Have you recently lost a close audiophile buddy? What has it taught you?

I have a lot of audiophile friends through my local audio club - The New Jersey Audio Society (check it out - www.njaudiosociety.com - ) Suffice it to say that it is not filled with a bunch of young, healthy millenials.

We recetly lost our President Emeritus to MLS at the age of 61. It was heartbreaking to watch a healthy, vital, kind and generous father and husband slowly degenerate into a vegetable. He did the best to make the most of the time he had left, and unlike some hobbies, he was able to continue enjoying well-produced music through his excellent system throughout most of his illness. It taught me to spend less time obsessing over the technical aspects of our hobby, and to spend more time listening to the music I love. I realize that I have more LPs, CDs and files than I might ever be able to listen to (really listen, not just as background). It is a sobering thought.

We lost another member about two years ago. It was tragic on a few levels. He had spent his retirement designing and building a wonderful dedicated basement room for his excellent system. He had Rives design it, and he gradually built it. But his health was not good, and before he had finished it, his hearing had deterioriated significantly. He had one episode at one of our meetings, where we were fortunate enough to have a physician-member in attendance.  The physician said that he thought this fellow might check out right then and there at the meeting, but he recovered enough to head home.  He passed about two years after most of the work on his listening room was completed. The whole thing reminded me of Das Boot, the film that took sad irony to whole new level. The lesson I learned from this was the same: Listen more; life is short.  On the brighter side, this guy did have a nephew who was interested in the system.  A few of our members visited the guy's home a few months after his death to instruct the nephew and his father on how to operate the gear.  I shudder to think what happened to his massive vinyl collection, though.  It was too awkward to ask his widow about it.