Has Your Hobby Changed?

Retirement can open doors for a lot of folks. You finally have the time, if you have the inclination, to analyze your systems sound. Not necessarily a good thing though if you seriously love your music. The trick, I think, is to be able to balance your interest in audio and music and keep them separate. I’m lucky now to have arrived where I can afford to buy anything I would want, but every time I think about the audio function I really can’t find anything that would be worth having to maintain my interest in music. I’m still buying new music though. :-)

One thing for sure about retirement -- I no longer feel guilty about listening to my stereo or playing my musical instruments.  Yeah, there's still the lawn to mow and the garbage to take out. But there are also no more frenzied calls from my bosses wondering "where that report is." Or the call at Five O'clock where I hear, "We're emailing you something and we need the report first thing tomorrow morning."

I envy those of you who have retired. I’ve got four years to go before I can listen guilt free. I work from home so the temptation to listen to an album is sometimes to much to ignore…lol. 

I’m with you. I’m about two years from retirement. I hope I make it and have several years left of good health to enjoy the music. As for gear, I’m still looking for my last speakers and a better streamer/DAC or standalones. Nothing crazy. My system so far "only" costs about $12K, far less than most people on here, but I’m happy with it. After I add about $5K in new speakers, a streamer and a DAC, and a 2M Blue cartridge, I’ll be done and ready to just enjoy the music. Yeah, I’m sure there is better sound out there, but can my 65-year-old ears really hear it? Not sure. I still love knowing what great gear is out there and what people get out of it.

I really enjoy the postings on here of "What is on your turntable?" to get recommendations of new/old music to check out.

This is the only hobby I know of where when you are young and have the ears for it, you can't afford the gear (unless your dad or uncle was into it and you got to hear theirs), and then when you are older and have more disposable income, your hearing isn't as good to enjoy it. LOL.  Ironic. But hey, I still love listening. 

Congrats on retirement @mikelavigne. If your experience is anything like mine, you'll find yourself just as busy, but hopefully spending more of that time on the things you care about. 

I started in this hobby as an audiophile with audiophile gear very early on, and listened to material that tended to sound good; I found that to be very confining-- everyone had the same records and you'd hear the same stuff at listening sessions (those I miss, the in person hang, which was the way we shared info about gear and records). 

A dozen or more years ago, I curated my record collection, got rid of a lot of stuff and spent more time concentrating on obscurities. That was fun, and I built up a knowledge base about post-bop jazz, early proto-metal (what used to be precursor heavy rock but off the radar) and a few other niches.

I discovered that my real fascination is the history of this stuff-- combining the stories behind the recordings with changes in technology and am considering going back to school for archival studies. 

I'm still a gear head, but am not avidly chasing down the latest and greatest. I'm fascinated by antiquarian gear. I would like one last big horn system if I can fit it into my room.

We are on the cusp of another generational change as the performers we knew and loved as young people start passing on. I guess most of the material I find enduring is older anyway, so other than nostalgia, it won't matter much to me personally. I do enjoy learning and find points of contact outside the traditional audiophile community to be a large source of "new to me" information. One young guy who is a hip-hop DJ turned me onto rare groove jazz; another, who is steeped in real country has turned me on to artists outside of the modern Nashville music machine.

There are also new artists that have similar interests in some of this stuff, ranging from folks signed to the Daptone label to Snarky Puppy to 1/2 a dozen bands here in Austin to an equal number abroad making interesting sounds. There's a funky old blues bar not far out of town that I've been meaning to visit and I'd like to have a guided trip to some of the temples of antiquarian sound in Japan. 

To me, the journey has always been the fun part.