Audiophiles are crazy!

Early B. wrote: »

My point exactly. Audiophiles are crazy!

And it doesn't stop with bad recordings. We try to make great recordings sound greater? For what???? How great does great need to be in order for it to be great? What's greater than great?

God, I know what you are really going through. I felt the same way after I returned my Emotiva amps and had nothing to replace them. Stop thinking so much You're making yourself crazier than you already are! All this time on your hands with no tunes . . .

SolidSqual wrote: »

God, I know what you are really going through. I felt the same way after I returned my Emotiva amps and had nothing to replace them. Stop thinking so much You're making yourself crazier than you already are! All this time on your hands with no tunes . . .

What did you have them for, a week!?!

mmadden28 wrote: »

I've been discovering this myself. Everytime I want to 'demo' something to somebody-something is off-not quite right, either the bass is boomy, lacking or its too bright, etc. It just doesn't sound the way it was when I originally heard bliss.

Perhaps its performance anxiety? Hoping your system is acccepted as sounding really good and that you're not left looking insane for spending so much time and money on something that they think sounds awful??? Or that your system only sounds good with stuff that might take an aquired taste for?

Or perhaps You are normally in the sweet spot, and now they are in your sweet spot and you discover that outsiode the sweet spot its not so sweet??? I get some funny looks when I say, " Oh no, you have to sit here to listen to it." :eek:

I said 'demo' not audition. I never said anything about getting bent out of shape or crying about it if the visitor doesn't quite like it. I only mentioned the term 'performance anxiety' just as a general term-to get the idea of what I was talking about.

Your system may sound good to you, when its just you-sweet spots can come into play. Not all systems are 2 channel solo listening systems. I am also into achieving an awesome Home Theater experience-I don't typically watch movies alone, I watch with my wife, and or freinds, my kids. When I host a party, and folks want to watch the game-I want it to take them to the game, i want them to enjoy themselves both visually and acoustically. When I had a party for Labor day, I receieved several comments on how good the outdoor speakers i recently installed sounded. I didn't spend a fortune and we all had some good converstaion about how they were setup, etc, etc. The outdoor speakers sounding good, made for a better overall entertainment experience for my guests.

You spend a lot of time building a nice system, making it sound and look nice. You take pride in it-nothing wrong with that, (unless of course you then proceed to belittle and berate the visitor for how god awful thier system sounds-I would never ever do that to somebody!!.)
Its a hobby-not a sickness (well, hmm.). Its for enjoyment. Me personally, I like to share my enjoyment. Perhaps turn others on to what a good system can sound like. I was and am amazed at how well my system sounds today, just 6 months after I started this whole upgrade endeavor. I wish I had heard somebody else's system and had some guidance on how to achieve the same goal-I would have saved a lot of time and money.

This is the whole reason we are all even posting on this forum isn't it? If you're all happy and content and expect no more, why even login anymore. I suspect its because you want to continue to share your knowledge and enable others (and probably snag a few good deals inthe FM :cool:).
I like to demo my system (not show it off) to show my friends how cool it can be when its setup right-to show them that they can actually hear sounds in a song that they never heard before. . Actually you can even turn them on to music that they never cared for before, that simply sounds so good on a well desigend system , that simply sounds horrible on 'standard' systems. That is howe I got the upgrade bug to begin with, by hearing a friends system with music I previous found unlistenable-it actually sounded good. Who know you might even get a new 'audiophile friend out of it. And that you don't need to spend a fortune and hire outside installers, etc to have the good sound and entertainment experience. Relatively speaking, I put my system together on the cheap. And I would be more than happy to assist any of my friends or visitors to accomplish the same. But this is also a hobby for me, so I tend to spend more or go beyond what I really need (which my wife would be very quick to point out).

When you buy a new house and spend money (regardless of the amount) and time to decorate it, typically when you have friends over the first time, you take them on a nickel tour, no? Why bother? Its your house, what do you care what others think of your house or how nice your guest bedroom set is in the room its in?

You take cooking classes, you enjoy cooking-you spend money and time, you set the table-you cook a meal-you take pride in that-you would undoubtedly be worried if everybody is enjoying the meal no? If you don't relaly care what others think about the food, why bother cooking or having them over for dinner to begin with.

