Did your system getting better the more money you spent or more experience you gained?


This is something that wanted to ask folks. Initially I said I would never spend x amount of dollars in this audio journey. 20 years later I’m here and did what I said I wouldn’t but I’m happier than ever. Best system to this date. But it wasn’t about money only. I gained knowledge on what was possible and the quality and design of the gear I wanted. I see people just throw money into audio and never be happy or satisfied. I think that happens because they don’t think for themselves as well as have the resources? Thoughts ?

calvinj

@maghister don’t get me wrong.  Improving sound with less money is the key.  But the overall enjoyment at what you can afford is the ultimate goal. 

we seem to have returned to the endless circular reasoning debate from this and previous same threads...it all matters, not one or the other...we all have different options, resources, skills...equipment, matching and synergy, room acoustics matching the equipment etc etc

Confusing acoustics concepts and experiment with room acoustic by most people here made for them impossible to understand what i means by:

"Minimally acoustical satisfying threshold"...

They then goes on a rant about the "ultimate goal" or "absolute sound" ...Meaning very costlier and always pricier design in a race ...😁

All people,most of them dont have this budget, which goal anyway as it is presented is non sensical because it is presented beside acoustics centered on the gear price tag and design mainly ...

Why this is so?

Because conflating and confusing Acoustics with an (s) with room acoustic, they see no other solution to improve their system than costlier one...

They cannot imagine what electrical and mechanical and acoustical controls at low cost can do ...

i had the "overall enjoyment" of what i have at peanuts cost thanks to basic knowledge ...

My system is not a stopgap though...

Minor upgrades + the three embeddings controls, was enough to gave me "minimally satisfying acoustical threshold...

Where timbre is relatively natutral...

where dynamics is relatively satisfying...

Where soundstage are way over  the two  speakers plane on all side sencompassing my listener position and almost being 270 degree  in some recording not less all the time in all recording ...And my soundfield is  from headphone out of my head...

Where imaging is pin pointed enough for me to hear each musician in his own sphere of sound...

I call this a "minimal threshold" for acoustic satisfaction ...

 

Is it possible to upgrade near the maximal satisfying acousticl threshold from the near listening field and from my small acoustical corner with my TOP headphones and low cost modified speakers ?

Yes at 15 times my basic Speakers/headphone price which are under 1000 bucks ...

I will need a new dedicated room in top of that 15 times higher price increase... I cannot afford it one in my smaller house anyway...

Why am i not frustrated  and i dont feel in a stpgap position then ?

Because between the minimal and maximal acoustical satisfying threshold , there is a difference of degree not of "nature" as suggested erroneously by gear marketing...

A timbre experience is natural relatively less natural or more natural or not at all ...

When you use acoustics and other embeddings controls you learn how to do it relatively good with what you can afford...

With no basic knowledge many high cost system sound unnatural even compared to my low cost one ...

Then i refuse to spoke to people here separating system in low-Fi mid fi and high fi as most did...

I distinguish  minimally acoustically satisfying one and maximally acoustically satisfying one ... There is two thresholds to reach not so much  three separate  kind of gear... Read me right i know perfectly well that low fi exist and mid fi and high fi gear too ... But these ranking is completely misleading for any serious acoustics purpose...My system is low-fi with speakers and mid-fi with headphone by the way ...The two are satisfying ...

 

@maghister don’t get me wrong. Improving sound with less money is the key. But the overall enjoyment at what you can afford is the ultimate goal.

In a word, adressing someone the question : How cost you system ? or is it a low-fi one or mif-fi one or high end one make way less sense than most people think in audio threads...

The right question is how do we optimize or improved what we already own...😎

Judging other with price tags level classification is childish...

Is your timbre right, dynamics acceptable ? imaging pin point ? Soundstaging immersive ? These questions are meaningful...

We afford what we budget for...For sure...

But the resulting general acoustic result come from the optimization knowledge more than often most misleading upgrading purchase near the level were we already are...We mistakenly conflate often the solution for a problem with an upgrade...Sometimes it is sometimes not so much...And even when it is necessary to upgrade ,without optimization, it is not enough at all ...Then another upgrade will be deceptive replacing optimization process by a new piece of gear dont work well or dont work completely ... ...

Acoustics is not limited to room acoustic ...Speakers is also an acoustical designed object ...How do we improve a low cost one ? How do we optimize a high cost one ?

The goal is optimization process which are necessary for any system at any price anyway , the goal is not the deceptive race to "absolute sound" and if it is your goal, begin to buy your dedicated at least 100,000 bucks room for the 100,000 bucks speakers ... If you are not ready to do so, forget "absolute sound" unlike marketers who are inducing people to throw their money in an illusive race, and think about acoustics, electrical and mechanical embeddings controls instead , homemade or not ...This will serves all with what they already have at any price...

I apologize for my written "word" which = one page almost...😁😊

 

If you want to understand WHY acoustics( which is not only mere room acoustic) matter more than price tags listen to this :

 

As you can see with my video above, i do not discard all upgrade as deceptive... Some are not ... BACCH is in this category...

I could buy BACCH and use it with my headphone as they are now, they are HIGH END headphone, and i could call then my system near maximal acoustical satisfaction threshold...

I will do it when i can afford it by the way... 😊

Because of my mechanical crosstalk installation among others embeddings controls i almost had some of the spatial qualities the director of "absolute sound" described in the video above  with the BACCH filters when he described his perception with the Pink Floyd album i own... it is easy to verify...

Then if the proof is in the pudding i already enjoy a minimal satisfaction acoustic othreshold with low cost active speakers i heavily modify for sure...

Then if someone talk to me claiming that nobody can have a relatively good system at low price , he deceive himself and dont know what he spoke about ...

my only costlier  upgrade will be the BACCH filters...

Psychoacoustics rule audio and gear not the reverse...

Price tags matter less than basic knowledge ...