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Hi Fi burnout.

Are you a victim of Hi-Fi burnout? A friend of mine who is "Into hi fi" recently called me to tell me he was selling all of his high end audio equipment! He was simply tired of keeping up with all the latest and greatest equipment trends. In his quest for the "Ultimate sound" he had upgraded several times at great expense. Sales people were only to happy to sell him what he "Needed" to "Really" improve his system. I think all told he accumulated some 150k in equipment!! What he forgot and lost sight of in his quest for the ultimate stereo, was to listen to the music!! Instead he would take pride in how great his speakers tweeter's sounded, and the the pages clipped out of various audio magazines that showed charts on his equipment and it's performance. He now owns a little Sony do it all portable stereo, and says he's happier for it because he's not so stressed about keeping up with all the new equipment. It's easy to see how this could happen. I look at my stereo equipment as a tool made for the extraction of music from vinyl or cd or tape. The music IS what matters and shall remain with us forever. In this day of hi tech accomplishments and super materials, you have to be very careful not to get sucked into the equipment junkie bottomless pit. Otherwise you could be spending some time at the Betty Ford Centre for recovering Audiophiles. What say you?
nocaster
royy
148 posts
 
I recommend to everybody just to get an Ipod and a good set of headphone/earphone and you're done.
eyeballman's avatar
eyeballman
26 posts
 
Amen!`
budrew
467 posts
 
If one gets to this point I wouldn't sell it all off because you'll most likely have to buy again later. Just sit with it for a long time and enjoy it just as you would enjoy the Sony. Unless you really want to downsize and declutter. Then by all means do so. But then again it can be cathartic to sell it all off, simplify and start fresh someday.
gthirteen
355 posts
 
"Every time I think I'm out, they pull me back in"

I, too have been there. I took 3/4 of the $$ out of my system and consolidated. I agree that the problem is this website, and viewing it more than 1 or 2 times per day.
That being said, I think Audiogon has totally revolutionized the Hi-Fi market, and I'm sure that it has changed the way that I go about approaching a possible purchase. GOod for me, good for others like me, bad for Retailers.

I found some speakers that are fairly inexpensive, an integrated (THIS IS KEY, one less set of ICs, one less component, too) that is fairly inexpensive that sounds wonderful with the speakers, and that was it, at the time.

Try as hard as you can to avoid "the office/2nd system syndrome" it will only eat more of your money that should either be spent on loved ones or on your man rig...nuff said.

Most of all, I agree with Budrew, if you read Audiogon, you're just going to spend MORE $$ when you inevitably come back. Simplicity is really the key, and at least for me, has resulted in 2 years with the same speakers, 3 years with teh same amp, and only a new analog setup (ok, mauybe I spent some $$$ there) in the last 2 years.

You could always buy some, I dunno, music???
budrew
467 posts
 
Gthirteen is so right!!! By all means avoid the second system!!! Trust me on this one, I know what I'm talking about. You get a main system that you're happy with, and your wife is tired of the changes anyway, then suddenly you think, oh, I'll start a small second system in the home office. It may start that way but the itch is there. Soon you end up with tube monoblocks, digital separates, and no room for the actual office. You'll want to maximize the hi-fi potential of that second system too. It will never end and you will burn out, twice, cause you've got two systems running!
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