What I like about HiFi as a hobby.

[ClassikFan]

Before I start, this is not meant to be a criticism of people who spend tens of thousands on their HiFi.

What I like about this hobby, is the research and planning that goes into building a decent sounding system. I like to read reveiws in HiFi mags and then auditioning the kit and deciding for myself. I don't have stacks of cash to throw around, so every purchase is considered and for a good reason. Part of this process includes gradual upgrades, or at the very least planning what will be bought when that'unexpected inheritance' arrives.

Now in my opinion this part of the hobby is separate from ones enjoyment of music, although there is a close link, but there are lots of music lovers that aren't interested in the kit that it is played on.

My other hobby is cycling, and for years I have hankered after top of the range bicycles and have gone through a lengthy period of upgrading, but upon buying 2 top of the range bikes all the fun in the equipment has gone because there is nowhere else to go, so the actual bike becomes a bit boring.

What I am trying to say is that the pleasure is all about the gradual process of tryng things out, research and comig home with a new gadget to bolt on or fit in. Also its very satisfying to get a good sound from budget/mid price components.

But if you just go out and buy the ultimate system you have denied your self years of fun, in planning and saving for you dream system. Also I am at loss as to why some on this forum get their knickers in a twist if people don't agree with them, and there is in my opinion no reason to start resorting to insults and virtual fisticuffs.

What does everyone else think?

PS. to the mods, if you think these are unintelligable ramblings then please delete this thread and I will put it down to the strong pain killers I am on at the moment

 

[JamPal]

Stuart,

They are wise words and I agree with them 100%. The thrill is in the chase. Many of us would love an Aston martin DB9.. ok ALL of us would love an Aston martin DB9. However there would be a point when the thrill of owning the car diminished and it just became "the Car". The hope would be that you would still enjoy the ever changing process of driving and therefore still enjoy your Hi end motoring.

The same will be true with Hifi and music. Once the thrill of the chase and aquisition has worn off, lets hope you are satisfied with the music alone.

James.

Bad back?

 

[icehockeyboy]

Totally agree boys! there are those on forums who suggest to me that i should stop all my swopping and go straight for the topmost system, but wheres the fun in that?....heres another qoute i just dreamt up............."its good to arrive, but its wonderful getting there"

 

[ClassikFan]

To quote Lemmy

"The Chase is Better than the Catch"

But I don't think he was singing about HiFi!

 

[ClassikFan]

hifiwigwam wrote:

Bad back?

Slipped over in the shower 5.30 friday morning.

Bruised ribs and torn ligaments, but nothing broken, but F**K does it hurt.

Its the most I can do to drive to the record shop!

 

[JamPal]

ClassikFan wrote:

hifiwigwam wrote:

Bad back?

Slipped over in the shower 5.30 friday morning.

Bruised ribs and torn ligaments, but nothing broken, but F**K does it hurt.

Its the most I can do to drive to the record shop!

Ouch.. shouldn't be drinking so early.

 

[Davewhityetagain]

I suppose if I put my mind to it had a boot sale, saved a few pennies I could go silly buying what some would call a "Hi End" system but swapping from one system to another and hearing the differances it makes to music is much more fun

not forgetting the idea is to make the music sound good for ME not what AK or wigwam like or any other user but for my mark one ears

so far most systems I have had have done a good job

yet for the many systems that have been through my hands

Nothing has yet beat Quad 57s for mid range nothing has been better than Tannoy for bass

B&W for hf Clear Audio for detail Linn LP12 for just being musical

Croft pre for doing nothing but passing the signal on to the power

Leak and Magnum for being decent tuners

power amp to beat all power amps????

still looking and thats the fun

 

[Umberto]

I finally got my hands on the Bow pre/power i was after after a long upgrade path. 6 amps in one year

.Quite happy with my system now however although it was fun getting there there were moments of despair too.

 

[Tiggi]

Can't agree with a lot of the above. Of course everyone likes new toys, but for me the hi-fi is only a means to an end. I tend to concentrate on finding new software rather than thinking about upgrades.

Each to their own

 

[musicbox]

I think hifi is a pretty crap hobby.... it costs a lot of money, keeps you in the house when you should be doing healthy outdoor things and interacting with other human beings, and other people think you are stupid and a nerd.

If I could I wouldgive up the desire to hear different things to see how they change the sound to my liking or not.

What I do like about hifi are these moments when its puts you right inside the emotion of a piece of music and it becomes real.

 

[kennyk]

I like the search for the ultimate piece of hifi too. I was using a £100 cd player. I went from this to a Tascam CD-recorder which cost £200 in the sale. after some auditioning of cdplayers around a grand I realised that in order to get any sonic improvement I'd need to spend more than this. I nearly bought a shanling CDT200 but in the end I didn't even get to listen to it as I had a listen to the Omega instead. The decision to buy it was made by my ears in a matter of seconds. For me this is what i like about buying new.

However, the real buzz for me with regard to the hobby, apart from the listening to music, is the fun to be had by building kits. I have gained enormous satisfaction and pride from building a Preamp kit. I still get a sense of pride every time I switch my Hifi on. I'd like to build my own Power Amp too, but that can wait for the time being.

I now have no desire to change my Pre, or my sources at the moment, so I suppose I've got the "ulitmate hifi" (or my own unique version of it) , but the hifi upgradeitis is what many companies bank on. For example, I look at a certain support manufacturer and the hype surrounding the product and I have to say that in all honesty I can see some scary parallels between the quest for sonic nirvana with this product (level 20) and the 'Church' of Scientology. I have no problem with buying a supportproduct for functionality and some isolation, but when it gets to extremes of an oilrig with a turntable on top then I have to wonder. when you're worrying about 'phasing up' the speakers or the source all the time then it really is a step too far in my opinon. if you honestly believe the equiment needs 20 phases of support under it to function properly then either theequipment is crap in the first place (which itisn't) or you are a prime candidate for the kind of brainwashing as peddled by elron (see above, Co$) and you'd probably have saved money even if you did manage to get beyond OTIII before you saw sense

I don't think that I, or anyone else here arehere to brag about or justifywhat their system costs orwould cost to replace. as long as we're enjoying it's primary function (other than annoying our better halves!

