My Bucket List System has had an unplanned mega enhancement by the addition of a Westminster Lab Quest preamp and a pair of Westminster Lab REI monoblocs when all was supposed to already be in place. I also have the Westminster Lab phono card but due to some ongoing problems in my analog arm, I have not yet heard it.
It is hard for me to explain my thoughts and assessment of this last minute unexpected system change because I am still grappling with an equally, if not bigger change in my overall life due to my life threatening medical problems during the past year.
What initially seemed like a major problem to me because having to move into an assisted living facility for medical reasons meant that my projected audio future for my newly assembled Bucket List System was going to have to change massively, for both financial and almost guaranteed environmental reasons. Also, it meant my medical problems were progressing, which would be bad on all fronts.
As I was thinking about whether or not to move into a facility and being aggressively being pushed by one camp to move into a facility and get ready to die, or what made more sense to me and a number of my friends was trying to obtain my medical care at home and see how that worked out. I felt it would be the ultimate assessment of where I really was in life, especially since I live alone. Also, my home is nicer than a facility room and I also had my system and my boat, my other mind distracting toy there to help me cope with whatever is coming. Besides, those facilities are everywhere so I could easily move into one if it turned out that I needed that level of care.
I was surprised by the split of the people involved with my future because they were divided into two very different two camps, but it did force me to consider some things that I probably would not have thought about had I not gotten sick. I concluded that I wanted to enjoy the two biggest toys I have ever had, my system and my boat in my backyard, for as long as I could in hopes that at worst it would help me feel better as my medical condition progressed, and for sure would be a real bonus if I was doing okay. It was also cheaper and better having a house with many familiar aspects, than paying monthly facility fees (about $10k), and likely pissing the other residents off with my music.
I knew that this was the right choice for me in this most difficult and emotionally challenging decision of my life. It seriously stressed some of my relations with those in the pro-facility camp, but I knew I had to do what was right for me, and that was reach for a best case scenario and adjust as reality unfolded. Luckily, most are agreeing that it was a good call on my part with impressive results thus far.
So as anyone who has rationalized a purchase because they really wanted it, and not because it made sense, I decided to continue to pursue that last step on my path to audio bliss if I could afford it and thus increase my daily joy, regardless of what the future brings. As I have written already on WBF, I think the Westminster Lab equipment is perfect for my very weird circumstances. What I did not expect is how the Westminster Lab equipment would alter how I listen to music and even more important was the impact on me emotionally by listening to music when played with the Westminster Lab equipment at the core of my system.
I realized almost immediately with my first exposure to Westminster Lab products, that there was something very different to their product offerings, and that it excelled in areas that have been very important to me as I built systems over the years. I knew that doing anything possible to reduce distortion and lower the noise floor are design concepts I find fundamentally very important and desirable. I also have decided that the speed of the signal processing and responsiveness are also very important to me, meaning I would have to move away from product designs that have a more lush sound, as is frequently the case with many of the best tube products, as well as many solid state products.
Each of the Westminster Lab products have the same sonic signature of a remarkably black noise floor, that makes each component of the signal sound as if it is suspended in totally black space. I feel that this consistency is proof of Angus’s design capabilities, and helps me realize that almost nothing else is capable of matching the Westminster Lab equipment’s signal processing. The rise and decay times are so fast that you forget that you are listening to a simulation. The net result is that the believability of the sonics when using this equipment, reaches new levels that I have not experienced previously.
So let me apologize in advance for this typically atypical Russ post. I am a psychiatrist by trade with tons of clinical experience because I am driven to understand why people do what they do. I have concluded and validated via diverse clinical observations from my more than 40 years working in the human behavior aspects of many different scenarios that there are some basic commonalities to how humans function.
At the core of my thoughts in this area is that what one is actively thinking about becomes their reality at that point in time. The more they obsess about a thought, the greater the emotional impact and related energy drain. Since obsessional thinking is a common consequence of our hectic lifestyle, it is important to have diversions to help us reduce reflex obsessional thinking, and thus promote a calmer state of being. Said another way, listen to music through a good realistic system is very good for one’s overall being.
