Can speakers cause mental illness?
It's important to keep in mind that speakers can in fact cause mental sickness. We are all chasing something which ultimately cant be found. Every new purchase brings nothing but temporary pleasure. The long term effects of this hobby are despair, frustration, depression and possibly even suicide.
We are being tantalized with the promise of perfect sound which is ultimately unobtainable.
The scheming speaker companies are certainly partly to blame for this. They are always thinking about what speaker they will put on the market next. They are responsible for making us believe that if we buy their new speaker designs we will be more happy than before.
There are hundreds of different speaker companies out there and we are led to believe that each company offers something different. But when you really think about it, you will realize that cant possibly be true. What we are being offered is just the same basic recipe with minor variations in crossover tuning, port tuning and frequency response. Most speakers are not fundamentally BETTER than other speakers. And therein lies the deception.
The irony is that high end speakers were invented to allow music lovers to experience the maximum level of pleasure from music. Instead what they have done is cause misery and depression. Its a fact that most audiophiles are simply unhappy with what they have. That is why there are forums like this with hundreds or thousands of folks who are desperate for advice on how to achieve even better success.
The level of unhappiness and despair does not go down as you spend more money, contrary to expectations. People that buy Magicos and Wilsons are no less unhappy than those that buy cheaper speakers.
Being a speaker enthusiast is like being a drug addict. Its a neverending cycle. We want more and more and in the end it often leads to death.
Listening to a new speaker is a bittersweet experience. You will hear new things that you may have never heard before but then you always begin to hear problems which were initially inaudible.
This is a dangerous hobby. Do it at your peril.
