Impress Your Friends and Seduce Women!

Onhwy61 - I don't think I disagree with anything you said. One thing I have learned is to NEVER buy any gear that is not neutral or is dynamically constrained - if you ever do, you quickly tire of it and can be sent on an expensive and futile quest to compensate for it. Stating my point more simply, if I tell a novice how much my amplifier costs the first assumption they make is that it must deliver squillions of watts. When they hear the system, they ask how far the volume is turned up, because they figure it must be able to go a lot louder than this if it cost so much. Bencampbell - Sometimes I feel it is maddeningly close but that there is something going on, that if i could just eliminate it... At other times, I grab a book, put on a CD and read until the CD has finished and think that it had been so sublime that if I played another CD it would ruin the moment - and I retire with the audio equivalent of the aftertaste of the finest Burgundy. I suspect the difference is often driven by my state of contentment with life at the time rather than the state of my stereo.

Redkiwi everything you said in that last post I say "amen" especially concerning neutral components, as I keep on finding out myself.

Why is everyone concerned about impressing other people ? I don't give a damn about what they think about my 'audiophile spending' habits. It is only for ME ! It is for MY love of music. After all, they drive a Mercedes, I have it in my living room :-)

I too have noticed the 'lower decibel' phenomena. I also notice that when people are over, most of them gravitate to the stereo and like to hang around it listening to music. Maybe it's my personality. You can tell the music lover's right away. It's a real treat to have such wonderful music in the house. Expensive yes, but I think my money is much better spent than on an expensive car sitting in the driveway.

Most people hear the difference, those that dont never will. Play music you love. Hearing classical, jazz, or bluegrass on a really good system can open up a whole new world of music for someone who has never heard them live. As for output level, I think a lot of people use the Volume knob trying to compensate for shortcomings in the system. When "somethings missing" in the music, turn it up! Some kinds of music are meant to be cranked, but others can be just as involving at lower levels. That Lyle Lovett track will show off your system and I was at one time addicted to "Wheels on Gravel Road", both worth having for the song writing alone. Just to get someones attention I sometimes start out with "Funupmanship"by Bob Florence. A live jazz recording that starts out like background music and suddenly wakes the dead with two horn blasts, adjust volume first! Dynamics impress, but you still have to play music you love.