, audio needs folks pushing the envelope to improve sound... but I do not see a lot of that going on. Lots of gloss and ego.. reading most "audiophile" mags is like looking at GQ or something.

Never get on it in the first place. I did a lot of listening before i bought and then bought what i felt was a good well balanced system that smoked a few much more expensive system. I then faced the realities of the room the system was destine to live in and the limitations of what i could/would do to the room. I then looked at the low to mid-fi gear used to generate the music we so love to listen to (i've been a part time working musician going on 25 yrs now)and the fact that the room that it is played in has a huge effect on the sound on that end as well. Adding all that up i dressed my cables, put in dedicated power, concluded that given room and source limitations close counts and proceeded to buy more music. The music is what it is all about anyway, isn't it?

Detlof; I do wish I were wrong. I live here in Washington DC. Of the four remaining audio stores in the area (there once were eight) they all consider themselves high end. You can get the best in electronics and turntables. Exactly NONE of them carry any vinyl. Besides the erroding of interest we are also self destructing. Tower Records has six area stores and occaisionally vinyl but not of any quality. Rarely a Classic Record reissue and then only at one outlet. The Wall Street Journal predicted last summer that they might go out of business by April if a lackluster Christmas season materialized and it did. Worst retail season in thirteen years. Used record stores have dwindled to about three or four from a high of ten three years ago. But, if you don't take this stuff too seriously,the merry go round produces a lovely ride! Again, I enjoy my music daily. Hope you do as well.

Yes, it does not look good. We're a bit behind here, as in everything, but there are the same signs here written on the wall. Mind you, the one, two high end stores are still making good business and HT is only beginning to hit the market now in a more serious fashion. The big record outlets have seen no vinyl for decades either. But I'm still hoping that the bug that bit us once is contageous.... Cheers, Detlof

I recently jumped off the merry-go-round due to a business setback so the experience is fresh in my mind. I went from a new Class A system to Class B components played through some borrowed 15 year old speakers from a friend (I was happy to have anything).

It was a bit of a shock, but once I licked my wounds, I adjusted by shifting my focus from the equipment to the music. I no longer sit in the "sweet spot" and critique every note that is played and the inevitable shortcomings of the $25K worth of equipment that reproduced it. Rather, I now put on some music and go about my business as I move around the house. So while I'm not critically listening to the music, I am actually LISTENING to much more music and much less equipment.

This is not the standard audiophile approach (and it wasn't mine either), but it has changed my priorities. I've bought about 200 jazz discs, so now I actually have something to listen to, rather than a dozen or so discs that were hand selected because of the quality of the recording and their ability to show the strength or weakness of my system. So while I no longer sit and obsess over which part of my system is holding me back, I just play music and enjoy it.

I'm sure I'll upgrade again in the future, but I think this has been a good lesson for me. I didn't want or chose the cure, but it found me and now I've seen how much effort I spent pursuing equipment rather than enjoying music. Like wine lovers or any other passionate, perfectionist group of people, it's easy to lose focus and find yourself enjoying your hobby less. I now try to get my pleasure from the performance, and the emotional connection with the music. These are the things I was missing when I was listening to my equipment, and not my music.

But you know what's really sad- right now someone is probably reading this post and thinking "You can't build a Class A system for $25K, what is he talking about." I rest my case.