Taking audio too seriously?


Is it just me or are some people too serious about this hobby? I can appreciate great sound and getting everything you can out of your system. At what point does it get too extreme? A jar of rocks, a magic clock, a $2500 power cord plugged into standard house wiring, speaker cables sitting on styrofoam cups? Should the magnets on my speakers face due north to align the flux lines with the Earth's magnetic field? Is anyone brave enough to share any other crazy tweaks they've tried?

It could just be ignorance on my part and I am not trying to rock the boat, but it just seems a little obsessive.
nuguy
From the editor:
And according to reader surveys, the average
Stereophile reader has a system costing $18k-$20k.
$20k is serious money too some
Man, I thought I had completely lost it...

After just having spent $6000 putting in a home theater, complete with projector, screen and 7.1 surround sound, I'm now looking to spend 10-15 grand on a completely separate STEREO system. I've been a vinyl spinner and SACD collector for quite some time now, but I've never really had the chance to experience any of that music on a really exceptional (I know this is all relative) system until just the other day.

From a $3000 Denon stereo SACD player, which they don't sell in the U.S. (I live in Japan), and processed by a Tri triode tube amp and coming out through a pair of B&W 803S speakers, the music was simply astounding. It was so open, airy, clean, full and pure. So...ALIVE! Not anything like listening to it through an HT reciever - even a good one, like I have. Well engineered SACDs, especially sound so 3D in stereo and while CDs sound incredible, as well on such a system, the soundstage is comparitively flat compared to SACD. Is this format really doomed? Tell me it isn't so...

Anyway, it's good to come here and feel sane for wanting to spend a good chunk of change to get a decent musical experience from a sound system. Great site.
Well, I've got six seperate stereo systems in my bedroom - I'm just a crazy audio equipment nut.

Unsound - you got ripped. I know where you can get all 9 Planets Aligned for only $15M above what you paid!
joeylawn36111:
Unsound - you got ripped. I know where you can get all 9 Planets Aligned for only $15M above what you paid!

Don't look now but they discovered a new planet. Completely unaligned. It never ends.