Where have the long-time regulars gone?

Don't forget Bear and Audio Engineer. As previously posted it does seem that a lot of the same stuff is rehashed, much of it personal preference with no real conclusions available. Not a lot in the way of "break through" or cutting edge unique products in the recent past either.

Gee, I thought I was an old time regular, but I suppose only 2 years or so still makes me a newbie.

Regarding Garfish's point of having covered all the issues -- I, for one, will be more than happy to debate the same old issues for the next 150 years.

I thought that's what this hobby was about?!

CW, 12/01 only looks like a year to me, but that's ok if you'll fess up to being old. A lot of these issues that keep coming up are just boring to go into for the 20th time, and, frankly, the level of discourse has declined. There's a current thread that asks why the subject of DBT's is controversial. Some of the responses speak to that issue, but they are hard to find amid the 10,000 word essays full of non sequiturs on why DBT's are worthless in that writer's opinion.

There are some people who hang out here and just drown out any chance of having an intelligent conversation. If someone asks gee, do wires really sound different?, he's met with "If you can't tell they sound different, it's because you don't have good enough hearing, or your hifi system is not good enough to allow you to tell the difference." This is just as bad as, maybe worse than, the guys who used to answer questions like "which interconnect shoud I get, the Silver Streak or the Blue Heaven," with "save your money and go to Radio Shack, wire is wire." How about answering, "yes, I think they do, and here's why," or "no, I don't think so, and here's why."
Their labeling people "naysayers" who are responding honestly to valid questions. Too many true believers around here, and not enough skeptics.

That's one reason. Another is there arent as many lighthearted and entertaining posts.

Another reason, and this is more positive, is that many of the people who came here found this dicussion group while looking for hardware or advice about hardware, and arent looking anymore. Charlie (danvetc) as an example, isn't really in the market much anymore.

Where did they go? Some to other forums, but most to their listening rooms to spend time with their hifi systems.

Paul

I think there is a natural time limit on very active involvement, both because the topics tend to repeat, but also, as Paul says, people work through a period of evolution in their systems where they have lots of questions and curiousity, but ultimately get to a point where they know their system is pretty much done and it's time to just enjoy it. Maybe in a few years, there will be another spate of activity around trying something new, but when you get a system that is as performant and enjoyable as you feel that you can get if within your price range, the topics become less interesting.

You guys got everything right, I don't post near as much for a number of reasons. I think my system is "finished" for the time being, and know what I would upgrade to when the time is right- so posting new subjects is fairly moot. My personal life has become MUCH more hectic and allows less time online and the time I spend is usually spent reading and posting when I find the time- as said above I don't post to topics that I have before time and time again also someone always gets it eventually :) I knew all of you had it in you! And the best reason of all is because a large number of fellow audiogon'ers have become good friends and we spend more time talking one on one then conversing in a group, and about more then just audio. I spend an awful lot of time on the phone talking to lots of people who are as crazy and in some cases crazier then me which is quite the anemity. I do read a lot here and still learn a lot but it is as though I have evolved and spend more time enjoying what took so much to create- Thank you all! ~Tim