A friend visited my home yesterday and asked to listen to one of my LP's. I powered up. He then said, "do you have to do all of that just to listen to a record?"
I normally don't even give it a thought as I go through my routine to power up....but this time, I realized that it is a far cry from what I had to do to listen to and LP with my first reciever.
Thirty three years ago a Sansui 771 Was my first reciever along with my Technics SL 1500 turntable. I pushed a button on the reciever and everything was on. Another switch for the turntable and I was in business. Yesterday, I realized that I had to turn on nine different components to play an LP. A preamp, four monoblocs, the turntable, the phono preamp, the servo control for my speakers and the record cleaning machine to clean the record.
And don't forget you have to turns things on and off in the right order. God forbid you switch on (or off) some preamps while the power amps are on and you hear the pop from hell. Of course, this is a feature, as all those evil muting circuits will ruin the sound all the designers tell us.
Having an almost all SS system it stays on all the time. The scarry thing is that it still sounds better after about 30 minutes of music pumping through it. I don't know if the electric company hates me or not but the wife and I have had a conversation or 2 about the electric bill.
This is a great hobby, all through my years I have learned not only to enjoy great music such as classical,pop,jazz,and much more. Most of my listening was during quite times, at times of lose and trauma, that is always associated with life. I can now in my older years recognize good music and yes bad music. I know may will tell me music is subjective,I will have to disagree.I would like to know how many young listeners of today with their casual listening of much brain dead music, be has educated and well informed as we are at audiogon in their later years.
Cripes, I just counted. Ten steps here (assuming I left the PS Audio P300 turned on; otherwise it would be 11) PLUS a minute and 45 seconds wait for the CJ linestage to unmute. And yes, it sounds much better an hour later :-) Dave
Outsiders, you and your Hi-Fi, a reality check or what? I recall the exact same scenario some time ago and feeling somewhat embarrassed right up untill they hear the first few notes and then its gloatsville. The up side is that the word is out and nobody discards LP's anymore until they see me.
While there's no getting around LP preparation my system has unwittingly become very user friendly. A battery powered preamp is always on, the power thrifty class D mono blocks are always on, so what's left is to power up and select the source-simple.
justlisten , free-range beef is almost as good as Alpo. Natural is great-if you cook it over a fire in a cave. Kyobi beef is far from what you described , and far better. Technology isn't always bad. As for the vegetarian thing-that's not food! That's what food eats! :))
Timrhu, we had a glass of good cognac while we listened. He is a jazz lover and really got into the music. He said he enjoyed the listening session and will visit more often. I'm not sure if he's coming back for the cognac or the system. No matter...he'll always be welcome, I love to listen to music with other jazz lovers.
Plato, I have an all-tube front end, so I can't leave it on all the time.
Jim Swantko...I fell over laughing at your mention of putting on a movie. Six more items to switch on, the processor, dvd player, three more monoblocs for the rears and center and the projector.
Viridian...you are correct.
Armstrod....I'm sure my friend would have gotten up and walked out disgusted had I told him to sit a while for the system to warm up.
It may be a lot, but I would't have it any other way.
to paraphrase a song, "He may be right, you may be crazy, but if its an audiophile, it may just be the lunatic your looking for." Play the record and slip into the music, and relax, enjoy and flow
Everybody has a hobby, and it's the little rituals that make it a joy. I prefer to use the analogy of the Japanese tea ceremony, but a suppose a junkie fixing up his next shot has some simliar parallels.
You could always simply flip the circuit breaker to turn everything off :-) Seriously, I actually enjoy powering up the system and going through the vinyl cleaning routine. No you are not crazy - you are passionate.
30 years ago when my parents took me to the Sizzler for Steak dinner , I thought I was in gourmet heaven. today my steak needs to be fed the finest organic corn, left free to roam the field, aged for 60 days while encased in rock salt, and cooked over specially selected mesquite wood chips. (I actually am a vegatarian now, but go with it)
heck, i roast my own coffee beans and people think the same way, why do I go through so much trouble. I think they are nuts for drinking stale coffee out of a can
It definitely used to be simpler... and I have simplified things in my own systems. I leave all the front end gear powered up so that the only things I really need to turn on are the amplifiers. That way, the front end stuff is sounding its best from the get-go. You could probably do the same...
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