Hi all,
An out-of-the-blue PM about the system that still exists in my profile, although not in my life, has encouraged me back to this forum for the first time in many years, and it has been very enjoyable to lurk once again. Having sold my main system to turn the mancave into a playroom for my daughters in 2017, I have been out of the high-end (or what my wallet considers high-end) ever since, and I'm actually slightly shocked at how much my mindset has changed in that period.
Of course, it's not just personal change, the world continues to move forward too, and while I was already starting to feel like a dinosaur in my latter days in the hobby, the shelves of CDs now seem like a relic from a very distant past. It's odd to think that no matter what musical path I take from here, I'm unlikely to ever go back to the CD days. For starters, on the rare occasions I put a disc in the player, I'm completely distracted by the mechanism noise. Had I really managed to mentally shut that out for so long, or has it got louder from lack of use? Possibly both. More odd than that, the idea of a "collection" of any sort seems archaic now. Virtually all of my listening is Spotify or Qobuz, and a look through the shelves may reflect my tastes at various points of my life, but it doesn't speak to me now. As such, my music listening has simultaneously widened and shallowed. Widened into exploration of so much more new music, but shallowed due to lack of repetition and late-night concentrated listening. Well-loved albums from the past remain well-loved, but only theoretically, as they're not often played. Everything is just that little bit more ephemeral, and sometimes that feels like a shame.
The biggest change, and the one that saddens me most, is the comparative lack of opportunity for large-scale classical music listening. Without the system to do it justice, nor the space to listen to it at reasonable volume in a busy family home, my truest musical love has been utterly neglected. I hadn't really noticed for the first few years, but I'm gradually feeling starved, like an important part of me has been forgotten. That is something I need to find a way to fix, and fix soon.
In terms of audio, having resisted the lure of vinyl all through my own audiophile days, my wife couldn't resist the temptation during Covid. We bought a Rega P3 during one of the early lockdowns with the intention of a return to album listening, as opposed to individual track listening. After a flurry of excitement, the purchase of maybe 50 or 60 albums, and a couple of cartridge upgrades, I have to admit that the vinyl bug has not really bitten. I enjoy many aspects of it, both in terms of ritual and sonics, but to my ears I get better results streaming Qobuz, and the TT has been relatively untouched in recent months. "Better" is a term that applies to me and me only here, I'm sure many doing the same comparison from my seat would lean the other way, but the former major hifi forum concern of digital vs vinyl no longer matters to me now. I stick on whatever takes my fancy and try to listen past the failings of either system, with mixed success. With my current equipment I find it easier to listen past the Bluesound's failings than the Rega's failings. YMMV. Listening past failings is something I've got a little better at, but I don't think you're ever truly cured of audiophilia.
On that note, having tried to leave aside some of the "mania" that follows this hobby (it seems so ridiculous now in many ways: cables, tweaks, moving speakers a couple of mm, putting components on different feet, increasingly unjustifiable sums of money) I now find myself wondering about it all again. Some of the itch is coming back, for no real reason other than missing the chase. That part is not about music, at least not really, and I'm happy enough to admit that to myself and the world now. I'm never going back into the mancave because of the awful sonics in that room, so until I move house there'll be no space for a really serious system. But whereas 5 years ago I thought I knew what a return to the audiophile fold would look like, these days I'm not so sure. I used to love having more and more boxes and components and cables and valves and isolation and sound treatments etc. etc., but these days I'm drawn to simplicity. I just want good sound with a minimum of fuss. Also, with limited funds, I find it increasingly difficult to look genuinely forward in this hobby. I cannot afford, and will never be able to afford, the state of the art, so I am caught between celebrated products from 20 or 30 years ago and mid-level products from now. There may be genuine innovation (especially in digital of course) but it gets harder to see progress across the hobby as a whole, and certainly not at my level of spend. Is trickle-down really working in the audio space? It doesn't really feel like it is.
Still, at least I scratched the vinyl itch. It may still be the medium of choice for many of you, especially at the higher-end, and it may be the physical media that's keeping the whole industry going, but I now know it's not for me. Finally, I can put that one to bed. Probably...
