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.