On some gut level when I first realized my love of music and emerging hobby of being an audio fan was driven by my personal need to get out of my head, especially as I aged and my obsessing progressively drove me to become a workaholic servicing my 426 patients who came seeking my psychiatric and addiction medicine services at least once a month.
So insidiously, my core needs from my system du jour were to help me get out of my head ASAP. In fact, what I dreamed of as my ultimate audio goal was to have the best system I could create and afford in my living room so I could happily sit and listen to music as long as I wanted and as loud as I wanted to help me get out of my head. I envisioned this as audio nirvana for a single guy. I projected that having this scenario would be a true pleasure on a sonic front, and a definite trophy that showed me that I achieved one of my lifelong goals and had a ball along the way. I speculated that this equipment and living scenario would help improve my emotional state, especially if my medical problems continued to progress. Of course, I believed and hoped that it would also help me feel better overall. The reality is that it has become one of the most important tools for my overall healing on a medical front. I would be in a much less good place if I did not have this system with the Westminster Lab equipment at its core.
Like most of you on this site, I use music and my lifelong pursuit of the truest and most believable sound system I can create as a way to clear my mind while enjoying my favorite hobby. I truly believed or at least rationalized that the addition of the Westminster Lab products to the core of my system would convert it to my sought after wonder system that would probably produce audio bliss whenever I desired, AKA My Bucket List System.
Well, it turned out that the combination of the amazingly low noise floor and the speed of the signal rises and decays and Angus’s Westminster Lab circuit designs produced so much believability that a major byproduct was ejecting less than necessary thoughts from my mind when sitting in the sonic beam because the sonic display was so much more captivating, leaving me with a much better mind state and thus a much improved mood.
There is one potential downside - it is so captivating that it is very easy to sit and listen for hours on a daily basis. Previously, this is something I only projected, but rarely had time to do, rather than my current retired approach of using my system for both listening to music, and producing endless personal “you are there” experiences, because of the believability of the sonic presentation and more than sufficient power to demand your attention within seconds of sitting in the sonic beam. By the way, I actively use the system to help shift my thinking when I am having a bad day, making me a much happier person to be around and even more important to have more joy at my core.
It is hard for me to explain my thoughts and assessment of this last minute unexpected system change because I am still grappling with an equally, if not bigger change in my overall life due to my life threatening medical problems during the past year.
What initially seemed like a major problem to me because having to move into an assisted living facility for medical reasons meant that my projected audio future for my newly assembled Bucket List System was going to have to change massively, for both financial and almost guaranteed environmental reasons. Also, it meant my medical problems were progressing, which would be bad on all fronts.
As I was thinking about whether or not to move into a facility and being aggressively being pushed by one camp to move into a facility and get ready to die, or what made more sense to me and a number of my friends was trying to obtain my medical care at home and see how that worked out. I felt it would be the ultimate assessment of where I really was in life, especially since I live alone. Also, my home is nicer than a facility room and I also had my system and my boat, my other mind distracting toy there to help me cope with whatever is coming. Besides, those facilities are everywhere so I could easily move into one if it turned out that I needed that level of care.
I was surprised by the split of the people involved with my future because they were divided into two very different two camps, but it did force me to consider some things that I probably would not have thought about had I not gotten sick. I concluded that I wanted to enjoy the two biggest toys I have ever had, my system and my boat in my backyard, for as long as I could in hopes that at worst it would help me feel better as my medical condition progressed, and for sure would be a real bonus if I was doing okay. It was also cheaper and better having a house with many familiar aspects, than paying monthly facility fees (about $10k), and likely pissing the other residents off with my music.
I knew that this was the right choice for me in this most difficult and emotionally challenging decision of my life. It seriously stressed some of my relations with those in the pro-facility camp, but I knew I had to do what was right for me, and that was reach for a best case scenario and adjust as reality unfolded. Luckily, most are agreeing that it was a good call on my part with impressive results thus far.
