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I find myself "tuning out" anymore.....is the magic fading?

I think I might have hit a plateau in my audiophile/hi-fi journey.

I'm not saying that I don't enjoy listening to my system and music, I certainly do.

However, (and not trying to turn this into a b*tch session), I am REALLY tired of a lot of things that go along with this hobby.

It dawned on me when I received (unsolicited, mind you) a copy of Stereophile and a MusicDirect catalog the other day in the mail.

I can't find a single thing in either magazine that I actually want. Nothing. Even the pretty ad pictures just don't do it for me.

I used to subscribe to several YouTube audio influencer channels. I can't hardly sit through any of them anymore without grimacing. Everything is the "latest/greatest/gotta have it" product. Not only do I just not really trust you any more, but I find myself simply not interested in what you are peddling. 

How many different speakers are you going to audition? Jeez.....buy a set and enjoy them. They can't ALL be the speakers you've ever heard.

Even on here, I find discussions of whether or not some tweak works or doesn't work (cables/fuses/magic rocks, whatever....) to be boring and not worth the time to respond. They might work for you, might not work, I don't care.

Any discussions using the term "Snake Oil" will be summarily dismissed from any future consideration of thought.

Which DAC is the best? How come I still listen to CDs when you can rip all your music to a HD? You NEED a turntable! Your amp is old and sucks. Buy some new speaker cables. Double blind test your interconnects and you'll see.... The Pink Panther brigade says if I measure it, it must be true. (Your ears be d*mned!) You NEED to do this/that or the other thing....because I said so.

Maybe some day I'll get the "upgrade-itis" bug again, but at this point, I'm just not interested. Jaded might be a good word, I don't know....burnt out? Overload?

Anyway, rant over. Was just wondering if anyone else ever got to this point.

 

 

 

 

128x128coralkong
thehybridvigor
4 posts
 

After learning about room acoustics and seeing/hearing results firsthand, my obsession with this hobby completely disappeared. Since then I've broken a lot of audiophile 'rules', learned from the home theater community (who generally have more empirical discussions), and moved to a multi channel system (not home theater).

2 channel stereo is more like an instrument to me rather than ultimate sound reproduction. And with that goal gone, I can appreciate the restrictions/compromises made in designing a technologically simple but robust all analog system.

curiousjim's avatar
curiousjim
4,908 posts
 

@coralkong 

I to have into music since the sixties and bettering my equipment since the early seventies.  Back then I did a lot of buying and selling and building amps, preamps and speakers. By the Eighties my job consumed my life and I barely had any time for the hobby so I pretty much stopped and most of my listening was through earbuds.  I went part time for a while before I finally retired.  In the last few years I have been back doing all the reading, watching YouTube and going to the few highend stores in my area. I started getting a couple of magazines about fifteen years ago as well. And slowly the fun of the hunt all came back. Almost everything in my three systems (a cheap office system, a system that’s all from the eighties featuring some Acoustat Model X’s and a Audio Research Sp9mkll preamp and the main system that I am extremely happy with ( see my profile description).  Almost everything is used or open box and with the new to me preamp and amps, I’ve been doing some tube rolling.  But for me, the music always has come first and no matter if I’m listening to a boombox or a Walkman, I have never stopped listening and that’s why I don’t think I could ever really be bored.  There’s always something new(to me) to listen to as well as those desert island albums that I never get bored of.

I really do hope that you’re not so “Tuned Out” that you can’t still find enjoyment relaxing and listening to some tunes with your favorite beverage.

All the best.

inna
7,354 posts
 

Maybe you are after a new sound, speaking of Paris. 

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,397 posts
 

 

incorrigable

58 posts

 

Cannabis is legal in my state so I enjoy some in a stew or pastry with a glass of wine on Friday night and my system sounds lovely. I particularly love watching TV with music on watching ads muted with people looking ridiculous. 

sounds more like some stew in cannabis as opposed to some cannabis in stew

livinon2wheels
172 posts
 

Thank you for posting your thoughts...I feel your frustration at a profound level as I just hate what marketing departments are doing to obfuscating real understanding of what a given product actually offers. Now when I evaluate a new product I look at the features, the specs, and avoid as much of the hyperbole as possible. I have been burned by marketing hype in spite of my efforts to avoid it. It really grates on me that marketing departments are not more honest, but I realize they totally are not honest. Its mostly BS and while I can navigate bs to get to the truth, I do not enjoy it at all. I am in the unique position of buying within the next year or so the equipment I will mostly live with for the rest of my days. This is a daunting task given the level of BS in todays marketing material. Choosing stuff that actually performs vs equipment that just is marketing BS is much more difficult that it used to be. So we are taking a very cautious approach to new equipment in every category. No where am I more afraid that in the TV/display category...so much poorly built equipment and then shipped via the gorillas at UPS to your home only to be broken and completely non functional on initial start up. So many reviews that complain about gorilla installers and shipping and handling. People who have tried 3, 4, even 5 times to get a working tv only to be disappointed by the poor handling of the shipping company. OMG it is just rampant the level of disregard for the fragility of these displays and the subesequent mishandling is beyond moronic. Its very hard to justify buying a display of any significant size.

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