An out-of-the-blue PM about the system that still exists in my profile, although not in my life, has encouraged me back to this forum for the first time in many years, and it has been very enjoyable to lurk once again. Having sold my main system to turn the mancave into a playroom for my daughters in 2017, I have been out of the high-end (or what my wallet considers high-end) ever since, and I'm actually slightly shocked at how much my mindset has changed in that period.
Of course, it's not just personal change, the world continues to move forward too, and while I was already starting to feel like a dinosaur in my latter days in the hobby, the shelves of CDs now seem like a relic from a very distant past. It's odd to think that no matter what musical path I take from here, I'm unlikely to ever go back to the CD days. For starters, on the rare occasions I put a disc in the player, I'm completely distracted by the mechanism noise. Had I really managed to mentally shut that out for so long, or has it got louder from lack of use? Possibly both. More odd than that, the idea of a "collection" of any sort seems archaic now. Virtually all of my listening is Spotify or Qobuz, and a look through the shelves may reflect my tastes at various points of my life, but it doesn't speak to me now. As such, my music listening has simultaneously widened and shallowed. Widened into exploration of so much more new music, but shallowed due to lack of repetition and late-night concentrated listening. Well-loved albums from the past remain well-loved, but only theoretically, as they're not often played. Everything is just that little bit more ephemeral, and sometimes that feels like a shame.
The biggest change, and the one that saddens me most, is the comparative lack of opportunity for large-scale classical music listening. Without the system to do it justice, nor the space to listen to it at reasonable volume in a busy family home, my truest musical love has been utterly neglected. I hadn't really noticed for the first few years, but I'm gradually feeling starved, like an important part of me has been forgotten. That is something I need to find a way to fix, and fix soon.
In terms of audio, having resisted the lure of vinyl all through my own audiophile days, my wife couldn't resist the temptation during Covid. We bought a Rega P3 during one of the early lockdowns with the intention of a return to album listening, as opposed to individual track listening. After a flurry of excitement, the purchase of maybe 50 or 60 albums, and a couple of cartridge upgrades, I have to admit that the vinyl bug has not really bitten. I enjoy many aspects of it, both in terms of ritual and sonics, but to my ears I get better results streaming Qobuz, and the TT has been relatively untouched in recent months. "Better" is a term that applies to me and me only here, I'm sure many doing the same comparison from my seat would lean the other way, but the former major hifi forum concern of digital vs vinyl no longer matters to me now. I stick on whatever takes my fancy and try to listen past the failings of either system, with mixed success. With my current equipment I find it easier to listen past the Bluesound's failings than the Rega's failings. YMMV. Listening past failings is something I've got a little better at, but I don't think you're ever truly cured of audiophilia.
On that note, having tried to leave aside some of the "mania" that follows this hobby (it seems so ridiculous now in many ways: cables, tweaks, moving speakers a couple of mm, putting components on different feet, increasingly unjustifiable sums of money) I now find myself wondering about it all again. Some of the itch is coming back, for no real reason other than missing the chase. That part is not about music, at least not really, and I'm happy enough to admit that to myself and the world now. I'm never going back into the mancave because of the awful sonics in that room, so until I move house there'll be no space for a really serious system. But whereas 5 years ago I thought I knew what a return to the audiophile fold would look like, these days I'm not so sure. I used to love having more and more boxes and components and cables and valves and isolation and sound treatments etc. etc., but these days I'm drawn to simplicity. I just want good sound with a minimum of fuss. Also, with limited funds, I find it increasingly difficult to look genuinely forward in this hobby. I cannot afford, and will never be able to afford, the state of the art, so I am caught between celebrated products from 20 or 30 years ago and mid-level products from now. There may be genuine innovation (especially in digital of course) but it gets harder to see progress across the hobby as a whole, and certainly not at my level of spend. Is trickle-down really working in the audio space? It doesn't really feel like it is.
Still, at least I scratched the vinyl itch. It may still be the medium of choice for many of you, especially at the higher-end, and it may be the physical media that's keeping the whole industry going, but I now know it's not for me. Finally, I can put that one to bed. Probably...
