What type of Audio Gal or Guy are you? Do You Know?


Leaving this open ended for members to share their own definitions, categories and thoughts and stories.

So:  What type of Audiophile / Music Lover / Audio Gal or Guy are you?

 
- Can you specifically define it or do you find yourself falling within a range or multiple categories?

- What are these categories or groups?

- Was there a Eureka moment? If you have figured it out, when and how did it happen?

- Do you have any stories about things getting out of hand? Interventions? How did you rein yourself in?
  
- If you are not an Audiophile, how do you prefer to describe your interest in and pursuit of music and audio?

- Has "Know Thyself" helped you in your audio journey? How? 


Thanks.

***Let's Have Some Fun With This!***
david_ten

What type of Audio Guy are you? - Was there a Eureka moment? If you have figured it out, when and how did it happen? “… Interventions? How did you rein yourself in?”

Nice thread!!

Previous type: unreasonable. Pretentious. Erudite and arrogant. In short, the typical audiophile. Wearing blinders and running with scissors, seeing only what IMO is the correct item, design, or brand.

Current Type: Reasonable. More often than not. Still, dogmatic, fearful, and a severe need for my ego to be stroked routinely. Albeit, in the absence of being totally accepted by any and all, have learned, the end of the world is still a ways off.

Am a card carrying audio nut. Certifiable, yet requires quite limited supervision.

Without any financial constraints, I’m all about buying things I can’t afford, with money I don’t have, to impress people I’ve not met yet! Thankfully, I have fiduciary restrictions, and have gathered better perspectives on life.

In all, I’ve learned limitations can be an ally not strickly nemesis.

I was a budding musician playing horns from grade school thru high school and beyond. It was not cool to be a horn player. I wanted to be a Sax player but a coronet and trumpet were cheaper.

Out of the military in ‘78, the obvious choices laying before me were, to open a recording studio, pursue a career in professional Drag Bike racing, or join the Pro Bowlers Association and tour the national circuit.

Deeply pondering and thoroughly ruminating on these life altering options a woman walked into my life and I got married instead. She was my first love and music was relegated to slot number two. Racing fell by the wayside, eventually, following a few years of concerted but unsponsored ‘sportsman’ efforts.

Following life style changes and a divorce in 2002 I felt pursuing a quality audio setup was in order.

All was well, until a salesman at a local audio equipment dealership told me about this venue for buying and selling audio gear.that was the ‘epiphany’ or Pandora’s box, depending.

Six years later tons of re-education, several suprises good and bad later, I had a used BMW sitting in my living room, so to speak, effectively. Best sounding array I’d ever owned!

So I sold it.

Built one based on tubes then instead of SS. This became my second ‘epiphany’ and THE very best sounding rig I have owned to date.

Of course, I’m wide open now and the ONLY focus for me is how to improve my system. Around 2012 or so life ‘intervened’. On several fronts and my rig was laid waste to put funds to home security, self defense, and some major medical concerns cropped up.

Life has a way of setteling the playing field from what is thought to be, and what is, important.

This next affair is going to be about musical enjoyment. Having a rig which enables playback of as much media as is possible, rather than a system which plays but SOME media incredibly well and most others just plain aren’t worth putting on it.

Or…. Having a highly resolving extremely detailed outfit that is superior with some media, and one Bose rig for all the other files the main system only reveals as substandard.

That said, I’m still a kid in a candy store IF sufficient funds are in place and I’ll have little issue with rubbing old shoulders with previous narrow perspectives! Albeit, IF synergy itself can prevail front to back so jaw rests solidly on floor time and time again during playback sessions.

Am looking for enough detail and transparency so I can tell what perfume the female singer is wearing but not so much as to know if the band is working ‘commando’ style or not. See? Now, that is being reasonable.

Some one shoot me now please.....what kind of question is this ? Music comes from birds...surely I'm a dope for spending goofy amounts of money for decades on playback equipment and then at some point becoming dissatisfied and spending more...contentment alludes the insecure....
I'm definitely not a "follow the herd" type, either in music or equipment ... or life. 

Music-wise I'm a metal-head, with side trips in many directions ... acoustic guitar, rock, progressive, ambient, etc. I can go from the heaviest of metal to the polar opposite, like Sade or Pentatonix. Metal has been with me from the beginning because it fits me. I'm a "power" guy ... bodybuilding, long drive golf contests, fast boats, etc. Occasionally I might want to "audiophile out" with some Pink Floyd, but power always draws me back to metal. However, currently I'm on a major Buckethead bender.

I'm a bedroom musician, with pretty decent equipment, who noodles (more before than now) with electric and acoustic guitar. So I have a good idea what those instruments should sound like.

Equipment-wise I'm an objectivist when buying and then forget about it when listening. I use my objectivism as a filtering mechanism on speaker purchases. Not knowing any better, when I started as a budget audiophile in my early twenties I bought whatever I could afford that the magazines or my audiophile friends suggested. Later, as I grew in my career (software engineering) I became more "scientific" about things. I stopped listening to hearsay (about any subject) and started reading. Even now I read. I'm partially through Ethan Winer's The Audio Expert and just received the latest edition of Floyd Toole's book ... mostly to study how I will set up my room (acoustic treatments and layout) in the new house I'll be building. 

I participated in a couple of blind amp tests (where everyone utterly failed) and that shaped my thinking about ignoring electronics (with the usual caveats). And I read all the other blind tests, which had the same results, and listened as my audiophile friend incessantly switched equipment, hearing only a difference between speakers and cartridges, whereas he claimed to hear a difference in everything (but would not risk taking a blind test). So I never got to the point where I spent a lot of money on electronics, cables, interconnects, etc. Speakers, DSP and acoustic treatment are the only things I pay much attention to, although I do have some vintage electronics for decoration and nostalgia. My two-channel system currently runs on a used Paradigm SW amp, for which I paid $290. For a light show I switch to a vintage Pioneer SA-8800, for which I paid $450.  

I'm much more an investor than a consumer, so I'm always looking for maximum value, which has led me into my current audio project - building my own speakers. I'm not into it enough to design my own. Too many other responsibilities for that involved of a learning curve. But I love the idea of taking a design of a designer whose knowledge and objectivity I respect and see what comes of it for minimal cost. I plan for these to become my last speakers.

So why am I even here? Well, since I've bought equipment here I signed up and get a weekly email summary of discussions ... and I read it because I get a kick out of some of the stuff that people focus on. I guess you could call it an interesting study of human nature.
Eureka moment....  discovered late 50's and early 60's Siemens and Halske 6922 Cca grey plate tubes.
I read that the definition of an audiophile is someone who has more money invested in their equipment than in their music. Long ago, I decided not to be that guy. However, this year, after 25 years, I did an equipment upgrade (CD player and speakers).

I was contemplating another DIY speaker project but the cost of the components and materials is roughly the cost of a good pair of used speakers. Instead of another DIY, I bought a pair of Sonus Faber Auditor M’s on Audiogon. I know first hand that there is a lot of satisfaction in DIY projects but I have other things to do.

The good and the bad of great audio gear is that it reveals the quality of the recording. My on-going challenge is to find the great recordings. I suspect others are pursuing and enjoying the same goal.