Everybody has thier own musical tastes. Their own acoustic limitations (room size, neighbors, tight walleted spouses, kids). For some a set of headphones is nice. For some its not even music, but 'spoken word'. For some its about the Home theater. For some they have no local friends or family. Its just too broad a genre to summarize in any one thread or response.

Just some thoughts
Madden

SolidSqual wrote: »

Can someone summarize the above? I'm from the generation of text messaging and AOL.

I did try to summarize with my first post. :rolleyes:

Sorry I post so long. I just can't ever seem to get my point across without somebody misunderstanding it if I don't say enough. Although I have been told about posts/emails that are too long as well.

Besides, this is a discussion forum, not a text messaing/IM forum.

:o:o

Hawkeye wrote: »

Some recordings are just trash. We all know that. But, just because a couple pieces sound like crap does not lead me to upgrade based on that alone.

I don't sweat demoing for anybody or anything. I don't understand all the talk of trying to impress friends. I'm the only one who needs to be impressed, unless of course the friend's are footing the bill!

We also don't need to justify the sums we spent to anyone except maybe a significant other. If spending large sums of money to enhance MY quality of life is what I want to do, that is all that matters.

I only work to live, not live to work. It is only money, we'll make more.

Gordon

Ya but looking at your sig., I hate the sound already you better let me get rid of that for you :biggrin:.

Dave

Great thread, very informative. I thought it was my wonderful personality that made me successful with the ladies. Now the bubble has been burst....

I'm happily married but I guess continuously upgrading my system is simply helping me keep my game. I'll keep that from the wife. But I have noticed that she seems to be more inclined :cool: each time I make an improvement to the system.

When folks come to my house my wife has to always make some remark about the system but they always wind up in the best listening seat of the house. When I go to other peoples homes I often rehook up their system correctly. It's shocking how people can have decent gear and not hook it up properly.

It could have something to do with the power grid as well, IMO my system always sounds best at night..

cnh wrote: »

I don't know what you guys are on about. I've never heard a system that sounded the 'same' on two different occasions. I get up in the morning and look out the window to see if it's cloudy, sunny, or raining. Then I put on some tunes and yep....it's a bit different from yesterday...and I know it won't sound like that tomorrow!

Am I the only one here who experiences this? Or am I just a pan-dimensional Being from...

cnh

That is pushing the level of credibility to say you can discern a difference in sound with the same gear, in the same room, with the same song, every time you play it.

Then again, I swear my car rides better after I wash it.

Were you asking me that question? If so then yes I know that atmospheric conditions can occasionally make the system sound different. Especially if you have a good system with quality wire that can convey those differences. However, that is completely different than saying every time the same system is played in the same room with the same song it sounds different. If your gear is that erratic in sound consistency then it has a hardware problem.

I've been tweaking Dac settings AGAIN for the last hour.
Yes ,we put too much effort into it. Sometimes it does pay off, though.
But just as often, it just sounds different. Some things better, some worse.
And to top it off, when we think it's right, it may not sound like the
artist intended it to. There really isn't a audio "reference" standard
we can use to tweak the sound. It's a taste thing, like adding the
"right" amount of salt to a dish. My right won't be your "right".

Ha Ha to funny looks like junior soiled himself after moding his speakers, must be a audiophile

Early B. wrote: »

My point exactly. Audiophiles are crazy!

And it doesn't stop with bad recordings. We try to make great recordings sound greater? For what???? How great does great need to be in order for it to be great? What's greater than great?

Live music IMHO, it's the recreation of live music I'm looking for.

RT1, hilarious posts every one. Love it.

And I'm quite stoked about my modded speakers. They kick ****.

Had the same thing happen when i was demoing some old kllpsch towers i was trying to dump. The buyer brought some cd's he burned. They were aweful recordings and he said my speakers sounded terrible. He was right. So I put on some good recordings and his head spun around a few times and iexclaimed " oh great I have to spend 500.00 to make these speakers sound good" and I said yep, welcome to the rabbit hole. Been there , done that.

When you futz with stuff, you learn stuff.

.... if you don't kill yourself in the process.