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The awakening...

For the past 30 years or so I've considered myself a die-hard audiophile.
I've gone through similar phases and opinions like most of you probably have.
I've bought and sold many dozens (if not hundreds) of high end components and cables.
Audio research, Linn, audionote, ensemble, synergistic, Zu Audio, PS Audio, Yamamoto, modwright, REL, Klipsch, hafler, CJ, coincident, classe, anthem,  oppo, MIT, and many other brands I don't even remember. I've auditioned hundreds more...
I'm also an electronic technician so I had my share of experience with DIY.
I've gone from tubes and vinyl to digital and SS, and back around.
I've owned mini monitors and huge 6' Giants and everything in between.
I've heard the most minute differences in sound quality between cables and footers.
I've spent way too many dollars on fuses, tweaks and furniture.
I read reviews, and swore by specific brands.
I've put together systems which I was sure we're the best ever and defended my choices with a passion.

No more.

I'm sitting here right now in my (ex) music room, listening to a system that costs less than $350 total, and enjoying the music as I rarely did with my recent $30K one.
Does it sound as good and realistic as the $30K one? No it doesn't.
But it sounds damn good. It's musical, engaging, full bodied with a well established sound stage, good detail and tonality, well paced, and I'm having a blast!!!
I just don't care no more for the minute differences in sound quality.
There is no end to it.

I let go, and oh man it feels good to enjoy music without constantly analyzing and subconsciously looking for imperfection or thinking how much better it will sound with tweak X or cable Y or upgrade Z...
This tiny $350 system delivers 80% of the sound quality of the $30K one, and honestly probably better than many $5K ones out there. I mean it...
It doesn't make any sense no more!

I have no regrets ...
I've had a lot of fun and I met amazing people that I wouldn't have had I not been an audiophile.
I've experienced great uplifting monents and great disappointments.
I've laughed and cried, was blown away and frustrated... It was a great ride.

I am leaving this hobby behind and not looking back...
Damn it feels good.
I'll keep enjoying great music and HiFi sound, and will appreciate high quality equipment, but I won't be obsessed with it no more.
I still have a very nice system in my living room which is probably worth around $2K and will be more than I'll ever need going forward.
This amazing little $350 system is going to my office where I spend most of my week days and I'm excited about it...

I have woken up from the audiophile dream, and what has been seen can't be unseen.

Goodbye and thanks for the fish :-)

PS:
Since I know you are very curious, the $350 system consists of a Raspberry Pi as a streamer ($25) with an upgraded DAC ($60), an upgraded power supply ($50), a 20 watt Chinese digital power amplifier ($70), mini monitor speakers I bought as a kit ($100), DIY stands from leftover lumber ($20), and around $20 in cables...
I intentionally omit brand names, this post is not about recommending any specific item. It's about what amazing value you can get for ridiculously cheap these days in general.

I promise each and every one of you that if you were sitting in my seat right now, and I would have told you that you are listening to a $5K system, you would not have doubted it for a second. You are probably thinking that I'm crazy, but I am not. 
I've already tried this trick on a few very experienced audiophile friends this past week. :-)
128x128ami
n80
2,128 posts
 
On this topic of life experience:

@falconquest  triggered a memory about listening to the radio at night when he was a kid. I did the same thing. First through fifth grade. Late 60's and early 70's. Jacksonville, Florida, always tuned to WAPE, the Big Ape. The Who, Pink Floyd, Joe Walsh, Zep, Stones, Skynrd etc etc etc when all that good stuff was coming out. A constant stream of the some of the best rock ever. I listened to it until I fell asleep every night and it played while I was asleep until my dad came in and turned it off when he went to bed. I remember the concert announcements of all these folks too wishing I was old enough to go.  I absolutely loved listening to that little FM clock radio. I never had any notion of hi-fi then but I probably enjoyed music as much then on that one speaker radio as I do now. Maybe more.






cd318
2,636 posts
 
@n80 , 

Talking of memories, it's a sobering thought that I will probably never again attain the sheer listening pleasure that I got back in the late 1970s. The sheer excitement of playing those LPs the first dozen or so times! The Beatles Blue album (wow!), Pepper, Revolver, the White Album, Abbey Road, Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61 Revisited, the Doors, the Velvet Underground and Nico, Forever Changes, Astral Weeks, the Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, Electric Ladyland, Closer, Unknown Pleasures, Get Happy!! etc.

Between 1978 and 1980, the Sex Pistols were as important as food to me. It's funny how the breakup of that band/death of Sid /followed by Ian Curtis' suicide/ Lennon's murder, all gradually combined over the next decade and a half to dim that initial red hot intensity of passion. Looking back I can now appreciate why some had said that the death of Buddy Holly was the day the music died. For them it had.

Back then the Sunday chart show on Radio 1 (and the Top of the Pops BBC TV show) were both a staple part of our weekly routine. The current music scene was an important and relevant part in keeping our lives together then.  Some of us needed to go back further into it's wonderful history. First towards childhood memories and then beyond even those, all the long and winding road back to Louis Armstrong.

To now think that most of my 'formative' listening was done through a music centre (record player / cassette /radio combo) feeding bookshelf speakers.

Strangely enough as I was to discover later, no amount of upgrading would ever get that initial magic back again. Perhaps there is no way back, perhaps you can only go back in dreams. Perhaps in real life you can only go forwards.
n80
2,128 posts
 
I still remember my mother letting us put on her Simon & Garfunkle, Herb Alpert and Kingston Trio records on the record changer console unit. Looked like a piece of furniture.

My own albums came later. And for me they were expensive. So in addition to the music on them the cost also made them special. And pretty infrequent too.

Edit: Man I sound like an old fart. 
falconquest's avatar
falconquest
1,108 posts
 
@n80When I was young my parents had an old RCA Victor, Victrola. The bottom was filled with 78's. Every once in a while we would crank it up (literally) and put on one of the records. There was classical for sure and I could swear some Count Basie as well. It would probably be worth a small fortune today.
jdub071
71 posts
 
As long as we're strolling down memory lane, my early teen years were the late fifties when transistors mobilized your music and one could take his tiny[relatively speaking] transistor radio with and listen to Elvis, Dion,The Platters, Bill Haley I could go on, but you get the idea.
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