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Music lover or audiophile?

I think you have to decide, are you a music lover or audiophile?  I know the majority will say, both.
 I’m not so sure though. The nature of audiophilia is to get in there and fiddle with the tools, like any other hobbyist.  The difference in our hobby though is that presumably, our ultimate goal is to have the best musical experience we can get. The hobbyist is never really finished. The manipulation of the materials is the fun. The music lover, however, wants to get the most out of that esthetic experience.  
By continually plying materials, the audiophile is on an endless quest for better sound.
 After years of this quest, I’ve decided I can be a music lover or an audiophile.  I’m happy listening to my system now the way it is.  So, I’ve decided to be a music lover once again.
128x128rvpiano
prof
3,474 posts
 

elizabeth, while I can't get myself to be as cynical as you are on the topic, I do agree with you that almarg is the Gold Standard for helpful input here!
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almarg
9,670 posts
 

Elizabeth and Prof, thank you kindly for the very nice words, however accurate or inaccurate they may be :-)


Regarding the subject matter of the thread, the bottom line as I see it is simply the truism that as with many things in life different people occupy different points on a continuum extending between two extremes.


Personally, I consider myself to be somewhere in the middle of that continuum. And just as there can be a point of diminishing returns when it comes to spending money on audio or various other things, there can be a point of diminishing returns when it comes to investing time in the process of (hopefully) extracting as much as possible of the sonic performance a given monetary investment in audio may be able to provide. And over the years I have generally found myself sufficiently content with the performance of my system that I don’t feel motivated to go beyond what strikes me as being either of those points, as I perceive them to exist in my particular case. Typically I’ll change a major component every few years, when something comes along that strikes me as particularly exciting.


Also, like TReynolds155 I tend to “appreciate it [the equipment] for the engineering, materials, manufacturing and history behind it.” Just as many may have similar feelings about any number of fine things whose appeal derives from either aesthetics, or technology, or historical background, or some combination of those and other factors.


RV, glad you have reached a point of contentment!


Best regards,

--Al

n80
2,116 posts
 
I'm a music lover. But probably a latent raving wannabe closet audiophile.
bluorion
474 posts
 
For me, music came first. My family had 45s, albums and 8-track tapes. We had radios playing all the time. Most of the restaurants we went to back then had juke boxes. I used to love to get some spare change to play records in the juke boxes.
I had cheap 1970s record players back then and eventually got modular component systems in the early 80s. From then, mid-fi and hi-fi. But music always comes first in my book.
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rvpiano OP
2,661 posts
 
Al,

Yes, thank you.
So am I!
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