Well ****, here we go again...

Poee7R · June 2021

As most here have experienced, sometimes you end up putting this hobby (and others) on the back shelf and go on with life, and I'm guilty as can be.

I've moved around the country a bit, some equipment has been sold, the rest boxed for the ride. Seems that when I'd ended up where I was going, I left it all boxed up and tossed back into a closet.

Always have music going, no matter. In this case an Echo Mini plugged into an old set of Logitech desktop speakers, all sitting out of view. Nothing special of course, but enough for background music 24/7. I felt satisfied as for me and most folks, the music is the point.

A few weeks ago I get home from work, tell Alexa to play some tunes according to my mood (The Dead South, Tyler Childers, Poor Mans Poison etc), she starts doing her thing, floating tunes throughout the space.

Maybe 20 minutes into her job and poof, some odd crackle and pure silence. The workhouse Logitech rig gave up the ghost and went to rest with those before her.

A brief flash of an epiphany occurred, I decided it was once time again to jump onto the diving board and cannonball the hell out of whatever lies beneath.

Now with two large closets filled with gear, tube integrateds, dacs, speakers, cables and so on, I sat absolutely uninterested in digging any of it out and decided I needed all new shiny stuff instead.

You know the usual suspects, Audiogon, UsAudio, the dreaded ebay. Thought about which card would benefit me the most and started a parade of purchasing, may of even melted one in the fury.

I found what I would consider some special choices, a Musical Fidelity M3 Nu-Vista (yay remote), a gorgeous pair of Tyler Acoustics D1s, a Bluesound Node (3?, hifi streaming is all new to me), Panamax power conditioner of some sort. I pulled out a heavily modded dac from the closet along with the transport and cables (Mit and Transparent).

A few sore backs, faintly mumbled cursing and everything is unboxed and set up. Had to smack the Node in the face to make it do its job, but I won that bout. With lack of consideration, I didn't realize my dac being an older unit would not decode hi rez files, so on the hunt for one that will. Otherwise it's a beautiful match with properly recorded music, it's given me more than I was expecting and I'm sure will continue to do so.

I don't know if it's my ears or the gear but that analyzing effect I've typically experienced with new gear dissipated quickly and all I hear is the music once again. Scary good on some and scary bad on others, as happens with crap source material, so be it eh.

So once again I find myself sonically pampered and content for a brief moment in life. Asking myself why I waited, barely dipping a toe into the pool, but bliss is comforting, so no shivers.

Got wood?

Dave