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Retired audiophile?

Maybe it comes with age. Fatigue with upgrades. Wisdom and satisfaction with the material world - acceptance of the audio system and a return to enjoyment of music without audio analysis - acceptance of deteriorating hearing and the resultant judgement that "what's the use" in the pursuit better fidelity - more restricted finances of retirement.. a feeling of "done for now" or forever. (Unless something brakes down) After improving and "investing" in my rig for over 30 years, I've come to the realization that I have little interest in the latest/greatest. "Tweaking" has little or no monetarily corresponding reward.
I'll still peruse the web, but the magazine subscriptions have elapsed and I don't miss the self-congratulatory reviews and commentary.
I suspect I'm not alone on this although the Audiogon community by it's very nature, is active in the hobby. Other retired audiophiles out there?
128x128papermill
dopogue
1,773 posts
 
I seem to be some kind of outlier. I'm 85, retired 15 years, still buying open reel tapes, vinyl, and SACDs/CDs, still investing in new gear (most recently an Oppo 105 with ModWright tube mods), currently comparing balanced interconnects between this unit and my Aesthetix Calypso linestage. Twenty-nine tubes in the system and I have massive quantities of records, tapes, CDs/SACDs and even 78s. Yeah, I can afford this and and am extremely grateful that I can. Downsides: my hearing sucks and my heavy lifting days are long gone. Upsides: plenty of time to indulge all this and my interest hasn't flagged in the slightest. Another major upside is having a group of audiobuddies of like mind who visit frequently (as I do them) and a wife who encourages all this nonsense.
papermill's avatar
papermill OP
80 posts
 
Dopogue,
Glad to know you and I'm sure many others who in the retirement years, continue to be active in our hobby!
dweller's avatar
dweller
3,781 posts
 
Dopogue: I was in the operations control room today at work. We were discussing playback media formats including vinyl, 8 track, cassette, etc.
Several youngsters (25-35 YO) had never even heard of open-reel tape recorders!
I must say, it felt a little like the Twilight Zone.

I'm glad to hear you're still interested in music and audio.
I'm 62 and still have adequate hearing (thank the Lord).
Audio has certainly come a long way since the 50's and I'm glad to be a part of it!
russ69's avatar
russ69
3,497 posts
 
I'm retired and I have been spending more time with my systems than ever. I finally have the time to tweak and play music. I tried downsizing once and it just didn't work out, I still want to improve my system(s). Working made being an audiophile possible but retiring gave me the time to enjoy it.
b_limo's avatar
b_limo
2,274 posts
 
Papermill, maybe you can clarify but I perceived the "retirement" part pertaining to your purchasing of new gear (aka getting off the merry go round) and not retiring from work, which may be the case for you also.

In any case, I along with quite a few others could have retired from buying new gear years ago if we were in your boat, based on the looks of your gear. Nice setup!

Anyhow, retirement in the audio arena actually sounds pretty good. Once you are happy with the sound then all that's left to do is sit back and enjoy the music which is something that often gets lost in search of the newest and best gear.

Happy Listening, and retirement!!
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