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The quest for sound vs. music

 The quest for perfect sound Is so voracious that it devours the enjoyment of music.  
After you’ve reached a point where you can enjoy music on your system, no more tweaks are necessary. Any further improvements are superfluous.  The problem Is, if Hifi is your hobby you want to actively involve yourself in it.  You can’t sit back and leave it alone.  If you stop twiddling with it, it ceases to be an active hobby. That’s where the contradiction is.  The enjoyment of music ceases to be the goal.  The “hobby” predominates.
If you can listen for the music, everything falls into place.  The work you’ve done assembling your system has paid off and you can revel in how beautiful the music is.

But, your hobby is over.
rvpiano
rvpiano's avatar
rvpiano OP
2,738 posts
 
Slaw:

Most of my recent posts are in the music forum.
As I’ve already said, 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.
don_c55
1,025 posts
 
Highly evolved systems over time and experience, give you sound you like most.

After you reach a plateau, just relax and enjoy the musical experiences of great sound.

No need to further obsess over equipment. Today’s equipment is all you will ever need.

True sonic breakthroughs are very rare now.
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
8,135 posts
 
I think that there are those who never upgrade unless something breaks, and then others that swap out their speakers every couple of months, but most of us are pretty reasonable, and to answer rvpiano, I think that reasonable audiophiles go through cycles of tweaking/component change periodically, and then fairly long periods of satisfaction and musical enjoyment during which they don't really give serious thought to upgrades. I know that's how it goes for me, and I get he feeling it's that way for many others from comments I read.
cleeds
6,072 posts
 
roxy54
... I think that reasonable audiophiles go through cycles of tweaking/component change periodically, and then fairly long periods of satisfaction and musical enjoyment during which they don’t really give serious thought to upgrades. I know that’s how it goes for me, and I get he feeling it’s that way for many others from comments I read.
I think you’re absolutely correct. While there is the stereotype of the audiophile who’s always changing equipment (like the guy posting on Agon who’s always swapping amplifiers), I think it’s just a caricature. There’s not a lot of incentive to upgrade once you reach a certain level of performance.

Technology often drives my upgrades, even though I’m not an early adopter.
don_c55
Highly evolved systems over time and experience, give you sound you like most ... True sonic breakthroughs are very rare now
Exactly.
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