So as anyone who has rationalized a purchase because they really wanted it, and not because it made sense, I decided to continue to pursue that last step on my path to audio bliss if I could afford it and thus increase my daily joy, regardless of what the future brings. As I have written already on WBF, I think the Westminster Lab equipment is perfect for my very weird circumstances. What I did not expect is how the Westminster Lab equipment would alter how I listen to music and even more important was the impact on me emotionally by listening to music when played with the Westminster Lab equipment at the core of my system.
I realized almost immediately with my first exposure to Westminster Lab products, that there was something very different to their product offerings, and that it excelled in areas that have been very important to me as I built systems over the years. I knew that doing anything possible to reduce distortion and lower the noise floor are design concepts I find fundamentally very important and desirable. I also have decided that the speed of the signal processing and responsiveness are also very important to me, meaning I would have to move away from product designs that have a more lush sound, as is frequently the case with many of the best tube products, as well as many solid state products.
Each of the Westminster Lab products have the same sonic signature of a remarkably black noise floor, that makes each component of the signal sound as if it is suspended in totally black space. I feel that this consistency is proof of Angus’s design capabilities, and helps me realize that almost nothing else is capable of matching the Westminster Lab equipment’s signal processing. The rise and decay times are so fast that you forget that you are listening to a simulation. The net result is that the believability of the sonics when using this equipment, reaches new levels that I have not experienced previously.
So let me apologize in advance for this typically atypical Russ post. I am a psychiatrist by trade with tons of clinical experience because I am driven to understand why people do what they do. I have concluded and validated via diverse clinical observations from my more than 40 years working in the human behavior aspects of many different scenarios that there are some basic commonalities to how humans function.
At the core of my thoughts in this area is that what one is actively thinking about becomes their reality at that point in time. The more they obsess about a thought, the greater the emotional impact and related energy drain. Since obsessional thinking is a common consequence of our hectic lifestyle, it is important to have diversions to help us reduce reflex obsessional thinking, and thus promote a calmer state of being. Said another way, listen to music through a good realistic system is very good for one’s overall being.
On some gut level when I first realized my love of music and emerging hobby of being an audio fan was driven by my personal need to get out of my head, especially as I aged and my obsessing progressively drove me to become a workaholic servicing my 426 patients who came seeking my psychiatric and addiction medicine services at least once a month.
So insidiously, my core needs from my system du jour were to help me get out of my head ASAP. In fact, what I dreamed of as my ultimate audio goal was to have the best system I could create and afford in my living room so I could happily sit and listen to music as long as I wanted and as loud as I wanted to help me get out of my head. I envisioned this as audio nirvana for a single guy. I projected that having this scenario would be a true pleasure on a sonic front, and a definite trophy that showed me that I achieved one of my lifelong goals and had a ball along the way. I speculated that this equipment and living scenario would help improve my emotional state, especially if my medical problems continued to progress. Of course, I believed and hoped that it would also help me feel better overall. The reality is that it has become one of the most important tools for my overall healing on a medical front. I would be in a much less good place if I did not have this system with the Westminster Lab equipment at its core.
Like most of you on this site, I use music and my lifelong pursuit of the truest and most believable sound system I can create as a way to clear my mind while enjoying my favorite hobby. I truly believed or at least rationalized that the addition of the Westminster Lab products to the core of my system would convert it to my sought after wonder system that would probably produce audio bliss whenever I desired, AKA My Bucket List System.
Well, it turned out that the combination of the amazingly low noise floor and the speed of the signal rises and decays and Angus’s Westminster Lab circuit designs produced so much believability that a major byproduct was ejecting less than necessary thoughts from my mind when sitting in the sonic beam because the sonic display was so much more captivating, leaving me with a much better mind state and thus a much improved mood.
There is one potential downside - it is so captivating that it is very easy to sit and listen for hours on a daily basis. Previously, this is something I only projected, but rarely had time to do, rather than my current retired approach of using my system for both listening to music, and producing endless personal “you are there” experiences, because of the believability of the sonic presentation and more than sufficient power to demand your attention within seconds of sitting in the sonic beam. By the way, I actively use the system to help shift my thinking when I am having a bad day, making me a much happier person to be around and even more important to have more joy at my core.