) which is listening to music. whether it costs £500 or £50,000 what's important is thateach of usgets enjoyment from it.

 

[Kingsley]

I used to be crazy about audio. Until I had an accident which made me realise how much I valued my mobility.Also how immobile I was for most of the time I was listening to my system while healthy!!! So I sold it off and got into portable music devices. Discman, MD, and now MP3. Never looked back. It is possible to enjoy all the musical intents of an artist or composer thru a pair of rinky tink earbuds.:dude:

Now after listening to Addy's British rig I feel a bit of the itch again. Perhaps I will get into the whole hifi scam again. but my system will be all American! :dude::dude::dude:

 

[Guest]

icehockeyboy wrote:

Totally agree boys! there are those on forums who suggest to me that i should stop all my swopping and go straight for the topmost system, but wheres the fun in that?....heres another qoute i just dreamt up............."its good to arrive, but its wonderful getting there"

Yeah just don't get stuck in a traffic jam

eace:

As for myself no comment

 

[ClassikFan]

Tiggi wrote:

Can't agree with a lot of the above. Of course everyone likes new toys, but for me the hi-fi is only a means to an end. I tend to concentrate on finding new software rather than thinking about upgrades.Each to their own

Hi Tiggi

I did say that the HiFi hobby is separate from the music IMO. Although it is a means to an end I think it is possibleto think about the Hardware asone hobby and the software as another. I am interested in bothequally, but fully respect your right to prefer the software side of things.

 

[ClassikFan]

Duvet wrote:

icehockeyboy wrote:

Totally agree boys! there are those on forums who suggest to me that i should stop all my swopping and go straight for the topmost system, but wheres the fun in that?....heres another qoute i just dreamt up............."its good to arrive, but its wonderful getting there"

Yeah just don't get stuck in a traffic jam

eace:

As for myself no comment

Yeah duvet, don't get caught with an empty bank balance and blame it on highway robbery.

 

[adam]

icehockeyboy wrote:

"its good to arrive, but its wonderful getting there"

Oh yes,definately

 

[SSM]

Mmm... my 666th post... the devil's number, of addiction, of materialism... How appropriate.

I completely agree with you ClassikFan & Ickyboy. I love the 'anal' process of poring over magazines, visiting hifi shops for demons again and again, scrimping and saving, and analyzing how I can get the most sound for my dollars... more than I will ever relish attaning my dream system. The fun indeed is in the journey, not the destination. And I don't think there is a cost-no-object dream system out there for me. My personal interest in hifi (as a hobby) does not preclude that I will own such a system in the future at all.

I shall explain why.

The reason I got into this blood-sucking hobby in the first place is because I found I was not getting a good replay of the data on my CDs from the mini systems I was using. (Particularly, classical material.) With my first separates system I realised the gulf that exists between real hifi and mid-fi. However, after over a decade of buying and upgrading, a simple but profound fact dawned on me:

In a CD-based musical collection (like mine), 95% of the overall sound reproduction quality one can get from the discs is already predetermined by the studio engineers. Any hifi setup, howeverhigh-end, is a slave to these engineers' wise (or crapped

) judgments in setting the dynamic/soundstage balances on the recordings. Time after time, audition after audition, I find this fact to hold true.

While I did switch to hifi separates from mid-fi to alleviate the many instances of botched recordings in my music collection, I am not prepared to do big damage to my bank account by getting a 'dream' system --- to wring that last 5% from my discs.

It's a bit silly actually, come to think of it, that I should have to spend crazy amounts on esoteric gear just to correct the stupidities of neophyte sound engineers.

So, to conclude, I am not really a lover of hifi gear. I just got into Hobby for the sake of optimizing (nb: not maximizing:shock the reproduction of less than pristine recordings. My ceiling for each component - cdp, amp, speakers - stays put at 1000GBP, which I have already hit.

SS

 

[rockmeister]

Hmmm...getting there or being there?

Getting there, without a doubt. The planning, the listening, the saving, the pleading with the wife, the dealers, good and bad, growing knowledge, chats to mates, advice from here ...Way more fun than sitting there with it. Don't get me wrong... when, after all that, you do get it right and your favourite album makes you dance round the room like an insane thing with extra insane pieces, it is wonderful, but don't you also think, maybe a week later... I wonder if I should have bought those silver cables????!

And yes I also agree that this is an entirely seperate arguement to the 'listening to the music' one.

Think it was Pooh who said that his favourite moment was the one just before you actually tasted the honey.

Perfik.

 

[Wingless Garuda]

I tend to keep my hifi gear for a long time, eg looking for a new amp to replace my Audiolab which must be at least 10 years old. There's a lot of fun to be had in perusing the mags and especially the forums - we've got such a spread of good knowledge in this and (dare I say it) other forums. It's also great that we can scour the web and find stuff for sale quite easily - only a few years ago you would have to phone or visit, so your choice was so limited. The forums have pointed me towards buying second hand, which I wouldn't have had to courage to do before.

I would agree - the fun is in the looking!

It's great to put you feet up after a long day at work and just listen to the moosic. I don't sit there thinking 'drat, my system is not good enough' as I like what I have - I just think that I can improve on it and want to do that without breaking the bank.