What Is This Hobby?

Onhwy61 wrote: My question, which is intentionally very open ended, was intended to find out if there was a specific area along the audiophile type activity spectrum that we could agree upon as the central focus of our hobby

I like Art Dudley's definition: the purpose of a hi-fi is to play your records with an acceptable degree of fidelity, and thus bring music into your home. No audio component, let alone system, is perfect, so priorities have to be selected and acceptable compromises determined. These may well be different for each person, with those appreciating offerings from companies like Linn and Rega perhaps not caring for products from VPI and Basis. This is the central focus of the hobby for me, both as a consumer and, formerly, as a salesman--determining what aspects of reproduced music make it compelling for the end user and figuring out how to best accomplish that within the constraints of one's home and budget.

I believe this hobby to be a stimulation on the pleasant side of 2 of the 5 senses.Also a gateway to the other 3 in subtle yet positive movements much like a quality meta-physical push.Other than the trips to Fedex of course,cheers,Bob

It isn't a hobby to me. The word "hobby" being used here is a misnomer for me at least. What this is for me is buying and assembling an audio system so that I can enjoy hearing high quality playback of music. The real "hobby" is collecting and listening to music. Once my system provides me with high quality playback of good music, I plan to enjoy the music, and the buying of equipment will finally, finally be over. It's hard to get there however, because assembling a great sounding system that provides high quality music playback is not as easy as some think. (including me when I started buying better equipment)

This isn't a "hobby." It's a "quest!"

T_Bone

we've moved on a bit from chalk... better buy yourself a portable black light. A wonderful thing still for more humid climes.

Foster_9, I like your description of what "this" is and your use of hobby. Why is it difficult to assemble a high quality system?