Taking time (and time outs) to enjoy the ride...

In the late 70's, early 80's I was a salesman at two high-end audio dealers in the DC area and though I was somewhat of a "junkie" for the high-end equipment, I learned that you could not make a living catering to customers who were also "equipment junkies", as they rarely made purchases and when they did, the time it took to make that sale relative to the commission I earned was hardly worth it, from a financial perspective.

This is what makes it so hard. The whole point is to be lost, carried away, and enjoying the music. But no one ever was wrapt and swept away by the glorious music pouring forth from their flip-phone. So a certain level of fidelity is called for. 

But in order to find something better it helps to set aside time to listen and evaluate- listen to the system. Which in order to do this well is not just listening to the system but to each component part of the system as well. Pretty much the exact opposite of listening to the music. 

For a long time in the 90's it seemed I was almost always listening to the system. Was deep in audiophilia nervosa. Then one day auditioning a McCormack DNA1 amp I found myself lost in the music, literally foot-tapping, and it suddenly dawned on me this is it! This is what it's all about! Not the glossary of terms. This feeling! 

It is possible, once you get the hang of it, to have this zen-like ability to flip back and forth, enjoying, evaluating, at will. Holy Grail. 

@millercarbon EXACTLY! It is truly a "feeling". Best possible way to describe it and you just know it when it happens. This is exactly what happened to me when I first brought home my Dynaudio Audience 82's 20+ years ago. Soon as I sat for that first critical listen with them in my home I "felt" it. I was done and my search was over. From then on it was all about the music :)

Again thank you for sharing, brilliant in its simplicity yet so very powerful:)

Great points to all. One of my favorite 'feelings' when listening to my music/system is when I get actual goosebumps. It doesn't happen all the time---but when it does, it's truly moving. 

For whatever reason I never "suffered" the dreaded nervosa of our ilk.
It was always about the music to me.  Yes, I love the equipment but very rarely do I see a "gotta have" piece, nor do I actively search it out.

I was driven by dollars, too many other considerations took precedent.
Now I find myself with a very satisfying system that I listen to music with.

While listening and getting lost in the music I have at times heard something that sounded not quite right which makes me listen to the system for a bit.  And let me add a third term to Parsons quote, there is the equipment, the music and the environment as well.  At times I find myself listening to the room for the same reasons stated above.

All is well...let the music play!

Regards,
barts

I bring this up only because I had to sell all my gear after my divorce 17 years ago. Just within the last 2 years have I gotten back into Audio/HT. My current quest was to regain that "feeling" again. And only until very recently have I gotten it back, but it's taken 2 years and quite a few tweaks. But this whole time was spent just overanalyzing and searching and fretting. At the very least I knew where to start - Dynaudio. However the Excite's just didn't get me back there. So I tried Evoke - yes that got me much closer, and now adding a Schiit Bifrost 2 (and going back to cd listening) has brought back that feeling and the goosebumps. But for the past 2 years I have spent hundreds of hours listening not at all to the music but the system (and truth be told it sounded amazing but just didn't give me that feeling that I so vividly remember from 20 years ago). When truthfully I should have stopped overanalyzing and enjoyed the ride a bit more. It was always that 'what is wrong, why is this different'??? I don't know maybe 20 more hard years on my ears and a completely different house and environment may be factors:)..But reminders to always try and enjoy the journey (whatever journey it is), even the bumps is something for me at least, I need to make a conscience effort to do...That's why I so appreciated millercarbon posting that quote...

Achieve ’Excellent Enough’ then, if you can: ’Stop, Look, Listen’.

In Photography, we call it GAS, Gear Acquisition Syndrome.

Listen, find new musical content, and re-discover what’s on the shelf. Take photos.

I found and played Grace Slick, Great Society, (Conspicuous Only In It’s Absence) yesterday. This TT, Preamp, Amp, .... ’excellent enough’

Amazing how different/better by far it sounded. It never occurred to me while listening that it could be ’better’.

The strange separation, Grace hard left, was also readily revealed. I had to let that go, in cases like that it is best to get out of the listening spot, her voice, the songs and Darby Slick’s guitar is a real treat and happy trip down memory lane.

Shutting down the analytic part of your brain, is similar to the old days of LP’s on mediocre equipment, prior to CD. We trained our ears/brain to ignore hiss, pops, clicks, go with the flow, hear/feel the music. Many 'new to vinyl' people, never acquired those skills, any noise is much more disruptive to them than old dogs like me.

Lack of those noises, perfect forever, is why we went down the CD path. I had to re-create that ability when I went back to vinyl until I acquired good cleaning skills. Also, I was not aware of, or knew anyone who explained the difference of a properly aligned cartridge. Many non-audiophile visitors here have never heard great FM, great R2R tapes, or a properly set up TT.

I love excellent engineering, and imaging, particularly Jazz combos, but I realize, many recordings, if my brain searches for imaging, disappointedly, it is a wall to enjoying the talent, content, often brilliant even if poorly engineered. Same thing with Mono: best to get out of the listening spot, and as learned here recently, play Mono thru only one speaker. Skills learned, and un-learned.

One of the positive things about a hobby is that it asks for us to do things, to interact with things, problem solving and experimenting. That is not "nervosa" but engagement. The aspiration to lay back and just listen is a good one but humans are active beings. "Just enjoy the music" oversimplifies what human beings are. Sometimes restless nervousness is our disease -- but not always.

Yes, there is more to any hobby than the end result. 

I’m so new to this. Its been years since I sat or layed in front of the music just listening. For the past few months I’ve returned, but thanks to so many here, much better equipped than back in the day. I too find myself awakened by the music, stopped in my tracks, mesmerized by the wonder of it. I have now started listening well outside my former comfort zone trying music I never would have consider before. That is because of the equipment. But the equipment provides the stage, the mikes, the instruments.  The music is what I came for.  Which,  has already been said so well here, what it’s all about. I started my return with Hard Bop jazz, wonderful. But tonight it’s Yes', "Relayer" vinyl LP.   Incredible. Never thought I’d I ever say that.

The way to stay happy as an audiophile is just to accept that often "good enough" really is the point at which trying out audio equipment and the experience of listening of music is at its best.

I'm listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd on an iPhone this morning via an AQ Dragonfly Red DAC. You know what...this stuff rocks & it's setting the right mood for a pretty sunny Spring morning in Seattle. That's the feeling that makes all of this audio nonsense worthwhile to me. 

On the other hand, I've been building up a digital streaming front end, so I have been dong a lot of 'critical' listening which gets to be a PITA after a while. I just learned that running a Qutest DAC off of a car battery jumpstart pack makes a substantial difference on the clarity (lower noise floor), smoothness, resolution and sense of flow from the Qutest. I'm getting a Denafrips Pontus II soon as well to compare.  I didn't love the Qutest with the standard power supply, but using the battery is a big transformation in sound quality To me, it's interesting to compare equipment...for a while. But getting things to sound "good enough" in order to be able to get back to enjoying music that consistently sounds good is "priceless". There will always be some piece of audio equipment out there that is "better". Accept that, but forget about it and you'll be much happier.

I've noticed that there are two directions in this hobby. There are the equipment guys with almost no music collections other than maybe a hundred audiophile recordings in their coffers. Then there are the music lovers with the huge record and CD collections who came into the hobby in order to get closer to the music. I'm in the latter group.