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Any other lone audiophiles here?

By "Lone" I mean you have no other local audiophile buddies. That describes my experience. My wife and I usually listen together. I have no other friends to borrow equipment or to audition theirs. In spite of that I believe I've done a pretty good job of putting together a system which is very good. I've done it strictly by reading reviews, etc and lots of research. I see the situation as both an advantage and maybe a curse. The advantage is that Maybe I don't know what I'm missing. The curse is may be that I often wonder IF I need to upgrade? Or am m missing something.? Like right now. I just bought a CJ CT5 preamp which is silly good.So now I wonder about my amp? The CJ retails for 8x more than my silly little tube amp...a Bob Latino ST-70. Yet I believe that amp is fully pulling its weight while hooked to a preamp which is silly good. Surely, this amp can't be the be all end all. However It did replace an amp which retails for 4x its price. Who knows? maybe its the ST-70 which needed a better preamp to show off its stuff. Nonetheless, I enjoy the music  immensely. and all the advice I've gotten from people on the forums over the years. FWIW, I also play drums  and have played live. So I DO know what live music sounds like. So, maybe I'm not shooting totally in the dark.
128x128artemus_5
artemus_5's avatar
artemus_5 OP
1,992 posts
 
@douglas_schroeder  Another part of my problem is too many hobbies.   Each wants my time and $$$. Music is my #1 hobby though I actually consider it my lifestyle more than a hobby

@bigkidz , concerning what is missing with my amp?, ....Nothing. Maybe it could image better. But I'm not sure that is in its job description. That's the interesting part. I bought the amp just to dabble with tubes. Then I sold my SS amp. IMO, its great. I'm amazed that it sounds so good. 
bluorion
480 posts
 
I'm a lone audiophile too----but I wasn't when I started the hobby in the mid-80s. Our city had quite a few high-end audio stores but sadly, we have 1-2 now (and they're not that nice.) My friends back then have all moved away and we've lost contact over the decades. We all used to go record/cd shopping too. 
So now I'm a lone audiophile but recently purchased some equipment for some folks nearby. I wish I had some close friends to hang out with and listen to music. Oh well....
hifijunky
126 posts
 
I'm in audiophile solitude. My life long audiophile bud passed 2 years ago.
I am in NE NJ and would like to find some people who are local and interested. I know there is NJ Audio Society group but I am not interested in it. So if there is any interest send me a message.
alexberger
935 posts
 
Hi @artemus_5 ,

Me too in the same situation.
When I lived in Israel I had a lot of audiophile friends. Many of them where also music lovers, that even more important for me! We can talk not only about audio but about classical and jazz music. 
Now I moved to Canada and live in Ottawa for 3 years.
My situation is even worse, because my wife and daughter don't share my hobby.
I have other problem - a long time ago I moved from "main stream" audio to vintage, DIY, high efficient speakers and tubes. So, "main stream" audio and audiophile who listen POP music and have 10 "audiophile" CD in their collection are not interesting to me.
I prefer people who don't spend too much money for their system but like and understand serious music to people who spend tenth thousands $$$ for audio. 
On one hand I have a better room and dedicated basement for audio hobby. But on the other hand I have nobody to share this hobby audio and music.

Regards,
Alex.
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz
13,381 posts
 
Today very glad not a lone wolf any longer.

My good friend Rick came round to assist with service and realignment of my Notts TT.
He had all the right gear to clean all the old bearing oil out and I had some of the original Notts bearing oil so we got that situated. Spun the platter and after couple minutes it really had not shown any indication of slowing down never mind stopping so I think we can say the bearing is good....

Next he broke out the SmartTractor to align. Well with arm set at 210mm per Notts from pivot to spindle center it was not possible to align to any alignment by a couple mm. Our thoughts were that it can only be that the actual arm was short compared to spec. We reduced pivot to spindle to 208mm and were now able to align cart just!
Put it back in the rig and I can tell the difference as it gets closer to the center on last track. I had noticed on some albums some slight distortion at times, well not now, Rough Mix by Pete Townsend played beautifully all the way to the last note.

Good to have someone to assist and bounce ideas of, thx again Rick!
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