I really got into "stereo" when I was just a kid, maybe only 11 or 12. I could not afford anything and my parents just weren’t into it, and frankly would never have spent the kind of money it cost to buy the kinds of things I was fascinated with even if they did care. So I spent a lot of time just looking and listening when the guys in the hifi, appliance, and TV shops were willing to tolerate my presence. When I was maybe 14 I had managed to save enough to buy a couple of car stereo speakers which I put into some plywood cabinets. They were like a magic portal to "high fidelity" to me and I loved them, but I would have gladly dropped over a thousand dollars on a "high end" Sansui receiver with all of the knobs and meters and gloriously romantic backlighting.
Over the next few years I was able to get some lower end consumer grade, mass produced equipment from Radio Shack (don’t laugh. it still works!), appliance stores, classified ads, and even a branch of Hi Fi Buys which was a chain of boutique stereo shops. By the time I was 19 I had figured out that pretty much everything I bought sounded different, almost always both better and worse at the same time than what it was replacing, and was always extra fun to play with for at least a little while, but eventually just became familiar and enjoyable, or tolerable at least. Virtually nothing stayed exciting for more than a month or two. When I realized that a lot of what I was chasing was novelty and not really "perfect sound," I reexamined my priorities. I knew I’d grow to appreciate almost anything that I used enough and that nothing was ever going to be perfect, at least not for all of the wide musical styles I enjoy, and most certainly not anything in my price range. The one thing I did know was that nothing was more heartbreaking than having a beloved or system critical piece of gear fail. So I shifted my attention to build quality, durability, repairability, and ease of use.
Once I stopped chasing perfection in sound it became very clear to me that perfect reliability is also not possible, but it is a lot more tangible and easy to put a value on. So it became a lot easier for me to decide whether or not I want to spend $X on something based on how well I believed it would work (in terms of functionality) and how long I thought it will last before it needed to be replaced or repaired.
To no one’s surprise, I ended up buying McIntosh solid state amp, preamp, and radio tuner. They are from a brief period when McIntosh made an amp without the autoformer circuit, but it’s really great and I’m completely satisfied with it. The preamp has needed some pot cleaning, but it’s very nice too. I also bought a Technics SL1200 series turntable. Is it the best sounding ever? Not in my opinion. But it’s built like a tank and I love the fact that I have no doubt that it will work longer than I do. It sounds better than many many things with certain records and certain cartridges, and worse than others. But I don’t think there’s one turntable that is better at everything, especially not the ability to sound very good AND allow rapid replacement of the cartridge AND the phono cables.
Does this mean I spend all of my time just listening to music and not looking at gear anymore? Heck no! I’m HERE after all! Would I love to replace (or add to if we’re being honest) my McIntosh system with a setup from Nagra (with JBL Synthesis series speakers if you are curious)? Oh heck yes! But there are probably 20 other things I’d spend that much money on before I’d spend it on a "stereo" to replace the "virtually perfect" one I already have.
I think good enough comes from identifying priorities, probably mostly financial ones for most people, and certainly for me. Perfection on the other hand, that is something I long ago learned I will not find broadly. The best I think I can ever do is to find something that perfectly suits a very specific goal with narrowly defined parameters. It’s a thing of beauty when you find it, but I never expect it to apply beyond some fairly specific limits, one of the most important of which is usually just price.
