My thoughts about Hifi

[Wegamus]

It’s serial behaviour and chasing the high of novelty. People do this with all sorts of things in life. It’s nothing to do with Hifi, per se. Just look on every forum, whether it be cameras, motorbikes, fishing gear, watches, DIY PCs etc etc. The same thing goes on. If you find yourself doing this sort of behaviour, don’t fall under the illusion that there is a ‘perfect combination’ of gear that will stop the desire to change. It’s not about the gear’s performance as such, it’s a psychological need. No kit can maintain the thrill of newness no matter what it is, hence the slow build up to repeat the search and acquisition behaviour.

Personally, I’ve reached a point where I’ll lose too much money if I sell most of my kit and won’t be able to replace it. So I have to try to be sensible. Mind you, I did just sell a luxury watch to fund a Garrard 301 romance. And of course now there’re carts, SUTs etc to think about

[JohnG]

There is one thing that is sure, if you are a individual in constant pursuit of a High Fidelity Experience in the home.
The System /Devices that were in use, that kicked the journey of pursuit off, are all but distant memories for the longterm initiated.
The question, in my mind, to be answered is,
Is the System / Devices now in ones possession, adding anymore to the enjoyment of the music, than the ones recalled from a distant memory of
ones earliest experiences.
For me my earliest Home HiFi experiences was all about the music, how it was presented had no relevance, as long as the needle stayed in the groove, and the scratches on the LP were tolerable, and the tape never got chewed, rewinding a crimped up length of tape was not top of the to do list.
I suppose my first venture into tweaking was securing a 2p Coin onto a Headshell and lubing tape wheels.
What the early experiences produced was a corner stone, that has developed into a 40 year experience, where the pursuit of producing a System / Devices has been a large part of my life, one that has been shared by my family and friends.
Has pursuing the 'unobtainable minds eye' system for 40 years ended up with a system that is more enjoyable than that of my earliest experiences.
For me I say "no".
Only because when I replay a LP that has made old bones with me, the memories of how much I like it, is a equal match to the thoughts about it today, even with all its deterioration to date.
Has all the time spent in pursuit, hours reading, hours on the road, time at events, been worthwhile.
For me I say "yes".
Only because I have spent time being who I would like to be, doing what I like to do, meeting the types of people I like to meet.
The System / Devices I have in my possession today are more a expression of these experiences, rather than a accumulation of careful choices.
Am I more satisfied of the todays System/Devices.
I understand its capabilities better, I understand how much sacrifice and scrimping is required to make sufficient funds available. As a result the possession in hand has a larger sense of value.
The good news for me, I don't see much change to come, in the system or in the attitude to the past time.
The new pursuit is digital media. I got into Vinyl about 27 years after its introduction, so getting into Digital 30+ years after it went mainstream seems fine, interestingly both media, if using forum discussion as a gauge, have a very strong support, each being relevant and influential.
Looking foward to the new experiences and individuals to be met on the journey.

[RobbieGong]

My system is complete,I am very happy with it and enjoy listening to music.
And already I started thinking of the Boarder Patrol DAC , then Sennheiser headphones 800S to replace my much loved AKG Q701's then I realized something being an Audiophile means never being happy with what you have, I mean how many times have we put together something we love only to change everything for example we get a good set up change amp or speakers then start all over in another direction.
Single ended Triode and horns, Big bruiser amp and large electrostatics , tubes and Radial speakers, low efficiency then high efficiency. Analogue, Digital then back to Analogue.

Average music listers don't do this, for us it is the journey, trying new gear, moving speakers around,rolling tubes,changing wires , we are odd because we just don't listen to music we shape it's sound to our liking while claiming it is transparent and sounds just like it did live all while having no idea if it is even close to what the engineers intended much less what it sounded like live.

I am thankful for a very understanding wife "why Nosheen puts up with me"? I will never know.
I have decided to leave it be.

Anyone else think we are a little odd , I mean if we are honest it dose have a lot to do with the gear.

Lets be honest when I was a kid I had a purple transistor radio to take to school so I could listen to music during recess, I always had a radio at my bed side paying all night even while I slept and when I was 11 or so I would come home from school and listen to the RCA EL84 tube stereo for hours, then I moved with My Mom and Step father who had a late 60's Kenwood SS system a BIC turntable with a Shure V15 cartridge, KLH modle 6 speakers and a Akai Reel to Reel and Superex Pro B headphones. I would come home and listen to music till late then go from speakers to headphones and on breaks and week ends I would listen with the closed headphones all night till dawn. 1981 I had saved $500.00 and my parents matched it, I went to Macy's and bought a Studio Standard Fisher system 100 watt per channel integrated amp, direct drive turntable, cassette deck a,tuner and a pair of 12 inch 3 way speakers. I then bought a AT11e2 and later got the 12S Shabada styles for that cart. I was never really happy with the whole system after spending $1,200 on it as it just didn't sound as good as the KLH 's I was used to.
In high school I got a Sony Walkman and hated the headphones as they where shrill, The Superex where to big to be potables so I listened to every over the ear headphone I could audition, I found the 1982 Audio Technica Point 0.1 just 50 grams and they where pretty neutral sounding, they only went to 35 hz. but they has a nice midrange and a softer top end than most small headphones back then. 1984 the Koss portapro came out and I had 2 pair.

I mean I remember in high school passing around over the ear headphones and listening to every ones trying to find a pair i really liked and discovering no one cared how any of them really sounded but me half the time ,even pointing out the differences . For most people it was how they looked more than how they sounded.

I never heard the term Audiophile in those days and some people hate that name but there are those of us who are a little different and it seems to define us like it or not.

Share your thoughts and journey please.

You make some very good points Jeff.

