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The Forest for the Trees

I caught myself last night doing something that I need to do more. I was listening to the music. I wasn’t concerned with imaging, sound stage, tonal quality, wasn’t even thinking about it. I was listening to the music. It engaged me, I was lost in it. But then, I caught myself and started thinking about why it engaged me. It sounded awesome because all of the qualities listed above were there. I need to remind myself to enjoy this hobby more for the music than the pursuit of perfection. It feels good when it happens and you don’t even know it is happening.
baclagg
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
10,089 posts
 

@slaw: "I don’t go to his house and complain."

That brings to mind the best putdown I’ve ever heard. Led Zeppelin were on a U.S. tour in the 70’s, and attended a party in L.A. with their manager Peter Grant. When they arrived they saw Bob Dylan---whom they had yet to meet---across the room. Being as big of fans of his as are all of we, they were too intimidated to approach him. So they sent Grant, known for being an aggressive, brutish, obnoxious a-hole, over to initiate contact. Grant went over to Dylan and said: "Bob, I’m Led Zeppelin’s manager, and". Dylan cut him off, saying "Hey, I don’t come to your house and tell you MY problems."

rvpiano's avatar
rvpiano
2,727 posts
 
Slaw,

 I’m not attacking you or your house.There’s nothing wrong with improving one’s system.
 I’ve certainly done it with the help of this forum.
  I’m simply saying that if the search for perfect sound is the ultimate goal, it can get in the way of your enjoyment of music.

turnbowm
353 posts
 

rvpiano1,296 posts05-01-2020 9:09am
"The problem is, the quest for perfect sound Is so voracious that it devours any enjoyment of music...."

Been there, done that on more than one occasion.

turnbowm
353 posts
 
slaw9,705 posts05-03-2020 8:09pm"Nothing wrong at all with improving one’s system.

I assume @rvpiano has an issue. That doesn't make his issue, anyone elses issue."

Nothing wrong with improving one's system and I see nothing wrong with what rvpiano posted. What's the problem?
newbee
4,794 posts
 
Perhaps for someone suffering from 'audiophile angst', a common disease around here I think, is simply to have three libraries, one for near SOTA recordings,  one for near SOTA performances, and a third one, much much smaller, for SOTA recording/engineering and SOTA performances combined. For those with a large library of 'ordinary' recordings (a fourth category) they could simply just have a forgiving front end with no pretention to SOTA, or an equalizer which everyone knows cannot be SOTA, and just play them for their musical content. This filing method would help you to easily select a recording that would meet your extant expectations. 

An aside. I used to be an analogue nut with some pretty good stuff but once I got all of the great stuff and pinned down soundstaging (ala Pearson) when ever I put on a good record all I could hear (forgive the hyperbole) was the 'great audio'. I gave away my audio accouterments and records and dumbed down (relatively speaking) to digital which can't sound good anyhow (as we all know) and I'm happy as a pig wallowing in the mud. 

Hang in there, you'll find a way to enjoy it. I did! :-)
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