Does a taste for high end audio, also carry over into your other interests?

Great thread-thanks.  Audio reproduction, better and better has been a never ending hobby/quest for 40+ years and I am thrilled where I am with the two channel system I listen to. 

  But the love of fine art has overcome (by twice) the expenditures I've made on audio with (30) oil originals in the listening room alone, along with bronzes, art glass, pastels, etc. These things of artistic/expressive beauty give me pleasure on a daily basis and will as long as I live.

  Books are also a pleasure and although most I read are historical fiction, one great historical author is David McCullough. And not to laugh, reading Crime and Punishment was a wonderful experience (as were War and Peace, The Brothers Karamazov, etc.).

  Of course excellent quality and fine engineering in various devices appeals. Fine optics like telescopes (not mine per se) sure do appeal as well. I do like motorcycles (not so much culture with those) and still have five around that are a hoot to ride.

   My "low end":  cars (merely transport except for my wife's Miata). Clothing is high end for outdoor gear but low end for fashion and daily wear (I simply don't care).

It is very interesting to hear where other members have interests and additional hobbies. Of course, had I more shekels, I'd sure love a nice handling modern sports car...and new amps and...

The higher quality in anything has a cost....

Except for MY Hi-Fi interest, i dont give a dam about quality of materials in my life... a minimal quality will go a long road.... For sure i like costlier wine but anyway i cant afford them, but more than that i dont care.... Life is too short to be bother by accumulation of pricey products...except for sure in our main hobby: an amateur astronomer for example dream and need the best telescope and it is pricey....I was dreaming about the best Hi-Fi in the world 7 years ago.... i created mine in the last 2 years at peanuts costs and i am happy....But you cannot go so easily with the telescope quality....Hi-Fi products are very overvalued, it is possible to create very high S.Q. at low costs but anyway it is not the subject matter here....😁

My Hi-Fi system is then the only material object i care about because it is my access to my immaterial music....



For all my life the only material question i was asking myself was how many books can i afford to buy? Today with internet my problem is solved...I dont need the university library anymore....I dont miss my 25 thousand books personal collection....i replaced it by a digital one....

I cancel at 18 years old the purchase of my first dreamed and last motorcycle to buy books....I never rode one....I go more speedier with books....
I dont understand why people focus on costlier objects anyway except the necessary one for their hobby....

I dont have enough time to even read my unread books and listen to all music...( i just finish to read an article about the mathematical impossibility to control A.I. )

Nothing beat being in love with a woman or thinking a great new idea... Keep the wine, the car, the last new amplifiers or anything else.... Is there a limit to the universe ? If there exist infinite prime numbers, how do they live? The greatest thing in life cost nothing....or few peanuts... My dog Boris say so to me....😁

If i was crafty with my hand i must confess that my hobby would had been linked to audio...Speakers design for example....I like mushroom collectors and stones geology collections or insects collections...It is my link to nature....

But the world is the kaleidoscope which reveal a different picture for each one of us...The converging of all images in the same rythmical dynamic pattern is at the same time the beginning and the end of science....This memory pattern is also a sound by the way....😊




« The most miserable man on earth is the one who has more than he can chew »- Anonymus Smith


«Any tree is the tree of knowledge»- Anonymus Smith




When Alexander the Great, admiring Diogenes volontary bareness, offered to give him whatever he wanted, Diogenes replied: do not hide the sight of the sun from me.




«Useless philosophy when you have children to feed»- Groucho Marx

The only thing I still brainlessly crave and that costs bucks is a better violin.

Yep I will only buy Ducati Motorcycles and parachutes from Performance Designs. 

I think it kind of depends. A lot of audiophiles, and I argue, the backbone of the hobby relies on tinkers. We make things. We experiment, we do things ourselves. We call the fire department and the ER knows us by name and knows whatever it is was self-induced.

And that fine American spirit of mixing experimentation, the courage of the ignorant, and fire often leads us to other pursuits.