Merry go round


it.

rvpiano's avatar
rvpiano

2,674 posts

 

I was on the audiophile merry go round of never being satisfied with my system, compulsively tweaking and changing equipment, searching for perfection  for quite a number of years. But despite all the conflict I have come out of the ordeal with a system that, I  can honestly say, portrays the music accurately.  So in many ways,  it wasn’t a waste of time and money.
 The trick is,  once you have found a system that satisfies you, stop agonizing over the sound. You’ve reached Nirvana, where all you have to do is sit back and enjoy your music in glorious sound. If there are sound defects, SO WHAT!  The fault is NOT in your system. You’ve reached your system’s benchmark sound and anything that strays from that is the fault of the medium. Even ENJOY the faulty track for the great music that lies within.  I’m sure you’ll even find some  niceties of sound that exist.   
I'm not saying that I’ll never buy another “upgrade.”  But, as of now, I don’t see the need.
For those who listen only for SQ, enjoy the quest.

128x128rvpiano

I agree on some points but differ on others.

Music and Sound: I don’t listen only for sound quality but I enjoy changing the qualities of the sound, just as I enjoy changing pictures on the wall occasionally or eating different kinds of food. Some tweakers have a disease, but it’s a mistake to think that all do. Not everyone who has a couple of drinks is an alcoholic.

Benchmark sound: I agree that there is a "best" for a particular system (and room). You’re right to advise people not to push beyond the physical/acoustic boundaries. I would add that there are ways of having alternate gear to swap in to change the modality of the sound a bit. (E.g., swap in a tube amp for a while, change the sound for variety’s sake.)

Musical accuracy: I prefer "sound that pleases me." To a degree, this means "realism," that is, the illusion there is, say, a guitar with nylon strings in front of me. But so much about the fabrication that is audio is about the experience of music, and not "accuracy." No one bats an eye when TV, movies, etc. portray actions and scenes from angles we cannot possibly inhabit. Why is it that we demand "lifelike" or "realism" from music? Again, my best analogy is food: very few people eat rare steak or steak tartare. They broil it, fry it, and put it in stir fry. No one complains that beef stir fry isn’t "real" enough. While no one wants to miss the flavor of the beef, it’s all part of a larger "food experience." Why not think of music reproduction the same way?

 

OP Merry go round

You are right about "merry-go-round".

The worst a’phile trap is that a’philes believe with money, effort, and some luck, their systems will sound close to a perfect original sound. I promise it won’t happen. Has anyone in history achieved a close to the perfect reproduction sound? No.

Why not? All recordings sound distorted, bright and dirty because all microphones in the world sound distorted, noisy, and bright. There is no way even a perfect audio system will sound great with bad original recordings.

Though any one who can build a perfect audio system, he could build a perfect sound microphone since speaker and microphone have same technology. Think why all best mics are from 1940’s and 50’s.

So, if you have a musical system and want to upgrade, be prepared to come back to the current system in case a new one doesn’t sound as musical.

Alex/Wavetouch audio

@hilde45

Yes, I totally agree that experimenting with different sounds is fun, and part of the hobby. So long as it doesn’t turn into a quest for perfection. It’s a totally different thing