I particularly agree regards as highlighted, especially the underlined which dawned on me when I joined AOS.

That so many of us call our selves audiophiles and say we are about hi-fidelity when in fact nothing could be further from the truth.

My observations are that whilst there is no doubt that we / us who do this thing, do it out of the love for music, hifi and systems obviously go in hand in hand with that hence we get into it all and end up in places like this.

BUT, if we are totally honest, hi-fidelity in its true sense is not what a good number of us really want, whether we realise that or not.

I'd even hazzard a guess that some dont even know what hi-fidelity means, whilst using the word to describe what they are into and do

A system that reproduces / presents the music in a way that is very faithful to the original recording / accurate, is not really what some want because that means getting everything as is, so flaws, levels of hiss, distortion, brightness, bass lightness, hot recordings, low volume level recordings - effectively warts an all presented and as found in some recordings.

Many recordings are not perfect but for some reason perfection in the replay of literally everything we put on is what we seek, resulting in a going round in circles, changing things out, tweeking in a never ending pursuit that 'always perfect replay' - bonkers!

Dont get me wrong, It's up to the individual how they want to approach things and how they want the music they play presented to them, however, that doesnt make it hi-fidelity in the true sense, which doesnt matter if that's not what you're after.

I know which approach suits me and that approach has brought me insight I could only have dreamed of with regards to vinyl replay / recorded music.

'Flavoursome' kit / ancillaries although loved by many are not my thing.

Kit that lends not itself, neutrallity, low low distortion, crap out etc combined, leads to a definite 'hifidelity accuracy' in my experience that no amount of flavour, beefing, romanticising, fruitiness, overt smoothness and so on type signatures / characteristics can ever subsitute.

Shaping the sound and presentation to ones own liking is a bit upside down to me. The 'shape' already exists in the grooves so why re-shape it.

All that is needed is a focus on building a foundation from where the music can flow unhindered, unflavoured, unaltered as I've expressed above.

Add to that an address towards elimination of resonances and any other nasties and you're probably 'hi-fidelity'.

Anything else and you're likely more a music lover who plays and enjoys music, rather than someone who is truely into hi-fidelity



Dictionary result for high fidelity
noun
the reproduction of sound with little distortion, giving a result very similar to the original.


high fidelity noun
Definition of high fidelity
: the reproduction of an effect (such as sound or an image) that is very faithful to the original


Cambridge Dictionary
high fidelity
noun
​
the production by electrical equipment of very good quality sound that is as similar as possible to the original sound:


High Fidelity
1. Fidelity is the accuracy with which an electronic system reproduces the sound or image of its input signal.


2. Fidelity is also another word for faithfulness

Great post by the way Jeff

[Pigmy Pony]

I also started with a Fisher Studio Standard system (well, amp and speakers). I was also not happy with it thus the journey began.

The odd people for me are those who don't care about having top notch sound quality, or even odder, don't listen to music at all.


Am now at the point where I could stop if I wanted, I'm happy. Only took 30 years. If I can help someone else get there more quickly I will. But don't think I'll stop trying to improve things, after three decades it's become a habit I can't/won't break. Part of the fun for me, like tuning your engine on the driveway on a Sunday morning. The car might be fast already but why not try to make it even faster?

People who don't listen to music are worse than odd, and aren't to be trusted. Their brains are clearly wired all wrong, so who knows what else is going on in there?

[Puffin]

That's supposed to clean up the connections, remove light oxidisation etc. Sounds like you enjoyed or got used to the softening this might have produced and now you're hearing the system closer to how it should sound, it's not so much to your taste. If it's a new thing wait a few weeks and see if you get used to it. If it's been a while and you still don't like it get some new cables that soften the treble a bit, or have more bass.

Sent from my BLN-L21 using Tapatalk

Yes, this was my thoughts as well. I will have to wait about 12 months now until the crud weevils finish their smoothing work.

[Lawrence001]

Yes, this was my thoughts as well. I will have to wait about 12 months now until the crud weevils finish their smoothing work.

You could always wet them and speed it up a bit

[Joe]

Regarding " Average music listeners don't do this " well I can't be average. Where your post describes changing everything

I have striven all my life to be average, but had to settle for mediocre.

[Haselsh1]

I wonder if us audiophools are possibly all in our late fifties..? We all seem to be of the same ilk and grew up around the same time with the same beautiful music. Could this really just be a state that originates from our date of birth..? Will this all go round again in the same way that fashion does..? Vinyl appears to be doing just that in a highly fashionable way so maybe a passion for ultra high quality sound through highly fashionable equipment will go the same way..? I think that possibly it won't until people give up this obsession for the latest tech just for the sake of it but I suspect that it might.

[Haselsh1]

I have striven all my life to be average, but had to settle for mediocre.

I have always striven to be the best I can but had to settle for average. Maybe that's because of a lack of drive and ambition or could it be constantly being fed bullshit..?

[Macca]

I wonder if us audiophools are possibly all in our late fifties..? We all seem to be of the same ilk and grew up around the same time with the same beautiful music. Could this really just be a state that originates from our date of birth..? Will this all go round again in the same way that fashion does..? Vinyl appears to be doing just that in a highly fashionable way so maybe a passion for ultra high quality sound through highly fashionable equipment will go the same way..? I think that possibly it won't until people give up this obsession for the latest tech just for the sake of it but I suspect that it might.

If you were born between about 1958 and 1975 then I think we are all in the same cultural bracket. By 58 the worst effects of WW2 had worn off and then nothing much changed until the end of the 1970s. A handful of radio and TV channels, a handful of sports and games that we all watched and played. We all had the same references in common. Now everything has multiplied and skyrocketed in all directions I don't think the younger generations will have those strong common links that we have.