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Emotional rollercoaster

I think I've been slowly improving my system over years. Starting with garage sale finds and tip finds to eBay and ultimately spending serious dollars on some decent amplification and speakers. I was even going to post recently about how the journey has been worth it.
Then this afternoon I tested an old Akai AA-5200 that I'd retrieved from under my ex's house (left it there 8 or so years ago) and I connected it to some old magnat 10p speakers I picked up for about $40 ages ago.... and behold.... I was listening to about $60 of hi-fi equipment that sounded extraordinarily nice and made me wonder why I'd spent a hundred and fifty times that much "improving" my main system over the years. 
It's left me disillusioned and fragile. Is spending big bucks a sham. Where have I gone wrong. It's an emotional rollercoaster. Help.



mid-fi-crisis
boxer12
8,656 posts
 
Lots of good information here. I agree that a properly treated room is very important, in fact it's a prerequisite. After that, I'm with mill in regard to everything being important. Obviously speakers will bring a dramatic change to the sound, but if they are transparent, they are only as good as the equipment (including cables, power cords, etc.) upstream. High end audio isn't a sham. The sound I have now is something I could only dream about 20 or 30 years ago. The stage is wall to wall, deep, with ambiance accurate to the recording. I don't regret any of it & typically listen to music 4 or more hours a day. 
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
13,156 posts
 
I have a mint Mossberg bolt action that might be worth $60, but when a fast flyer drops on the Doyen Superposed, even the Labrador can feel the fluid swing....

but for grins a NAD 3020 with a few tweaks will hunt...

enjoy the music...
asvjerry's avatar
asvjerry
4,859 posts
 
noble Tim....*G*=Grin, as in not a *S*mile or a *L*augh.....

It's OK....Old (age and era) previous 'webchatters' sometimes find emoji-speak time consuming....;)
That, and they've made Tribbles look slow in reproduction.....

I'm just obviously somewhat weird in this venue....not that I give a rats' arse over it....;)
roberttdid
534 posts
 
How do you know the ambience was accurate to the recording @boxer12? How many of your recordings are live miked with only 2 microphones placed head width at a typical listener position? .... Oh and that you were there for the recording?
boxer12
8,656 posts
 
Good point atdavid (robertwhatever). I wasn’t there, but the ambience is there in spades in the recordings. BTW, it took a far amount of tweaks & cable changes to finally hear it (across the same speakers & room).
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