Turned back into a music lover

The other day, a metaphor came into my mind.

I enjoy this as much as a good TV film. Or more.

Listening to analog LPs in my living room. 10cc Sheet music.

I like films. For enterainment, the best leaves my stereo system behind.

But I did reconsider - now listen, this is "filmatic", clear, emotions connected - why not stay with the music...so I did not go to the TV room.

Re; "For the love of music" - I rediscover 10cc, Yes, Steppenwolf, Jefferson Airplane, and many others - thanks to a good music system.

 

@rvpiano

If you can delight in the many wonderful subtleties of a performance instead of listening for audio thrills you’ve turned back into a music lover. The behemoth that is your audio system tempts you mightily. But if you can somehow evade that temptation, you can fully enjoy music again.

 

First of all, your post seems to create a false dichotomy; that either one is a music lover, and ignores their gear, or, one only pays attention to how good their gear is at reproducing music, and doesn’t care about the actual music. As if, one can only be one type of listener, or the other.

But what about those of us, that for the vast majority of the time, only care about the music, and completely ignore the gear reproducing it. But at other times, maybe for a couple of hours a week, or every couple of weeks, all we do is pay attention to the gear, while making changes, and listening to only ’audiophile approved’ recordings, even if we don’t actually like the music, just so we can more easily hear the changes.

So, am I constantly switching between being an ’audiophile’ to music lover, and back again? Or is it more likely that I can hold 2 differing ways to approach audio in my mind, without being in internal conflict?

NO! I am always an audiophile AND a music lover.

For me, the music comes first, and is by far what is important to me. But that doesn’t rule out the fun I can have, from time to time, by just paying attention to the gear.

@twoleftears 

Do websites like Talk Classical have a section for audio equipment?

Yes, they do. 

TC HiFi Forum

There is an acoustic minimal threshold of satisfaction...

Passed over this threshold we listen music, and dont ask ourself each week about the next piece of gear to upgrade...

Why?

Because electrical, mechanical and acoustic controls installation at the end matter way more than electronical gear pieces price tag choices...( relatively to our wallet possibilities)

Is my system the better?

No

Is my system so satisdying that i am no more interested in alectronic design audio marketing ?

Yes

 

Am i an audiophile?

I was, but now i am a music lover first and last and dont bother with my sound so much...

Why then were you an audiophile to begin with ?

Because i loved music so much i wanted a MINIMAL threshold acoustic S.Q. experience...

How do you discover this threshold?

After upgrading to the right S.Q. /price quality gear (vintage save for the dac whose chip is a vintage one anyway) i make listenings experiments about the three embeddings working dimensions and i learned to control them at low cost and my own way...

I am not really an active audiophile now...

I learned HOW to listen in the process...

We must learn how to listen musically...

We must learn how to listen acoustically...

These two way of listening are always related but are always completely distinct...

There is no shortcut in listenings experiments, nor musically, nor acoustically...

My hobby is and was learning how to listen WITHOUT focussing on market upgrading...

 

 

Simonmoon,

I guess in your case, it is not a dichotomy or a problem. For me, and if I’m to believe many discussions on this forum, it is for others too. The obsession with sound can take over and rob you of your enjoyment of the music.
Consider yourself one of the lucky ones. I’m sure there are others like you.

BTW, Nice pipe