Nothing wrong with sticking to “mid-fi.”
I’ve been in the wine biz for 35 years now. Sometimes the best glass of wine is just a glass of wine - and ought to be. I taste/sample thousands of wines in any given year so I have a reference point for what I’ll deem personally acceptable at any price.
I don’t have a $60k stereo system, but it’s better than what my girlfriend has. I wouldn’t hesitate spending that or more if I could, though.
I gave her two stereos, both vintage receivers. A Pioneer SX1050 & Meadowlark Kestrels for her living room, Marantz 2250b & small Ushers for the bedroom. The Meadowlarks are truly excellent speakers, $400 used from a fellow member.
They both sound fine. We have yet to NOT enjoy listening to music at her house. My home stereo is a Modwright integrated paired to a pair of Vandy 3A Signature speakers - not too shabby.
I could easily swap the reviews of sound equipment here with wine reviews. Much of the language used to convey the impressions is interchangeable. That’s the fun of it. But I think we all come to a point where we find ourselves questioning the validity of what may please us and what we may spend to get it. Since joining this site about 5 years ago I’ve had more gear than I owned in the previous 40 years combined!
Has it been fun? Hell, yes! Has it been worth it? Hell, yes! I got into it because there was that ONE time when I discovered something that I never knew was there before - something within a very familiar tune that better equipment revealed. Voila! Hooked!
Back in the 80’s I began collecting wine. Within a few years I had a modest assemblage of Bordeaux and Burgundy, perhaps 25 cases or so, with some California as well. When I had the disposable income I bought, when I didn’t, well, I consumed. 7Couldn’t help it. Then a nor’easter wreaked havoc in my house and what remained of my collection was rendered undrinkable. Poof. Back to the drawing board.
Just last week I was hanging support rods for sun shade curtains around my girlfriend’s patio when, on her cheap, yellowed, white plastic am/fm cassette portable “Life Is A Carnival” started playing. Now that’s one busy little mother of a tune that I often find myself repeating ad infinitum on my home stereo, but there in her backyard through that ridiculously cheap, low-fi, weather-beaten p.o.s. it sounded GREAT. It would sound great through two cans connected by a piece of string.
It’s the music, not the gear.
There’s hi-fi, mid-fi, low-fi, and now wifi.
New one: “My-fi.”
